Geno Auriemma has finally talked about the end of the UCONN/Tennessee series ending and to quote him “he wants honesty from Pat”. John Altavilla from the Hartford Courant spoke with him regarding it all.
“First [the reason] was because of how the recruitment of Maya Moore went down. Then it wasn’t,”
“Then it was about my principles. Then came the statement from the school saying that we should consider the entire body of [Auriemma’s] work. Well, my question to that would be, ‘What do you mean by that?’ And why didn’t anyone ask her what she meant.
“There are a lot of unanswered questions out there. But my feeling all along has been that we had a signed contract to play and she didn’t want to for her own reasons.”
“It won’t happen,” Auriemma said. “And I don’t think she will ever call me [to mend fences]. I understand that she can’t say publicly why she made her decision because if she did she would be put in the position of needing to back it up.”
Auriemma also told him that he was planning on starting a series with Oklahoma, one of the rising powerhouses in women’s college basketball.
Did you know that Meghan Gardler plays for the UCONN women’s basketball team? Well a lot of people on the UCONN campus can’t tell either.
“People still look at me and they’re like, ‘She doesn’t really look like a basketball player. Why is she here?'” Gardler said. “I want people to be like, ‘There goes Meghan Gardler. She really helps UConn’ or ‘she helped us win the national championship even in the smallest way.’ That’s what I want people to think when they see me.”
Gardler hopes to take the role that Mel Thomas has with the Huskies, a pure shooter. But if you haven’t read stories about Mel, you don’t know that she can show up at the gym around 6 am, beating in all the coaches and other staff who work in Gampel Pavilion. So for Gardler to assume the role, she will need to get into the shape of her life.
“Meg does a lot of little things that might go unnoticed because she gets her hands on every ball,” said Thomas, UConn’s starter at shooting guard. “She gets a lot of rebounds. She makes great cuts to the basket. But she’s a shooter and I think she just needs to be more confident and be ready to shoot. If she could get her shot a little more consistent and just know when to shoot and when to pass, I think that would help. I think if she keeps working, she’ll be fine.”
So it wouldn’t surprise me now to walk into Gampel now and see both of them working on their shot.
