Earlier this week, I had wrote that Diana Taurasi and Sue Bird were going to play for UCONN in an exhibition game against Gescom Viterbo on Thursday Night. The information on the website I read was poorly translated from Italian to English and I don’t definitely read Italian. Now if it was Spanish, I could have translated most of it having 5 yrs of Spanish classes. So I will take the blame for this.
The lesson learned here, make sure you have all the facts before writing about something.

Led by Kalana Greene’s 22 points and 7 rebounds, the Lady Huskies finished off Gescom-Viterbo 81-56. Brittany Hunter added 19 points along with Mel Thomas’s 14 pts and Renee Montgomery’s 13 pts. Charde Houston added 6 pts and 14 rebounds for the Huskies.

No word on whether or not Diana Taurasi and Sue Bird played in the game. There was no indication of them playing in the box score. Also for the Huskies, Tina Charles was held out of the game due to a shoulder injury suffered in practice. Charles is expected back in the lineup when the Huskies return to face Boston University on November 28th at Gampel Pavilion.

On Tuesday night in Napoli, Italy, the UCONN women defeated Phard Napoli by the final score of 78-57. Leading the way for the Lady Huskies was Tina Charles with 14 pts, 14 rebounds and 3 blocked shots. Charde Houston added 13 pts and 10 rebounds. Renee Montgomery and Mel Thomas added 13 pts each.

The Lady Huskies are currently on a 7 day 6 night tour of Italy where they will play the second of their two exhibition games on Thursday night in Viterbo against Gescom-Viterbo.

To see the box score from the game, click here.

In doing a little research about the teams the Lady Huskies will be facing on their trip to Italy, I came across this on the Gescom-Viterbo website (Click here to see). You have to click on the page, you read the special one. It is kind of difficult to read. The page was translated from Italian to English so the full translation isn’t there. Basically what it says is this Sue Bird and Diana Taurasi will be making one more appearance in an UCONN uniform. I have not seen this announced in the papers anywhere in Connecticut so I guess you can say you heard it hear first at Random Thoughts.

Bird and Taurasi will be playing for the Huskies on Thursday night as they face Gescom-Viterbo. Gescom-Viterbo features Steffanie Blackmon of the WNBA’s Chicago Sky. Gescom-Viterbo is 5-2 in the Italia Seria A League. It is not known yet whether or not, the two will make an appearance for the Lady Huskies as they face Phard Napoli on Tuesday night, who is 7-0 in Italia Seria A League and also features two WNBA players, Kedra Holland-Corn of the Detroit Shock and the Houston Comets’ Aston N’Diaye.

Since this is an exhibition game overseas, I would have to think that Geno Auriemma has cleared this with the NCAA. The question you may ask is is Bird and Taurasi playing for the Huskies a good thing. Well the answer is, you bet it is. The young players can benefit from the experience that they provide. Imagine if you will this lineup. Sue Bird, Diana Taurasi, Meghan Gardler, Tina Charles and Kristin Phillips. Two former greats with three freshman playing together not in a practice but in a real game. Those three can only get better from that experience. Also, UCONN’s star point guard, Renee Montgomery can learn a great deal from playing in the backcourt with Sue Bird.

When I first saw this I had my doubts about it. At first, I thought this might wreck the continuity the Huskies have achieved so far this season thru their first two games. But as my thoughts have continued as I stated in the previous paragraph, the experience and leadership that Diana and Sue bring to the court will only be beneficial to the young Huskies. Remember one thing, UCONN has no seniors this year. In years past, UCONN has had that senior leadership. This year the Huskies junior class, Mel Thomas, Brittany Hunter, Ketia Swanier, and Charde Houston are supposed to lead the Huskies. So one game playing with Diana and Sue will not hurt them but rather help them as they work towards UCONN’s sixth National Championship.

In football news out of UCONN, Coach Randy Edsall announced that Larry Taylor, WR and kick returner, will miss this week’s game against the Cincinnati Bearcats with concussion like symptoms. Taylor initially suffered the injury in the Pittsburgh game and was knocked out of the Syracuse game with the same injury after being absolutely pounded after catching a punt by Syracuse. QB DJ Hernandez suffered a wrist injury in the game but should be ok for this weekend’s game. No word yet on whether or not UCONN cornerback Darius Butler will return to the lineup this week. Also Dan Murray is listed as questionable after suffering a sprain in one of the joints of his shoulder.

On Sunday night in the championship game of the Hispanic College Fund Classic, the UCONN Huskies defeated the Mississippi Rebels 77-59 behind 23 pts from AJ Price. The game was close in the first half until about the 10 minute mark when AJ Price, Jeff Adrien and Marcus Johnson led the Huskies 13-2 run and then another 11-1 run to end the half up 16 pts. UCONN moves to 4-0 on the young season.

Notes and observations from the game:

• The starters were Price, Dyson, Johnson, Thabeet, and Adrien.
• Jeff Adrien had his 4th consecutive double-double (13 pts and 10 rebounds). He had one double-double all of last season. He also added 3 blocks.
• Hasheem Thabeet blocked another 3 shots tonight. This gives him 23 in 4 games.
• Jerome Dyson rebounded from a poor peformance on Saturday night against Fairfield finishing with 16 pts and tieing AJ Price for a team high 4 assists.
• Curtis Kelly was in the dog house for a while in the first half. He made a few critical errors and Coach Calhoun pulled him. From my vantage point, it looked as though he told Kelly if your not going to play, you can take a seat right here.
• Gavin Edwards looked good in his brief time playing tonight. He was aggressive and made a nice pass for an assist.
• Stanley Robinson, who is suffering from nagging knee injury, scored 7 pts and still looks to be finding his niche with the Huskies.
• Craig Austrie’s play seems to be getting better as the games go on. Even though it was thought he would start, he has accepted his role off the bench.
• AJ Price looked like he had been playing for his three years at UCONN even though this was only his 4th game. His legs are coming around and he hopes to be able to play a full 40 minutes by the team the Big East schedule starts.
• Marcus Johnson played well. He had a quiet 10 points including an acrobatic reverse layup to beat the buzzer at the end of the first half.
• UCONN’s free throw shooting was much improved in the game going 14 for 16 from the line (87.5%)
• Jeff Adrien was named the tournament MVP. Joining him on the All-Tournament team from the Huskies were Hasheem Thabeet, Jerome Dyson and AJ Price.
• Coach Calhoun sent out his “veterans” to accept the championship trophy. Those veterans are sophomores Jeff Adrien, Craig Austrie, Marcus Johnson, and Rob Garrison.

All in all, an excellent weekend for the Huskies. Not only did they win the tournament, but they showed tremendous strides of improvement each game. If you saw the game against Quinnipiac 10 days ago and the game last night, you would be asking yourself did they really play that bad against the Bobcats. What surprised me the most was in the second half when Ole Miss sat back in a 2-3 zone. The Huskies executed their half court offense almost to perfection. This is something that Husky teams in the past have struggled to do. The guards were able to get better dribble-drive penetration and create opportunities for themselves or the big men. Next up for the Huskies is the University of Albany at 5:00 PM on Sunday November 26th at Gampel. This is the same Albany team that gave the Huskies a scare in the first round of the NCAA’s last season.