As I stated in the last post, I had the pleasure of attending the release event held by Nike for their new Hyper Elite Platinum uniforms. 

There are eight schools, nine teams that are considered Hyper Elite. The UConn Huskies are the only school that are represented by both their men’s and women’s basketball programs.

The others are the Arizona Wildcats, Duke Blue Devils, Florida Gators, Kentucky Wildcats, North Carolina Tar Heels and the Syracuse Orange. The Baylor Lady Bears are the only other women’s team represented.

All of these schools are currently wearing the Hyper Elite uniforms from Nike. But for one game this season, they will be wearing the new Hyper Elite Platinum uniforms. Besides the uniforms, they’ll be sporting Nike Zoom Hyperenforcer shoes and Nike Hyper Elite warmups.

In an era where we are environmentally conscious, Nike is doing their part as well.

Each of the uniforms are made from the equivalent of 23 recycled plastic bottles (12 for the tops, 11 for the shorts) that are converted into polyester. The uniforms are also much lighter than the current Hyper Elite uniforms that they are wearing now. They also made some changes on the “sweatback” which is now extended over the whole backside of the uniform which is different than their current Hyper Elite uniforms as well.

click on image to see full size

I know there are a lot of purists out there who aren’t probably going to like the look of the uniforms. I’ll be honest, I wasn’t sure about them either at first especially because I thought the trim was black. And we all know that’s not one of UConn’s colors.

But after talking to Terry Teague, who is the Global Creative Director for Nike Basketball, they are not actually black but a very deep navy blue that looks black.

The UConn men will be the first of the nine teams to don the uniforms. They will be wearing them on Sunday, January 29th, against the Notre Dame Fighting Irish.

Ironically enough, when all of the nine teams wear their new Nike Hyper Elite Platinum uniforms (thanks to Sean from Troy Nunes Is An Absolute Magician, who also attended, for that fact), they will be doing so against other manufacturers. And I can tell you that when you see the whole UConn’s men’s basketball team in the uniforms, they’re going to look very sharp.

I can’t thank Nike Basketball enough for inviting me to the event and giving me the opportunity to be one of the first people to see the new uniforms.

For your full look at the UConn Huskies men’s basketball Nike Hyper Elite Platinum uniforms, please click on the read more button below if you’re on the home page.

UConn men’s Nike Hyper Elite Platinum uniform


Back of UConn Huskies men’s basketball Nike Hyper Elite Platinum uniform

UConn Men’s Nike Hyper Elite Warmup top

UConn Huskies men’s Nike Zoom Hyperenforcer

Side of UConn Men’s Nike Hyper Elite Platinum shorts

Neck Detail of UConn Men’s Nike Hyper Elite Platinum uniform

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If you aren’t on Twitter or don’t follow me on Twitter, you weren’t among the first fans of the UConn Huskies men’s and women’s basketball teams to see some special uniforms released by Nike today.

I had the pleasure of attending the release event for the Nike Hyper Elite Platinum uniforms for college basketball in New York City this morning. There are eight schools, nine teams that will be wearing the special one-time uniforms.

UConn is only the school to have both their men’s and women’s basketball teams represented.

Here are the first pictures of the uniform from this morning that I posted on Twitter.

For those wondering when they’ll be worn, the UConn men will be wearing them this Sunday when they take on the Notre Dame Fighting Irish at the XL Center in Hartford, CT. The UConn women will be wearing their special uniforms on Monday, February 27th when they play Notre Dame as well.

In the coming posts, I will go into a little more detail about each of UConn’s teams separately.

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Photo credit: Ian Bethune

Paw Prints is our daily look at the happenings for the UConn Huskies football, men’s basketball and women’s basketball teams as well as some of the other sports. We will do our best to bring you the links from all of the media that covers the Huskies on a daily basis. As always, links can be found by clicking on the read more button below if you’re on the home page.

Thank you for stopping by and making SOX & Dawgs your home for UConn Huskies news.

It’s game day for the UConn Huskies women’s basketball team as they are in Syracuse to take on the Orange at the Carrier Dome. Tip is scheduled for 7 p.m. and the game can be seen locally in Connecticut on CPTV.

To open the links up in a new tab or window, use Control+click

UConn Women’s Basketball links

Syracuse game brings reunion with Stefanie Dolson’s high school rival [Jim Fuller – New Haven Register]

Emptying The Mental Notebook [John Altavilla – Hartford Courant]

Mosqueda-Lewis To Start For Huskies At Syracuse [Rich Elliott – CT Post]

Women’s Basketball At Syracuse Wednesday At 7 p.m. [UConnHuskies.com]

Banks’ role increases for UConn women [CT Post]

With Doty Out, UConn Expects More From Mosqueda-Lewis And Banks [Hartford Courant]

Brianna Banks to play bigger role in Syracuse game [New Haven Register]

UConn Men’s Basketball links

Calhoun Starts New Autism Event [David Borges – New Haven Register]

Boatright Still in Limbo [Hartford Courant]

Jeremy Lamb seeks an answer for his ‘struggles’ [New Haven Register]

UConn Football links

Report: Penn State Joining UConn And Syracuse In Fight For Talented S Recruit Wayne Morgan [Desmond Conner – Hartford Courant]

DC also answered a question in his mailbag [Desmond Conner – Hartford Courant]

The University of Connecticut Welcomes Navy To The BIG EAST! [UConnHuskies.com]

DeGuglielmo hired as Jets line coach, worked at UConn [New Haven Register]

Follow Ian on Twitter @soxanddawgs. And be sure to like us on Facebook as well.

With their former QB coach Joe Moorhead off to Fordham to be their new head coach, the UConn Huskies football team was without one. Now head coach Paul Pasqualoni has filled the position, hiring Shane Day to be the new QB coach.

Here’s the release from UConn:

STORRS, Conn. – Shane Day, who spent the past two years as the quarterbacks coach for the Chicago Bears, has been named to the same position at the University of Connecticut. Day is an 11-year veteran of the coaching profession – and has worked at all levels of football, including professional, high school and college.

As a member of the Bears’ staff, he helped led the team to the NFC North Division championship with a record of 11-5 and the team advanced to the NFC Championship game. He worked alongside offensive coordinator and former NFL head coach Mike Martz in Chicago.

Day joined the Chicago staff after spending the 2007-09 seasons as a quality control coach for the San Francisco 49ers under head coach as he worked with the offensive coaching staff in game planning and practice preparation. He worked with the quarterbacks in 2007, the running backs in 2008 and the offensive line 2009. He was part of the coaching staff for the 2008 Senior Bowl along with Martz.

Day was an offensive quality control coach for the University of Michigan in 2006 working with the quarterbacks. Among his duties in Ann Arbor were the evaluation of quarterback recruits and the development of the QBs already in the program. The Wolverines played in the 2007 Rose Bowl (a 32-18 loss to USC) while Day was part of the staff.

Day began his coaching career at Auburn (Wash.) Riverside High School, where he spent one season coaching the wide receivers (2001) and three overseeing the quarterbacks (2002-04), adding the duties of offensive coordinator during his final two years.

Day played collegiate football as a wide receiver at Rhodes College in Memphis, Tenn., where he also lettered in baseball. He graduated from Kansas State in 1999 with a degree in English.

Day and his wife Christie are the parents of a newborn daughter, Vivienne.

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