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The UConn Daily Tournament Challenge
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The UConn Daily’s NCAA tournament pools are well underway!
See where you stack up in each of our competitions:
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Naismith Rolling Over in Grave at Collier Snub
The Story: There was one noticeable absence from the women’s Naismith Award finalists as UConn’s Napheesa Collier was left off the list. What’s going on in women’s basketball? UConn was 34-2 and was given a No. 2 seed and now there’s no Collier on the Player of the Year list? One thing’s for sure: After UConn’s second-round win over Buffalo, Geno Auriemma was not happy.
WHAT DID GENO SAY? “Who votes on these awards, anyway? She’s not a finalist for the Naismith Award? I mean, who voted for that? Dr. Naismith is rolling over in his grave. He is. He never envisioned that somebody that good would be left off his list. I feel bad for her. If she played at any other school, she’d be the frontrunner with the numbers she puts up. But she plays at Connecticut, so what are you going to do? Can you imagine how many games we’d win if we didn’t have her? I don’t think we’d be sitting here talking. We probably wouldn’t have made the tournament. I mean, you talk about who means a lot to their team. I don’t know anybody [who] means more to their team anywhere in the country than Phee. I can’t imagine.”
COLLIER’S STATS: The Collier snub looks foolish after the senior nearly had a triple-double of 27 points, 11 rebounds and eight assists against Buffalo on Sunday. For the season, Collier is averaging 21.1 points and 10.1 rebounds per game on 62 percent shooting. She also is the leading scorer and best player on the No. 2-ranked team in the country.
WHO MADE THE LIST? We aren’t about telling people that someone isn’t deserving. The finalists for the award are Louisville’s Asia Durr, who is scoring 21.1 points per game; Iowa’s Megan Gustafson, who has a nation-leading 28 points per game on 69.6 percent shooting; Oregon’s Sabrina Ionescu, who is averaging 19.6 points, 8.1 assists and 7.5 rebounds per game, and Notre Dame’s Arike Ogunbowale, who has 21 points and 4.9 rebounds per game.
MYSTERIOUS VOTERS: As far as who votes on these types of lists, the people who vote for the awards are “leading journalists,” former players and coaches who watched the 2018-19 season. Now, what’s a leading journalist? We don’t know, but we both used to vote for the Wooden Award and John even had a Heisman Trophy vote at one time, so “leading” is in the eye of the beholder. (Editor’s Note: Silver voted RB Donald Brown No. 3 on his Heisman ballot in 2008).
OUR TAKE: It’s simple: UConn isn’t good for women’s basketball.
OK, we kid, and we can see why Geno is miffed. Collier has waited patiently throughout her career to become UConn’s go-to player and stepped up this year as a dominant force. UConn doesn’t like to make too many waves media-wise with its players nationally and naturally lets their play speak for itself. That probably backfired here as Collier wasn’t up against other players, but UConn’s past success, too. Geno touched on that in his remarks: There is a huge degree of UConn fatigue in women’s basketball and if Collier put up similar stats almost anywhere else, she probably gets the nod.
We usually don’t buy into UConn paranoia here and get that sometimes Geno likes to manufacture that disrespect. This time around, he has a beef. There seems to be a will to highlight other programs. We get that women’s basketball has to be more than just UConn to grow, but can the pundits allow it to happen organically? The Huskies aren’t the dynasty any longer, but they only lost two games this year and Collier has clearly become a dominant player in the country. If you replace Collier with any of those other players, is UConn still 34-2? We don’t think so. All are deserving, and all probably should be on the list. So why was Collier snubbed? Combine this with the No. 2 seed snub (which isn’t a big deal functionally) and for the first time in a long time, the Huskies can legitimately play the disrespect card.
You know what that means? See y’all at the Final Four.
IT’S UCLA: The Huskies will face No. 6 seed UCLA in their Sweet 16 game in Albany on Friday after the Bruins defeated No. 3 seed Maryland 85-80 last night behind 30 points from Michaela Onyenwere.
YESTERDAY’S SCORES:
| No. 1 Notre Dame 91, No. 9 Michigan State 63 |
| No. 6 UCLA 85, No. 3 Maryland 80 |
| No. 3 N.C. State 72, No. 6 Kentucky 57 |
| No. 6 South Dakota State 75, Syracuse 64 |
| No. 1 Baylor 102, No. 8 California 63 |
| No. 4 Oregon State 76, No. 5 Gonzaga 70 |
| No. 11 Missouri State 69, Iowa State 60 |
| No. 2 Stanford vs. No. 7 BYU, 11 p.m. |
SWEET 16 SCHEDULE:
| Friday | Saturday |
| No. 2 UConn vs. No. 6 UCLA | No. 2 Iowa vs. No. 3 N.C. State |
| No. 1 Mississippi St. vs. No. 5 Arizona St. | No. 1 Baylor vs. No. 4 South Carolina |
| No. 2 Oregon vs. No. 6 South Dakota St. | No. 1 Notre Dame vs. No. 4 Texas A&M |
| No. 1 Louisville vs. No. 4 Oregon State | No. 2 Stanford vs. No. 11 Missouri State |
Ethics Committee Bails on Edsall Complaint
The Story: The Office of State Ethics dropped its appeal of a decision by a judge to reverse a decision finding Randy Edsall violated state ethics laws by hiring his son, Corey Edsall, as an assistant coach. This ends a two-year battle and ensures that Corey remains with the football program as a coach. A ruling in the board’s favor would have ended Corey’s employment at UConn.
WHY NOW? The commission voted last week by an 8-0 margin to “abandon the complaint citing changes to the Code of Ethics in Public Act 18-175 that exempted the entire state higher education system from Code of Ethics provisions regarding nepotism.” Legislators slipped in a change in the ethics code last year that weakened the board’s complaint that Edsall hiring his son as a member of the coaching staff was a violation of state law.
WHAT REALLY HAPPENED: The State of Connecticut has a rogue board of ethics that decided it didn’t like a football coach hiring his son. As a result, UConn friendly legislators fixed the issue with legislation. It should have never come to that. The board ignored the fact UConn sought an ethics ruling prior to the hire date to comply with state law. The board was embarrassed when a judge favored Edsall’s side and, incredibly, decided to appeal. No one had a complaint about Corey’s hiring except for the people on that board. This was a waste of time, money and goodwill. This was a board that overreached its authority and incorrectly ruled on the matter.
SILLY RULES: This shows the banality of regulations that make life at UConn difficult. Hiring a family member as a coach is something that has happened for over a century at all levels of football. Networking and familial connections are how these jobs are attained. There isn’t an open hiring process. That makes the silly job postings that are done by UConn when it needs to fill a coaching position comical. No one applies and gets a serious look on resume alone. It comes down to networking. Maybe the legislature should pass a law exempting coaches at UConn from going through this process. That way, we don’t have to deal with this dog-and-pony show any longer. Another consequence is that a law is now in place with unforeseen implications. The board has no one else to blame for its diminished standing than itself.
Connecticut’s Beanpot? SNY Gets It Done
The Story: The state’s four Division I men’s hockey programs (UConn, Yale, Quinnipiac and Sacred Heart) have agreed to play in a Beanpot-style tournament to be sponsored by SNY at the Webster Arena. The inaugural tournament will take place in January.
FINALLY! This was SNY’s doing and we can’t thank the network enough for bringing these four programs together it what is hoping to be Connecticut’s most popular men’s college hockey event. The key here, of course, was selling all four schools that this could work and that they all would benefit from the tournament. This will become a celebration of hockey in this state and that’s something it deserves. It’s good for hockey in Connecticut and we must realize that there are four high-level hockey programs in this state.
SNY, UCONN TIED TOGETHER: We like to see SNY remain committed to the state and college athletics. The network is on the outside looking as far as the new AAC deal that will send the majority of UConn sports to ESPN+. SNY does a great job whenever it is allowed to cover UConn sports and its women’s coverage is top-notch. According to Hearst Connecticut Media, SNY and ESPN will meet about the status of UConn’s coverage on the network with the new TV deal. SNY and UConn are big partners and our fingers are crossed that those relationships can continue.
Morning Read
FUTURE WITH SNY UNKNOWN: SNY and ESPN will meet soon, but until they do it remains up in the air if SNY and UConn can continue their mutually beneficial relationship. (Hartford Courant)
DAILY CAMPUS TAKES STANCE ON AAC: The student newspaper at UConn has spoken: It is sick of being in the AAC. We think the editorial board’s sentiment is shared by the alumni. Points it didn’t address: where to go and how. (Daily Campus)
AAC ALIVE AND WELL: Three AAC men’s basketball teams are still alive in the postseason, with Houston in the Sweet 16 and Wichita State (NIT) and USF (CBI) in those tournaments’ Final Four. (AAC Daily)
MYERS JOINS MAINE STAFF: Former UConn defensive lineman Mikal Myers has joined Maine’s staff as a defensive line coach. Myers was previously a grad assistant and linebackers coach at AIC. (GoBlackBears.com)
