They Just Grow Up So Fast
The Story: The football team will continue to lay the foundation of its future tomorrow afternoon when its freshmen partake in their first road game at Indiana (noon, Big Ten Network).
BUILDING BRIDGES: Behind freshman quarterback Jack Zergiotis and wide receivers Cam Ross and Matt Drayton, UConn has a formidable trio that could galvanize the team for years to come. Zergiotis and Ross made their first appearances against Illinois two weeks ago, and Drayton was the Huskies’ leading receiver in the opener against Wagner.
NO SURPRISE IN STORRS: That Ross and Drayton have been able to play well early in their first seasons is not a surprise to Randy Edsall, who figured they’d be impact players from when he first started recruiting them. Ross’ two older brothers played for Edsall at Maryland, and Drayton first caught Edsall’s eye when he watched him at a high school practice last year.
CONFUSION REIGNS SUPREME: Who the defense faces is one of the world’s greatest secrets as Indiana coach Tom Allen said quarterback Michael Penix Jr. will be a game-time decision with his shoulder injury. Penix has “been participating some but not much” at practice this week, and if he can’t play, Peyton Ramsey, fed to the lions against Ohio State last weekend, will get the nod.
A MOMENTOUS OCCASION: This will be the third meeting between UConn and Indiana, with the Huskies having won the two previous games. The Hoosiers were the opponents for the first game at Rentschler Field in 2003, a game UConn won 34-10 behind Dan Orlovsky‘s three touchdown passes. Remember the optimism and atmosphere that were present that day? It would be nice to have that again.
EDSALL BOWL RETURNS: The Huskies have reached an agreement for a pair of games with Maryland, with the Terrapins hosting on Aug. 31, 2024, and the game in East Hartford on Sept. 12, 2026. It’s a good move for UConn, which should be scheduling regional Power Five teams as part of its newfound independence. It’ll also make for a nice story when future UConn head coach Corey Edsall valiantly defends his father’s honor.
Gabriel Makes It A Fantastic Four
The Story: The women’s basketball team landed its fourth commitment for the Class of 2020 with Piath Gabriel, a 6-foot-5 center from Manchester, N.H., pledging her allegiance to UConn and Geno Auriemma on Twitter yesterday afternoon.
WHO IS GABRIEL? Born in South Sudan, Gabriel and her family fled her native country during its civil war and landed in Cairo before emigrating to the United States. Although she isn’t (yet) ranked among the top 100 players in her class by ESPN, her play over the summer with her AAU team earned the attention of programs such as Ohio State, Louisville, Tennessee and North Carolina, among others. She picked up a scholarship offer from UConn on an unofficial visit earlier this week.
She also has a UConn connection in that her high school athletic director and AAU coach is Scott Hazelton, who played for Jim Calhoun for two years before transferring to Rhode Island. “I’ve been in this for a while and I’ve been telling everybody all along that I think her best basketball days are ahead of her,” Hazelton told the Hartford Courant. “She’s done some great things on this level but she hasn’t even really scratched the surface of what she’ll become, and what better place to bring that out of somebody than the University of Connecticut.”
A LOADED CLASS: Gabriel joins Paige Bueckers, the top-ranked player in the class; Nika Muhl, a wing from Croatia; and Mir McLean, a forward from Maryland. The Huskies have plenty of scholarships remaining that they could hand out, but it’s been nearly 10 years since Geno had a freshman class of more than four players.
BEHOLD, A SCHEDULE! The AAC released its women’s basketball schedule yesterday, meaning the Huskies know exactly who they’ll be steamrolling on which days. Bizarrely, UConn will head to Temple in a conference game on Sunday, Nov. 17, then won’t play another AAC opponent until the usual January start. That’s likely due to the glut of marquee non-conference opponents they have scheduled during the second half of the season.
What a Dog-gone Disaster
The Story: Remember that cool logo we mentioned yesterday for UConn’s rebranded student section, “The Pack”? As it turns out, it was just straight-up lifted from an alternate N.C. State logo. Woof, indeed.
Hmm. https://t.co/P0IA3rsLTP pic.twitter.com/IDGwzPIueG
— Bronce the 4th (@bronceIV) September 19, 2019
THIS ONE HAS US HOWLING: Presumably, somebody in the N.C. State athletic department woke up this morning, saw the logo, and thought, “Wait a second. Could it be?” A UConn spokesman said a student working in the graphic design department “included a piece of intellectual property that belonged to N.C. State.”
The logo has been scrubbed from UConn’s website and the athletic department has apologized to N.C. State, which, for now, claims to have laughed it all off. That might not even be the most outrageous part of it all, though: Did you see how wide Connecticut was?
Morning Reads
NEXT STOP, THE WORLD: Team USA will have a distinctly UConn feel for the FIBA AmeriCup beginning next week with Tina Charles, Napheesa Collier, Stefanie Dolson and Katie Lou Samuelson joining Olivia Nelson-Ododa (and assistant Jennifer Rizzotti) in the biennial tournament. (Carl Adamec on Twitter)
THOMAS TALKS SWIM: After setting a record with four consecutive crossings of the English Channel, UConn graduate Sarah Thomas spoke about the journey. (UCTV)
PROPER SEND-OFF? The men’s soccer team will play its final game before the start of AAC play tonight when it faces Columbia at Dillon Stadium in Hartford. (UConnHuskies.com)
A GOOD START: The women’s volleyball team defeated Holy Cross in five sets in the opener of the Dog Pound Challenge at Gampel Pavilion last night and will face Dartmouth today and Providence tomorrow. (UConnHuskies.com)
