No Geno, No Problem, Part XV
The Story: Aaliyah Edwards scored a team-high 23 points and Nika Muhl had a season-high 16 points with 11 assists as the No. 9-ranked women’s basketball team defeated Seton Hall 98-73 without Geno Auriemma in a matinee at the XL Center yesterday afternoon.
PLENTY OF POINTS: Edwards led six players in double figures in scoring for the Huskies (9-2, 2-0 Big East), who never trailed and led by as many as 31 points late in the third quarter.
• In addition to Edwards and Muhl, Caroline Ducharme had 16 points in 27 minutes off the bench, Lou Lopez Senechal scored 14 points, Aubrey Griffin had 13 points and Dorka Juhasz scored 10 with 11 rebounds.
• Ducharme and Muhl were a combined 8-for-11 from 3-point range, and Muhl made a trio of 3s that powered UConn to a 14-point lead after seven minutes.
GENO MISSING: As expected, Geno missed the game as he recovered from flu-like symptoms. Chris Dailey ran the show and improved to 15-0 in games Geno doesn’t coach.
• Nothing has been decided, but it’s likely Geno will be back for the Huskies’ next game, which is next Wednesday at No. 21 Creighton. “He did FaceTime with the players before the game, and he’s feeling better so, you know, that’s a good sign,” Dailey said. “I can’t speak for him, so I don’t know when [he’ll return]. Our hope is when we get back on the 25th that he’ll be with us and if he’s not, you know, his health is really important, obviously, and that’s the priority so we’ll deal with it.”
TURNOVER TROUBLES: The Huskies’ inability to take care of the basketball continued yesterday as they committed 22 turnovers — their fourth consecutive game with more than 20.
• It’s no coincidence that the streak began when Azzi Fudd went down with a knee injury, but it is given that the Huskies aren’t usually that careless. Edwards, Muhl and Lopez Senechal each had four turnovers, but the Pirates only turned that carelessness into 18 points.
• Despite the turnovers, the Huskies had 30 assists on 38 field goals.
INSIDE THE BOX SCORE: UConn shot 11-for-21 from 3-point range, had the 44-26 edge in rebounding and outscored Seton Hall 42-22 in the paint.
• The Pirates were led by Sidney Cooks, who had a team-high 18 points, and Lauren Park-Lane, who had 17 points on 5-for-21 shooting. Collectively, they shot 36.2 percent. East Hartford’s Shailyn Pinkney was held to three points in 20 minutes, though she started.
• Attendance was listed at 9,125, which means the arena was about half full for a Wednesday afternoon. Not bad!
A Baker’s Dozen Heeds Mora’s Call
The Story: The football team formalized the addition of 13 high school players yesterday, the first day of the early signing period.
A WIDE NET: In addition to players from Simsbury and Windsor, Jim Mora added recruits from as near as Massachusetts, New Jersey and Pennsylvania and as far as North Carolina, Florida and, yes, Nigeria.
• Jackson Harper is a 6-foot-1, 187-pound wide receiver from Simsbury who plays at Avon Old Farms, which is coached by old friend Jon Wholley. Christopher Hudson, a 5-foot-10, 172-pound safety from Windsor, plays at St. Thomas More and had two interceptions this season.
• A quarterback, Tucker McDonald, is among those joining the program. McDonald is a 6-foot-1, 189-pound player from Wachusett High in Holden, Mass., who threw for six touchdowns and ran for another in his final game this season. He also had offers from Bowling Green, Buffalo, Old Dominion, Rutgers and Western Kentucky, and from Columbia, Harvard and Yale.
• The most-hyped players in the class, according to 247Sports, are a pair of three-star prospects: Zackary Drawdy, a 6-foot-2, 180-pound wide receiver from Yulee, Fla., and Cameron Chadwick, a 6-foot, 175-pound cornerback from Somerville, N.J. Drawdy had scholarship offers from Kentucky and USF and Chadwick had them from Duke, Temple and Wake Forest.
• One player, Ricky Lee III, a wide receiver/cornerback from Ellenwood, Ga., decommitted from UConn on Tuesday night and signed with UAB yesterday. He had been committed to the Huskies since early July and was the only player they lost.
… NIGERIA? Mora received a letter of intent from Toluwanimi Tunde, a 6-foot-5, 268-pound offensive tackle who was born in Iloffa, a town in central Nigeria, and grew up in Montreal. His only offer was from UConn, and he’ll be the next Canadian player on the Huskies.
WHO’S IN THE CLASS? The Huskies added a quarterback, three wide receivers, three offensive linemen, a tight end, two defensive linemen, a linebacker, a cornerback and a safety. They are:
• Carsten Casady, OT, Rolesville, N.C.
• Cameron Chadwick, S, Plainfield, N.J.
• Nader Chirchi, TE, Alexandria, Va.
• Cleto Chol, DE, Salem, Mass.
• Oumar Diomande, ILB, New York
• Zackary Drawdy, WR, Yulee, Fla.
• Jackson Harper, WR, Simsbury
• Christopher Hudson, CB, Windsor
• Jarvis Jones, WR, Plainfield, N.J.
• Toriyan Johnson, OT, Boston
• Brandon Kelley, DL, Pottstown, Pa.
• Tucker McDonald, QB, Holden, Mass.
• Toluwanimi Tunde, OT, Nigeria
SO, HOW DOES IT STACK UP? Well, we don’t really know. 247Sports hadn’t even marked the players as having signed by 10 p.m. last night (and only listed 10), and Rivals.com had UConn’s class listed as the best in the Big East. Basically, who knows?
WHAT DID MORA SAY? “Recruiting is so different now because there’s the early signing period and then we have another signing period in February, and between that, we have this thing called the transfer portal, which is an absolute monster. It’s wild. There’s really no definitive end anymore and it makes it a little bit more hectic, probably a little more exciting for everybody and a lot more fluid. But we added what we think are some really fine young men that have a chance to be good players for us.”
Morning Reads
• Not much was known about Joey Calcaterra before he decided to transfer from San Diego to UConn — but we know a lot about him now. (Hearst Connecticut Media)
• Leave it to Calcaterra to strike while the iron’s hot. His Joey California merchandise line is live. (Athletes Thread)
• The New York Red Bulls signed midfielder Jayden Reid to a one-year MLS homegrown contract. Reid, who spent five years in the Red Bulls Academy, is from Elmont, N.Y. (New York Red Bulls)
Top photo: Aaliyah Edwards drives in the exhibition game against Kutztown. (Courtesy of UConn athletics)
