Louisville may be UConn's rival by virtue of the fact that they're in the same conference and usually among the nation's best programs, but Cardinals coach Rick Pitino seems to have a soft spot for his Huskies counterpart, Kevin Ollie.

Back in October, before the school gave Ollie a long-term contract, Pitino went out of his way to support the first-year coach.

"I don't know the new athletic director, but I can say this: There's not a coach in the country Connecticut can hire that's better than Kevin Ollie," Pitino said at the time.

And now that the Cardinals have just one more year in the new American Athletic Conference before bolting to the ACC, Pitino remains a fervent Ollie supporter.

“I’m a tremendous fan of Kevin as a person, I’ve always been, since he tried out with us [with the Celtics]," Pitino told the Hartford Courant's Dom Amore recently. "Then I became a tremendous fan of the way he coaches. He’s different than Jim [Calhoun], but he has learned from Jim. … I just think he’s got a great way about him, he has got a humility about him … you can’t do what he did in the NBA unless you have tremendous toughness. These kids that are playing for him wish they had his toughness. To get to be Kevin Ollie, you’ve got to be humble and tough like none of these athletes are today.”

As for the AAC, which is what we're now calling the Big East, even though all the faces -- save the Huskies -- will have changed by 2014, Pitino was optimistic.

“It’s going to be much better than people anticipate because there are four teams that are going to be in the top 20: Memphis, Connecticut, Louisville -- three of the four for sure and Cincinnati in the Top 25 if not the Top 20," he said. "And that’s not including Temple, I don’t know how good they’re going to be.

“… It could be a great league, like a very good Conference USA -- back in the old days when Louisville, Cincinnati, Marquette and South Florida were in it," Pitino continued. "It was a very good league -- there were eight tremendous teams in that league.”

Put another way -- and to reiterate what we've heard all along: winning fixes almost everything. To quote the late Oakland Raiders owner, Al Davis: For the AAC -- and the Huskies -- to be successful ... just win, baby.

Things are coming together nicely for Kevin Ollie as he embarks on Year 2 at UConn. After an improbable 20-win season in 2012-13, Ollie has all five starters returning this fall to go along with a solid recruiting class that now includes four players.

And the 2014-15 class is shaping up to be even better. One of those commitments: guard Rodney Purvis, who transferred from NC State this spring after a solid freshman season with the Wolfpack. The Huskies were among the finalists to land Purvis coming out of high school and now, after one year, they finally have him.

While NCAA rules require Purvis to sit out the upcoming season, that doesn't mean he's left with nothing to do. In addition to school, he'll work out with the team, and he's also been invited to try out for the Under-19 US National Team.

Details via the Hartford Courant:

Florida coach Billy Donovan will be the head coach of Team USA, with Tony Bennett of Virginia and Shaka Smart of Virginia Commonwealth assisting. The player selections  will be made by the 2013-2016 USA Basketball Men’s Junior National Team Committee, which is chaired by Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim.

Purvis was a member of the 2012 U18 USA National Team that won the gold medal at the FIBA Americas U18 Championship and qualified the U.S. team for the FIBA U19 World Championship.

The final 12 players will be selected on June 19, with the FIBA World Championships taking place in Prague, Czech Republic from June 27-July 7.

Other invitees include: Ryan Arcidiacono (Villanova University/Langhorne, Pa.); Bryce Alford (La Cueva H.S./Albuquerque, N.M.); Brandon Ashley (University of Arizona/San Francisco, Calif.); Robert Carter (Georgia Tech/Thomasville, Ga.); Damyean Dotson (University of Oregon/Houston, Texas); Kris Dunn (Providence College/Oakdale, Conn.); Javan Felix (University of Texas/New Orleans, La.); Michael Frazier (University of Florida/Tampa, Fla.); Marcus Georges-Hunt (Georgia Tech/College Park, Ga.); Shaq Goodwin (University of Memphis/Atlanta, Ga.); Aaron Gordon (Archbishop Mitty H.S./San Jose, Calif.);  Jerami Grant (Syracuse University/Bowie, Md.); Montrezl Harrell (University of Louisville/Tarboro, N.C.); Rondaé Hollis-Jefferson  (Chester H.S./Chester, Pa.); Jahlil Okafor (Whitney Young H.S./Chicago, Ill.); James Robinson (University of Pittsburgh/Mitchellville, Md.); Marcus Smart (Oklahoma State University/Flower Mound, Texas); Jarnell Stokes (University of Tennessee/Memphis, Tenn.); Rasheed Sulaimon (Duke University/Houston, Texas); Devin Thomas (Wake Forest University/Harrisburg, Pa.); Mike Tobey (University of Virginia/Monroe, N.Y.); Nigel Williams-Goss (Findlay Prep/Happy Valley, Ore.); and Justise Winslow (St. Johns H.S./Houston, Texas).

The UConn women's team has three players on the U19 squad: Breanna Stewart, Moriah Jefferson and Morgan Tuck.

In less than a year, Coach Kevin Ollie has done a masterful job of righting a UConn program that could've taken a turn for the worse following the mass exodus of players last spring, NCAA sanctions that kept the team out of the 2013 postseason, and was capped off by Jim Calhoun's retirement. Instead, the Huskies won 20 games and now Ollie is building for the future.

All five starters return in 2013, and the UConn will have two of the best recruits in the country for the 2014-15 season: NC State transfer Rodney Purvis, who's sitting out the upcoming season, and recent commitment Daniel Hamilton.

Actually, the Huskies appear to have positioned themselves as one of the best perimeter teams in the country right now. George Washington transfer Lasan Kromah is headed to Storrs, according to a report from CBSSports.com's Jeff Borzello.

Kromah played for current UConn assistant Karl Hobbs for two seasons at GW, although he missed his sophomore campaign with a foot sprain. Hobbs was the head coach of the Colonials from 2001-2011.

Kromah, a 6-foot-5 guard, will be eligible immediately after graduating from GW. He averaged 10.1 points and 3.7 rebounds last season for the Colonials.

Kromah will graduate from GW this spring and, like RJ Evans a year ago, will be eligible to play immediately. Kromah reportedly will take the scholarship that was once Enosch Wolf's. The university lifted Wolf's suspension Monday, and he's free to rejoin the team as a walk-on.

As it stands, Kromah, who averaged 10 points a game last season, will join a backcourt that includes Shabazz Napier, Ryan Boatright and Omar Calhoun, not to mention incoming freshman guard Terrence Samuel.

Enosch Wolf, the 7-1 center from Goettingen, Germany who appeared in 22 games for the Huskies last season before he was suspended following an arrest for a physical altercation with a female student, is now eligible to return to the program as a non-scholarship player, the University of Connecticut announced in a statement on Monday.

When Wolf was arrested, coach Kevin Ollie acknowledged that the center had been "suspended from the team indefinitely." In April, the charges against Wolf were dropped, and Monday, his suspension was lifted. But now, apparently, he'll have to earn a roster spot as a walk-on. More via the Hartford Courant's Dom Amore:

Meanwhile, CBSSports.com cited an unnamed source and said guard Lasan Kromah will transfer to UConn from George Washington for his fifth season of eligibility. Kromah, who visited UConn last week, reportedly told coaches Tuesday he'd like to come to Storrs. He would take the program's last scholarship, leaving Wolf without one, so that would be the logical explanation for Wolf's walk-on status.

Wolf, who missed the final eight games of the season, returned to Germany at the end of the spring semester and, according to the university, is expected to make a decision regarding his senior season in the next few weeks.

Sio Moore was the heart and soul of the Huskies defense and now he hopes to do the same for his new team, the Oakland Raiders. Selected in the third round of last month's NFL Draft, there's the very real possibility Moore earns a starting job heading into the 2013 season. The Raiders lost versatile linebacker Philip Wheeler to the Dolphins and Moore was drafted in part to replace him. And so far, so good.

"Everything is a learning experience, but we've got to pick it up," Moore said last week via CSNCalifornia, referring to the recently concluded minicamp.

"I love it. They've given me an opportunity to do a little bit of everything. And it's just right now, learning it all and really being exact…being exact and perfect."

Raiders coach Dennis Allen was high on Moore throughout the pre-draft process and those feelings haven't changed after working with him on the field.

"His ability to understand multiple positions has been good," the coach said. "He's a guy that, like I said after we drafted him, he loves football. He wants to work. He wants to get better. And he's a guy that I just think is going to continue to get better as he gets comfortable with the scheme."

Worth remembering: we're in the shorts-and-t-shirt portion of the offseason, which means everybody looks good this time of year. Still, Allen has seen enough football to know that Moore can be special.

"He's got some of those attributes (like Wheeler)," Allen admitted. "He's athletic in space, which was something Philip was really good at. I think he's got great awareness for the game and he's probably got a little bit more coming off the edge. Phil was really good inside, had a lot of wiggle. Sio has probably got a little bit more edge rush to him."

As for the number Moore will wear with the Raiders, he settled on 55.

"The PR guy called my house the day after the draft and he gave me some numbers to choose from," he said. "I went to my mom, she said '55.' I said, '55.' You don't go against mom. Not when Mother's Day close."

The message commissioner Mike Aresco had for the American Athletic Conference football coaches Monday is one that has been repeated around Storrs for months. And while Aresco's target audience is larger, the bottom line is the same: Winning fixes a lot. And not just among themselves, but when the AAC schools have a chance to play the "elite" conferences -- there will be 15 games against established programs like Texas A&M, Notre Dame, Michigan and South Carolina -- it's an opportunity to send a message.

"Our guys will take on pretty much all comers," Aresco said via the Tampa Tribune. "We'll schedule intelligently and strategically, but we want to play good teams. We want to be a factor in the ... College Football Playoff System. ... What we want to do is let people know how many teams we've defeated the last several years from the so-called power conferences."

South Florida coach Willie Taggert, appearing at the AAC annual meetings for the first time, offered this: "I think we all understand that, considering the new format for the college playoff, you have to play those games and then you have to beat them," he said. "Perception is pretty much everything nowadays, so you have to go out and win some of those ballgames, so nobody looks at you as any less than what they are already."

UConn's Paul Pasqualoni, who is squarely on the hot seat after back-to-back 5-7 seasons, also weighed in.

"It'll take a little time for this conference to make its mark, but I'm pretty confident it will," he said. "For us, now, in this conference, how we do in those games will be pretty important as you move forward from 2014 forward."

The Huskies will face both Maryland and Michigan in 2013 and there's no better -- or faster -- way to show the rest of the football-playing world that the AAC (and UConn) is something other than a novelty. But for now, those are just words, a fact not lost on Aresco.

"We know we're a challenger," the commissioner continued. "We're not going to be viewed the same as the Big Ten and the SEC. We know that. The point is, we know we can challenge. We know we're right there. We've got a good group."

It's not like Geno Auriemma's program needed the exposure -- UConn is coming off a national title and it's perennially considered one of the best teams in the country -- but this is good news nonetheless: We mentioned earlier this month that five players were trying out for the US national team -- Breanna Stewart, Moriah Jefferson and Morgan Tuck on the under-19 squad; Bria Hartley and Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis on the World University Games Team -- and as of Sunday, all five players had made the final roster.

Stewart, who was integral to the Huskies late-season run, is now a veteran of the U-19 team.

“It’s funny how my role is changing, because this is my second U19 team,” Stewart said via the Hartford Courant.  “Last time I was one of the younger ones. This time I’m one of the older ones, and it’s weird. But, I have to be a leader because I’ve been in these situations before and some people haven’t. I have to help show them the ropes.”

Other players making the U-19 squad include: Penn State’s Candice Agee, Tennessee’s Bashaara Graves, Linnae Harper of Whitney Young High in Chicago, Brianna Turner of Manvel High in Pearland, Texas, Nia Coffey of Hopkins High in Minneapolis, Gabby Green of St. Mary’s College High in Oakland, Kelsey Plum of La Jolla Country Day in Poway, Calif., and A’ja Wilson of Heathwood Hall High in Hopkins, S.C.

Hartley, meanwhile, admitted she was anxious about her chances of making the World University Game team.

“I was a little nervous,” Hartley said. “Even though I have made the team before, you don’t want to come in here thinking, ‘Oh, I’m definitely going to make the team.’ You have to stay humble, but you also want to be confident, thinking you could possibly make the team. You have to come out and play basketball the way you know how to.”

The World University Games will be held July 8-15 in Kazan Russia, while the U-19 tournament is slated for July 18-28 in Lithuania.

Back in March, as the Huskies were on their way to national championship No. 8, 2013 commitment Saniya Chong was earning Gatorade State Player of the Year honors in New York. And now, two months later, she has another honor to add to her collection: All American Team’s Girls Basketball Player of the Year.

Details, appropriately, via Parade.com:

Chong’s scoring average is 34.4 points per game. If the opposition wants to try to hold that number down, she’s the kind of point guard who can make anybody else around her the game’s leading scorer. Foul her, and she’ll beat you from the free-throw line—she makes, oh, about 9 in every 10. Play soft defense on her, and she’ll destroy you from behind the 3-point arc.

As a defender, she never met a steal she didn’t like, and even at 5-foot-9 she is a capable rebounder. Her senior year stat line? 928 total points -- a new single-season state record in New York -- and 9.1 assists per game. She also found time to add six rebounds and five steals per game.

Chong becomes the third consecutive national player of the year to sign with UConn, following Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis and Breanna Stewart. And now she'll join a team that not only returns all five starters, but whose second five would be in the top 25.

Diamond DeShields, recruited by UConn out of high school, was also a finalist for the award. She'll attend UNC in the fall.

American Athletic Conference commissioner Mike Aresco has an unenviable job. His days are filled trying to convince just about everybody that the AAC is legit now and viable in the future, even in the face of long odds.

In a Q&A with the Hartford Courant's Desmond Conner, Aresco weighed in on everything from conference realignment to what the AAC has to do going forward to remain a player on the national stage.

Regarding conference reshuffling:
“I told our staff that whatever happens, we’re going to keep our poise, we’re going to make sure we’re deliberate, we’re going to make whatever decisions we have to make and we’re not going to take it personally because people have reasons for doing what they do whether it’s for financial or this reason or that reason and in the end, the high road is always the best road. It just is, period.”

The AAC and the playoffs -- how exactly does it work?
"We have every bit as much access to get into the playoffs. This is a tiered system. We have the four-team playoff that’s going to determine the national champion. We have the ability to get into that just like anybody else. In fact, Cincinnati, was No.3 under Brian Kelly a few years ago, well, they would have been in it. We are going to compete. We have just as much of an opportunity as everybody else. The other opportunity if we don’t make the four-team playoff, is to potentially end up on New Year’s Day or New Year’s Eve in one of those important system bowls. …"

What about the perception that the AAC is a shell of the conference formerly known as the Big East?

“In terms of our conference we basically have to work to make it the best conference it can be and the chips fall where they may. We want to make sure anyone in our conference feels that the conference is being well run, is maximizing their potential, which in UConn’s case is in both sports, it’s making sure the conference innovative, state of the art is well run that it’s a conference the members in it can be proud of and then there’s always issues, always currents about this and that, money. Well, let the chips fall where they may. We’re focused on the future and we’re focused on our conference. UConn has been a big part of that. (UConn president) Susan (Herbst) has been very strong. She’s been a big part of what we’re trying to do. She’s been heavily involved in the name, the branding, all the decisions that we’ve made. And (athletic director) Warde (Manuel) is one of our leading ADs. Warde is a strong AD…."

UConn had five players selected in last month's NFL Draft, a school record. Of those five, four were on defense -- Dwayne Gratz, Sio Moore, Blidi Wreh-Wilson and Trevardo Williams -- and it's reasonable to think that three of them could see considerable playing time as rookies.

But the best defender of the bunch might still be in Storrs. Rising junior Yawin Smallwood caught the attention of NFL scouts with his performance last season. And now, ESPN's Mel Kiper has Smallwood among his top inside linebackers for 2014. NFLDraftScout.com's Rob Rang agrees, ranking Smallwood third among all inside linebackers.

But another way: if the 2012 All Big East first-teamer can replicate in 2013 what he did in 2012, expect him to go before this year's talented crop, which heard their names called in the third round. Here's what SI.com draft analyst Tony Pauline wrote about Smallwood after UConn defeated Maryland last September:

Smallwood has played productive football all season yet his performance during the victory over Maryland was incredible. He stood out in all phases as Smallwood forcefully defended the run, showed strength on the blitz as well as smarts in pass coverage. His statistics, which included 14 tackles, four tackles for loss, three sacks, one forced fumble as well as several pass deflections, just scratches the surface of the performance Smallwood turned in. The third-year sophomore is a complete linebacker and three-down defender that will soon be NFL ready.

And now he's on Kiper's radar. And before long, we suspect a lot of other people will know Smallwood's name.

Rodney Purvis was this close to coming to UConn out of high school. Instead, he opted for the hometown NC State Wolfpack and after one season, decided that the Huskies were the better fit. So Purvis, considered one of the best high school players in the country a year ago, transferred to Storrs. He'll have to sit out the 2013-14 season, but he'll join Daniel Hamilton as part of the class of 2014. And if Purvis' first week on campus is any indication, he'll bring toughness, tenacity, and a lot of talent to Kevin Ollie's program.

"I kind of reframed everything in my mind," Purvis said Thursday, according to the Hartford Courant, after working out with teammate Ryan Boatright and assistant coach Karl Hobbs. "I was calm, relaxed. Now my whole mindset is different. I'm in the gym a lot, my mindset is to try to destroy -- I know they're my teammates, but I've got to push these guys for the season. I'm only going to be in practice, but I'm going to treat these practices like they're my games."

Purvis left NC State because "I didn't fit as far as the offense," something the coaches even conceded (though it makes you wonder why they recruited him in the first place). … "The coaches told me, 'Our offense is really for guys who catch and shoot.' I had to get somewhere where I could play my game and that's attacking, having fun, playing in transition."

Enter UConn, a program very interested in Purvis from the beginning, and not only that, one that used its guards in a way that suited Purvis' game.

(Ollie) just told me, the ball is going to be in my hands," Purvis told the Courant. "And he's got nothing to lie about. It has been proven with Boatright and Shabazz (Napier) and guys like that. I'm going to be a great teammate. I'm going to be a great cheerleader this year. I'm going to try my best to do everything right, so when it's my time I'll be ready."

We say it all the time: recruiting is the lifeblood of any program. That's certainly true of the perennial top 20 programs, but just as relevant to the mid-tier outfits that are looking for consistency and ultimately, respect in the form of bowl appearances.

After an improbable run through the Big East in 2010, the Huskies found themselves in the Fiesta Bowl. In the two-plus-years since, Randy Edsall left for Maryland and his replacement, Paul Pasqualoni, has had back-to-back 5-7 seasons. Naturally, there are some concerns about the direction of the program -- especially with the Big East giving way to the American Athletic Conference. Part of the solution involved replacing defensive coordinator George DeLeone with TJ Weist.

But the other part involves finding players who can, well, play. And through mid-May, there's not much to report on the recruiting front. Actually, that's an overstatement: the Huskies don't have a single recruit for 2014. But Pasqualoni's not worried.

"Obviously the high-level guy you're absolutely sure of, you always welcome," the coach said via the Hartford Courant's Desmond Conner. "But this year we don't have a large group of seniors. I think our senior count is 11. So our philosophy has always been, the ideal condition, is to have them in your camp over the summer. We're working very, very hard on the actual recruitment process of having them come into our camp and the response to that has been very good."

Part of the plan includes holding high school camps much of next month and using it as a means of finding talent.

"Last year 13 of the 25 players we signed were in our camp, so that's where our focus is right now," Pasqualoni continued. "The staff is out this week. This is the last week of being out on the road. … I think we're where we want to be in the overall evaluation process. I think we know who the top guys are in our key areas. I think we have a good handle on not only the top guys, but those players who are in the Division I prospect category. Between now and the end of June we'll try hard to get these guys on campus and work with them and be sure of what we're doing, and try to get some commitments."

This is an important season for Pasqualoni. If the Huskies don't show marked improvement, it's fair to think that his job could be on the line.

Last season as a high school junior, Courtney Ekmark averaged 19.6 points a game on her way to Gatorade Arizona Player of the Year honors. The 6-0 guard will join the Huskies in 2014. Earlier this week, she spoke with the Hartford Courant about attending the 2013 Final Four in New Orleans where she watched UConn and her future teammates play in the finals against Louisville, where former teammate Courtney Walton was now a member.

“It was very exciting for me to be there,” Ekmark said according to the Courant's John Altavilla. “I felt a connection to both teams. … It was awesome. It helped me be able to visualize what it might be like a couple of years when it is me out on the floor.

“And the experience reaffirmed some things for me. I obviously always knew that UConn had a tremendous fan following," she continued. "And it gave me another sense of exactly how they [UConn] play. It was very interesting for me to see that in person; how fast the game is played, how physical UConn was.”

Ekmark still has another season of high school basketball before she'll join the Huskies and she's using that time to get stronger because -- and we see this every year, even with the best high school players in the country -- it's a huge leap, both physically and mentally, to the college game.

“I have been playing basketball with a lot of guys lately to help me get used to playing faster,” Ekmark admitted. “And I’ve been going to a personal trainer to help me get my body right. I just want to be ready when my time comes. I would consider myself a playmaker. I like to think that I have a very good understanding of the game.”

Sadie Edwards, will join Ekmark in the Class of 2014.

Earlier this month, high school junior Daniel Hamilton, the 6-6 shooting guard from Los Angeles, said "I can see myself at UConn," following his official visit to Storrs. A week later, Hamilton committed to the Huskies, though it won't be official until he signs his letter of intent, which can happen as early as November.

Hamilton reiterated this week how the team camaraderie attracted him to Ollie's program.

"It looked like they were a brotherhood," he said according to the Hartford Courant's Dom Amore, referring to the Huskies' season-opening win over Michigan State at Ramstein Air Base. "That's where I started to think I could see myself playing for UConn. Guys were unselfish, and the big thing was, it just looked like they were having fun. …

"They treated me like I was family," Hamilton said of the players after his official visit in early May. And the same held for coach Kevin Ollie, who relentlessly recruited Hamilton.

(Ollie) recruited me and (Hamilton's brother) Isaac at Crenshaw (High School)," Daniel told ESPN last week. "When Isaac committed he never stopped. A lot of the coaches that recruited Isaac stopped recruiting me. It's an up-and-coming program. Me and Coach Ollie have a great relationship. I knew him before he got the job there. It's an opportunity for me to come in and step in and do some damage."

And the same family atmosphere Hamilton felt with the players extended to the coaches.

"It was a great atmosphere," Hamilton said. "Coach Ollie seems very humble. He's a people person, everybody seems to like being around him. I've never heard anyone talk bad about him. … That's the kind of coach I wanted to play for, someone I can talk to any time, about anything."

The rough stretch the Huskies endured a year ago at this time -- the NCAA sanctions, players leaving the program,the retirement of Jim Calhoun -- seem like a distant memory. UConn won 20 games in 2012-13, have a talented, veteran group returning, and the future appears bright. Now, in addition to NC State transfer Rodney Purvis, who will join the Huskies in 2014, the team now has Hamilton.

It's not unusual for the Huskies' top players to spend their summer representing the United States in international play. So it's hardly surprising to see Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis and Bria Hartley accept invitations to take part in the 2013 USA Basketball Women's World University Games Team.

Stefanie Dolson was expected to earn an invite but she's instead using the offseason to rest injuries that dogged her during UConn's title run last April.

All three players have national team experience, competing on the US National U19 squad in previous summers; in fact, Mosqueda-Lewis has three gold medals and Hartley has two.

This year's trials will take place from May 16-19 at the US Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colo. More details via the Hartford Courant:

The 2013 World University Games (WUGs) women’s basketball competition will be held July 8-15 in Kazan, Russia. Organized by the International University Sports Federation (FISU) and held every other year, the WUGs is a multi-sport competition open to men and women who are between the ages of 17 and 24 (born 01/01/89 through 12/31/95). The USA Basketball women’s team will be comprised of U.S. citizens who are currently enrolled in college and have remaining eligibility.  

Current collegiate athletes invited to participate in the 2013 USA U19 World Championship Team trials are eligible and may be considered for the 2013 USA World University Games Team. Trials for both teams will take place in staggered sessions May 16-19.

The 12-member roster is expected to be announced the morning of May 19, and all athletes will depart for home. The team will regroup for training June 25-July 1 at the USOTC prior to traveling to Russia.

Three Huskies -- Breanna Stewart, Moriah Jefferson and Morgan Tuck -- were invited to tryout for the US U19 team during this same time frame in Colorado Springs. Per the rules described above, they can also be considered for the World University Games Team. Either way, the Huskies will be well represented in international competition this summer.

The biggest question facing the Huskies this summer is if they, after two years in Paul Pasqualoni's system, be able to manufacture some offense in 2013. Back-to-back 5-7 records and one of the worst scoring offenses in the nation leaves a lot of questions, but Pasqualoni does have new offensive coordinator T.J. Weist, whom he hopes can be the impetus for change.

Junior quarterback Chandler Whitmer returns, as do wideouts Geremy Davis and Shakim Phillips, but the conference's best defense has lost key players to graduation, which puts even more pressure on the offense to score points and, ultimately, win games.

It all starts with the offensive line, which, thankfully, is a veteran group.

"We have a talented group," Weist told ESPN.com Big East blogger Andrea Adelson in a recent phone interview. "We have a strong first line. The biggest thing is we've got to keep guys healthy. We've got to develop our depth, that second and third group."

It's a good problem to have -- experience and talent with the first group but the need for depth behind them. The only problem is that football is as much about running, throwing, blocking and tackling as it is about overcoming injuries. It's a physical game, players get hurt, and the difference between the good teams and the mediocre ones often comes down to depth. Which is why Weist is so concerned.

And UConn has already run into issues of health during spring practice.

Tackles Jimmy Bennett and Kevin Friend return as starters in 2013, and guard Returning to the starting lineup for 2013 are tackles Jimmy Bennett and Kevin Friend, as well as guard Steve Greene. Meanwhile, Alex Mateas and Tyler Bullock are competing at center, while Gus Cruz and Tyler Samra are battling for the other guard spot.

As Adelson writes, "It was tough to get a real gauge for how much better this group could be during the spring because injuries kept several guys sidelined. Bennett and Bullock missed the spring game because they were hurt, while Mateas sat out while serving a suspension. That gave other guys an opportunity to play, which should help when it comes to developing depth."

And therein lies the difficulty for Weist of figuring out a depth chart.

"The issue may not be them, it’s how many reps they’re getting in practice and keeping them healthy," Weist said. "If the second group doesn’t develop, or if we’ve got injuries, guys have to play more in practice, then you have to worry about getting the first guys hurt. That’s why I’m more concerned about our depth -- about keeping guys healthy so we can evaluate them better."

Kelly Faris' UConn career is officially over. One of the best all-around players to ever come through Geno Auriemma's program took her last exam Wednesday and now it's on to the WNBA where she was a first-round pick last month.

“I’m excited,” Faris said according to SNY.com's Carl Adamec. “I don’t have to be graded anymore. It will be different to have a basketball life and not have a school life or class or study hall. I’m glad. It’s a great accomplishment.”

Interestingly, Faris, who was known for her toughness at UConn, begins here professional career with an injury. She's currently in a walking boot after suffering a sprained ligament in her foot in the Final Four matchup with Notre Dame.

“It won’t be long," she said. I’m almost good to go. Probably the 15th or 16th (of May) I’ll try to get back into it. I wanted to play but this is probably the only time that I’ll have to sit. You go from one season right to the next and it’s hard. So this was the best chance that I had to let it heal.

“(The Sun coaching staff) told me to relax a bit and take the load off of my foot. It wasn’t the easiest thing to do. I did some lifting and tried to get some cardio in where I could. But it was just a lot of rest.”

 The WNBA regular-season opener is May 25 so it's reasonable to expect Faris to be good to go by then. Faris leaves UConn with two national titles and 154 consecutive games played, a record she shares with Maya Moore.

“I think I’ve said it a thousand times," Faris admitted. "I couldn’t have asked to go out a different way and with a better group of girls. It meant a lot because of how hard we had to work for it and the struggles that we had throughout the season. On the outside it probably didn’t look like much but on the inside we were frustrated and not satisfied with what we were doing. It was the right way to go out.

“This last month’s been very stressful but it was a good stress to have," she continued. "It was a big whirlwind. We got back from winning the national championship and then I had the WNBA orientation. I was excited to get drafted. It hasn’t all soaked in yet. Maybe once I graduate, that will be out of the way and I’ll have all my focus here. It might be 10 years down the road that I think, ‘Wow. What did I accomplish in college?’ Then coming here hopefully we’ll accomplish quite a bit.”

Faris can now tick one more box on her list accomplishments: soon-to-be college graduate. Next up: the WNBA.

Omar Calhoun proved to be a bright spot last season for the Huskies. The Freshman from New York averaged more than 32 minutes a game, shot 32 percent from behind the arc (and 40 percent from the field), and averaged 3.9 rebounds, 1.3 assists and 11.3 points per game during the Huskies' improbable 20-win season.

And Calhoun will be a big part of the 2013-14 season, too, even after having successful hip surgery this offseason.

On Wednesday, a school spokesman confirmed that the rising sophomore had surgery to address femoral acetabular impingement on his left hip in March and his right hip in April (via the Hartford Courant). More details:

The surgeries involve shaving bone to alleviate pressure and discomfort and hopefully avoid future problems. Recovery time is three to four months, so Calhoun should be 100 percent by mid-August. If he was considering trying out for Team USA this summer, the recovery would eliminate those plans.

“He played through it,” Omar Calhoun, Sr., told the New Haven Register about his son. “He had a little pain and discomfort, and he played through it and still had a solid freshman year. We’ve got a lot of faith in Dr. Joyce and the UConn training staff. They’re saying he will be even better than he was (before the surgery). …

“He struggled with his handle," Calhoun Sr. continued, "that’s where you saw the difference the most. He was in pain. To have good handle, you’ve got to get down low. He was in pain at times doing that. He’s a lot more explosiveness (than what he showed).”

Calhoun will join Shabazz Napier and Ryan Boatright next season for what should be an experienced, talented backcourt.

It's just like old times: Breanna Stewart, Morgan Tuck and Moriah Jefferson -- all part of UConn's 2012 recruiting class -- are among 34 players 19 years old and younger to have accepted invitations to take part in the 2013 USA Basketball U19 World Championship team trials.

The team will be whittled down to 12 players after a four-day session from May 16-19 at the U.S. Olympic training center in Colorado Springs, Colo.

You can view a list of the other participants here, and the team will be coached by Miami's Katie Meier.

The Huskies have a history of stocking the national team roster with its players. Two summers ago, Jefferson, Stewart and Tuck, all rising high school seniors at the time, made the final 15 of the 2011 U19 National team roster along with Huskies Stefanie Dolson, Bria Hartley and Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis. Everyone but Jefferson made the final roster, marking the third time in as many years Jefferson just missed the cut. (More impressive, perhaps: that she was even in position to compete for a roster spot.) As we wrote in June 2011, Jefferson seemed undeterred by the temporary bad news.

"It fuels me knowing I didn’t make [the team the last two times]," Jefferson said in May 2011. "When you come out for something like this, you want to make it. Honestly, I give my best, 110 percent, every time I get on the court. Being cut hasn’t really changed anything about me, it just makes me go a little harder."

Last summer, all that hard work paid off because Jefferson -- along with Stewart and Tuck -- made the final roster. And it's reasonable to expect them to be among the finalists this time around, too.

We wrote about the ACC's grant-of-rights deal last month and it basically says this: the 15 current members will remain in the conference through the ESPN television contract, which expires in 2026-27. Put another way: this is bad, bad news for UConn, a university looking for a new conference home pretty much since all the reshuffling started nearly two years ago.

On Tuesday, CBSSports.com's Jeremy Fowler explained what this grant-of-rights deal means for the left behinds, specifically: UConn, Cincinnati and USF. Once big names in the Big East with hopes of something more. Now they are three schools stuck in the new American Athletic Conference with no way out.

The ACC's grant of rights, coupled with Notre Dame's part-time football commitment, brings the league's revenue to more than $20 million per school annually, according to a league source.

AAC schools will get a little less than $2 million per year off a reported six-year, $126 million deal starting in 2013-14. The total pales in comparison to ESPN's billion-dollar-plus offer from two years ago -- before the AAC lost more than a dozen schools in basketball or football. At times, UConn, Cincy and USF outperformed old Big East defectors. But they came from the C-USA or independent ranks within the last 10 years. Perhaps they didn't have enough time to establish an identity or cachet that Pittsburgh, Syracuse and West Virginia developed.

Then there was UConn's run at the ACC to fill the spot left by Maryland, who accepted a place in the Big Ten. Ultimately, the ACC decided that Louisville made more sense than UConn, helping the Huskies into their current predicament. So what happened? Fowler explains.

"It wasn't UConn's Northeast footprint or its 21st national ranking among public universities that lost it. The lack of football tradition and game-day environment at Rentschler Field (capacity 40,000) did, according to an ACC source."

And that -- the mediocre football program by ACC standards -- that has been UConn's Achilles heel. The problem: even if coach Paul Pasqualoni spearheads a miraculous turnaround and the Huskies annually make it to bowl games, it could be a case of too little, too late. The big conferences, for the most part, appear set. And unless there's some major upheaval on the horizon that we don't know about, UConn will be a member of the AAC for the foreseeable future.

Put another way: UConn will have to make do with a less-than-perfect situation. The basketball teams will need to continue to win, and the football program has to find a way to become competitive, and find a way quickly. Because otherwise, the Huskies an intercollegiate afterthought.

We've said it countless times but recruiting is the lifeblood of any successful big-time program. And that with the conferences having shaken out the way they have -- and with the Huskies on the outside looking in -- recruiting is more important now than ever. In order for UConn to compete with the big-time conferences it has to out-recruit them in much the same way Hall of Fame coach Jim Calhoun did nearly 30 years ago when he was building the program.

But his successor, Kevin Ollie, has the benefit of some pretty talented players thanks, in part, to the return of Shabazz Napier, Ryan Boatright and DeAndre Daniels for the 2013-14 season. But those players are likely headed to the NBA in a year's time, which means that the 2014 recruiting class will be critical to sustaining any success. Former NC State standout Rodney Purvis has already transferred to UConn and after sitting out next season he'll eligible to suit up in 2014. But beyond that, Ollie knows he has his work cut out for him.

One name now on the radar: Daniel Hamilton, the 6-6 shooting guard from Los Angeles who made his official visit to Storrs last week and came away impressed.

"I can see myself at UConn,” Hamilton told SNY.com afterwards. “Me and Coach Ollie got along real well. I’ve known him since before he was the coach at UConn.”

According to SNY.com, Hamilton ranks 28th in the Rivals 150 for the Class of '14 and he also has scholarship offers from UTEP, USC, UCLA, Arizona, Colorado, UNLV, San Diego State, Washington and Arizona State. He's the younger brother of the Denver Nuggets' Jordan Hamilton. And another brother, Isaac, plays at UTEP.

According to ESPN, UConn has offered 20 high school players scholarships for the 2014 class (three have already committed elsewhere), many of whom are among the best players at their positions in the country.

There has to be a silver lining to the Huskies finding themselves stuck in the American Athletic Conference. Two years ago, UConn was coming off Big East championship and a Fiesta Bowl appearance against Oklahoma. Now, it's unclear what the bowl tie-ins will be for the newly formed AAC, which has serious implications for the Huskies, the football program and, ultimately, its desire to move to a better conference.

According to ESPN Big East blogger Andrea Adelson, while there hasn't been much chatter about future bowl tie-ins, the AAC will have "a radically different bowl picture" than its predecessor. The Pinstripe and Belk Bowls had tie-ins with the Big East but now, according to an ESPN report, the ACC could have its eyes on both.

"Nothing has been solidified yet," ACC commissioner John Swofford told ESPN's Heather Dinich last week. "We spent two days in Charlotte this week with our current bowl partners as well as potential future bowl partners, and with the increased depth and quality of our bowl lineup, I don't think there's any question that our lineup for the future will be enhanced."

The takeaway, from the AAC's perspective: this is bad news. Adelson explains:

The Big East has had a tie-in with the Pinstripe Bowl since it was created a few years ago, though it is less attractive now with Northeast schools Syracuse, Rutgers and Pitt gone to different conferences (Syracuse and Rutgers are the only two Big East teams that have played in the game's three-year history).

The Big East has a tie-in to the Belk Bowl that expires at the end of this season. The ACC also appears to be in position to maintain its tie-in to the Russell Athletic Bowl, but will the AAC?

So this becomes yet another hurdle for newly named conference looking to forge an identify for itself in the face of some pretty stiff competition.

In recent years, much has been made of the quarterback situation, and what -- if anything -- coach Paul Pasqualoni could do about it. The Huskies endured back-to-back 5-7 seasons in no small part because the offense -- and the quarterback -- couldn't put points on the board. Last season, redshirt sophomore Chandler Whitmer showed flashes of potential, but the running game was non-existent and the play calling was suspect.

In the offseason, Pasqualoni hired TJ Weist as the offensive coordinator and he'll be tasked with helping Chandler and this offense get on track. And the Huskies will need to score a ton of points now that one of the nation's best defense has lost players to graduation and the NFL. One area UConn can improve: wide receiver. Michael Smith signed with the Texans as an undrafted free agent last week, but Whitmer's favorite target, Geremy Davis, returns in the fall. He'll be joined by Boston College transfer Shakim Phillips, who showed big-play potential last season.

Details via SNY.com's John Silver:

Davis and Phillips competed for time last year with Davis leading the team with 44 catches and 613 yards while Phillips shook off the rust with 32 catches and 399 yards after coming over as a transfer from Boston College and sitting out a year. Davis earned the No. 1 slot and Phillips showed just enough improvement and promise during the year to put the Huskies’ wide receiver corps with two athletic, big and experienced receivers going into 2013.

Davis is built more like a tight end and can be considered a down-the-seam, middle-of-the-field threat. Phillips, meanwhile, has game-changing ability, it's just a matter of everything coming together on the offense to put him in position to make plays. And that's where Weist comes in. After two years with George DeLeone and one of the least efficient offenses in the nation, the hope is that Weist can find a way to get the ball to his playmakers and let them, well, make plays. That starts with Whitmer and if all goes well, will end with Davis and Phillips making plays in the end zone.

The 2013-14 UConn Huskies will have something last season's team did not: expectations. The NCAA Tournament sanctions will have been lifted, the team will feature a deep, experienced roster, and coach Kevin Ollie will be in his second year on the job after replacing Hall of Famer Jim Calhoun. While the official schedule has yet to be released, Gatorzone.com provides a glimpse of the future and it involves a Florida-UConn matchup in Connecticut on Dec. 2 (though it's not clear if the game will be played at Gampel or the XL Center).

Florida will host Florida State on Nov. 29, the eve of their football rivalry, then three days later play at UConn and All-America candidate Shabazz Napier (pictured) on Dec. 2. UF’s first trip ever to Storrs -- and first game against the Huskies since the 1994 NCAA Tournament -- will be followed by just the second visit to Gainesville for perennial power Kansas on Dec. 10, with the trip to New York and the Jimmy Classic (likely against Memphis, another NCAA team this past season) a week later on Dec. 17.

The Gators made an Elite 8 appearance earlier this spring and will be a top-20 team heading into next season. The Huskies finished 2012-'13 out of the top-25 but almost certainly would have earned an NCAA Tournament berth if not for the APR sanctions.

A return to the Big Dance could be contingent on UConn's non-conference schedule; the newly formed American Athletic Conference isn't the powerhouse the Big East was, which means that the selection committee will consider the entirety of the regular-season schedule when making postseason determinations. Other high-profile out-of-conference games for next season should also include Maryland, Harvard, and the 2K Sports Classic (including Boston College, Washington, Indiana).

It's an annual event for most coaches at big-time college programs: determining if one or more of your underclassmen are NBA-ready. The question goes beyond a simple yes or no; players can have the physical skills to compete with the best players in the world but lack the maturity or mental makeup to handle the fame, fortune or the rigors of an 82-game schedule.

Huskies coach Kevin Ollie, who played 13 years in the NBA for 12 different teams, has been on both sides of this conversation. Recently, he's helped three of you best players -- Shabazz Napier, Ryan Boatright and DeAndre Daniels -- make determinations about their immediate futures. And in all three cases, the players are returning to school.

So, in general, how does Ollie approach a situation in which a player is considering bolting early for the NBA? The Hartford Courant's Dom Amore talked to the Huskies coach earlier this week for the answer.

“First thing I want is kids to come back and get their education,” Ollie told Amore. “It’s not like I want a kid to come back, if they’re ready to go to the NBA. I’m not saying ‘I just want you to come back for my sake.’ If you’re ready and I really think you’re ready -- like Kemba (Walker), after his junior year. I wasn’t the head coach then, but we were all on the same page. That kid was ready because he is able to handle it if he gets drafted by the best team or by the worst team. I keep coming back to that because you’ve got to be able to handle it. You’ve got to be able to handle going down to the D League if that opportunity presents itself, you have to be able to handle that mentally and have that toughness.

“The process is, I want kids to get their degree. I want you to come back. I don’t care if you go to the NBA for five or six years, I want you to come back and get your degree. That’s the only thing I really want."

This news will no doubt make the NCAA happy (you know, the same folks who barred UConn from the 2013 postseason tournament because of low APRs during Jim Calhoun's final years as coach). Either way, Napier, Boatright and Daniels will all be Huskies in 2013-14 and that's great news for Ollie and the program.

“I want everybody to be together," the coach said. "We’ve got a great team coming back, but there are going to be some ups and downs, where guys can start pointing fingers at each other. I want them to all stay in the process where UConn is No. 1. We’re going to try to make the UConn brand better and, as individuals,  they will get their accolades coming from our team hopefully winning a lot of games.”

Good news: the Huskies had five players drafted last weekend -- a school record -- and another two signed as undrafted free agents.

Bad news: in two seasons under Paul Pasqualoni, UConn has had back-to-back 5-7 seasons, and while athletic director Warde Manuel may support the coach (at least for one more season), the fan base remains skeptical. But there are reasons for optimism, starting with Pasqualoni's decision to strip George DeLeone of offensive coordinator/playcalling duties and hire TJ Weist to fill that role.

Still, from the perspective of May, the Huskies have a lot of work to do on both sides of the ball. And that, along with the 10-14 record, explains the post-spring practice rankings courtesy of ESPN.com's Big East blog.

Not surprisingly, Louisville and Teddy Bridgewater are No. 1, and Cincinnati is No. 2, but you'd have to scroll down the page to the eighth spot to find UConn. Just below new member SMU and above Temple and Memphis. Not exactly a who's who of college football powerhouses.

Here's what ESPN.com's Andrea Adelson had to say about the Huskies at No. 8: "The Huskies dropped another spot because there are more questions on this team than just about any in the league. Will the offensive line be better? Will Chandler Whitmer improve? Where is the depth at running back? And how does the defense deal with losing four NFL picks?"

In Pasqualoni's first two years, the biggest issues were on offense. The defense, led by Don Brown, was one of the best unit's in the country. Now, however, UConn has lost both starting corners (Dwayne Gratz, Blidi Wreh-Wilson), and it's heart-and-soul linebacker (Sio Moore), not to mention Brown, who took the defensive coordinator job at Boston College.

Offensively, Whitmer enters his second year but it will be with a new offensive coordinator (Weist almost certainly will be an improvement over DeLeone, but there's still the issue of having to learn a new scheme). But the hope is that running back Lyle McCombs will have a bounce-back year after a forgettable sophomore season, and that the young, unproven wide receivers will step up.

The bottom line: there are a lot of "ifs," and it's perfectly reasonable for the media to have low expectations for the 2013 Huskies. That said, Manuel probably won't be happy about another 5-7 season, which means that Pasqualoni will have to do his best coaching job yet.

On Monday, NBA player Jason Collins became the first male professional athlete in this country to come out as gay. The revelation was widely embraced by people from all walks of life, inside and outside the sporting world. Collins' decision could pave the way for other athletes to do the same.

UConn coach Kevin Ollie played with Collins in Minnesota during the 2008-09 season and shortly after Collins' announcement, Ollie offered these thoughts.

“I imagine it will impact other people’s decisions,” Ollie told the Hartford Courant's Dom Amore, “if you have one person come out, it helps other people who might have a question in their mind -- should I go out or should I cover it up? -- to live their life and be who they are. You can’t live a double life. If this gives other athletes an opportunity to come out, I think that’s a good thing.  

 “… I have no idea [how it will be received in the NBA]. There’s probably going to be some resentment [at first], like with anything else. When Magic Johnson came out with the [HIV], people just didn’t know, there were people saying ‘I don’t want to play with Magic.’ But once everybody understood, once you got all the feedback, you got all the opinions out of the way and you really looked at him as a person, he became accepted. Hopefully this shall pass and we accept it as, ‘everybody has their right to their opinion and how they live their life.’”

Earlier this month, the first overall pick in the WNBA Draft, Brittney Griner, formerly of Baylor, acknowledged that she was a lesbian.

“It’s just being who you are,” Griner told SI.com at the time. “Don’t worry about what other people are going to say, because they’re always going to say something, but, if you’re just true to yourself, let that shine through. Don’t hide who you really are.”

A year ago, UConn's program was in upheaval. Jeremy Lamb and Andre Drummond were leaving for the NBA, and Roscoe Smith and Alex Oriakhi had transferred. Then there were the impending NCAA sanctions and the uncertainty surrounding Jim Calhoun's future as coach. Now Kevin Ollie has things back on track, even with the Big East being repurposed as the American Athletic Conference.

In fact, there's every reason to expect the 2013-14 Huskies to return to the NCAA Tournament (they would've qualified last March if not for the aforementioned sanctions) and a large par of that is due to the return of three of their best players: Shabazz Napier, Ryan Boatright and DeAndre Daniels.

Napier announced the news last week but the decision to return was a foregone conclusion to his teammates.

“I knew he was coming back," Boatright said via the Hartford Courant's Dom Amore. "Shabazz is Shabazz, but I’ve been around him long enough, I know how to read him.”

Niels Giffey echoed those sentiments: “I knew he was coming back. You live with these guys, you know what’ s going on.”

Daniels, the lithe 6-8 forward with range, had become a favorite of NBA scouts late last season because his game would translate well to the next level. Still, the sophomore thought it was in his best interest to return to Storrs for at least another year.

“I sat down with my family and we decided the best thing was for me to stay here and get better,” Daniels told Amore. “Get better as a player, better as a person and get a step closer to  getting my degree.”

Boatright, meanwhile, admitted to being disappointed that he wasn't NBA-ready, but also acknowledged coming back for another year was in everyone's best interest.

“It was tough,” he said, “I really had my mind set on going, that’s what I really worked for this year. … But I didn’t want to put myself in a harder situation than it’s got to be. It’s not like I’m a senior and I’ve got to go. I had the opportunity to come back and make it a better situation. …

“I pretty much heard the same thing from everybody,” Boatright continued. “It’s a little different coming from the coaches because obviously they want you to come back, but Coach Ollie had the best interests at heart for me. He told me the best decision was for me to come back, and I took that, I took it back to my mom and we made the decision.”

And now the Huskies go from being a young, inexperienced team in 2012-13 to a veteran group with plenty to prove in 2013-14.

Huskies coach Paul Pasqualoni knows his players as well as anybody. And as such, he's more qualified than most to talk about them. All told, seven players signed NFL contracts over the weekend; five were drafted -- CB Dwayne Gratz (Jacksonville), LB Sio Moore (Oakland) and CB Blidi Wreh-Wilson (Tennessee) all in Round 3; LB Trevardo Williams in Round 4 and TE Ryan Griffin in Round 6 (both to Houston) -- and two signed as undrafted free agents -- WR Mike Smith (Houston) and WR/KR Nick Williams (Washington).

"I thought the draft went good for our guys and I liked the fit for each of the guys," Pasqualoni said via the Hartford Courant's Desmond Conner. "I think Sio being out with Oakland, they're a little bit more of a 3-4 team, so there's things that he can do ... rush the passer on third down. I like the fit for Trevardo a lot down in Houston. They'll make him a 3-4 outside linebacker so he'll be in a two-point stance on first and second down, which we tried to do a little bit here, and on third down he'll put his hand down ... and rush the passer.

"Brian Pariani, the tight ends coach [with the Texans], liked the flexibility and how many different things Ryan Griffin did here as a tight end. He played the regular tight end spot, he played the fullback spot and he played the wide receiver spot, which are all the things in [coach Gary Kubiaks's] system that the tight ends have got to be able to do. The terminology will be different, but the concepts will all be the same.

"Nick Williams getting a chance with the Redskins as a returner and slot receiver, I think that's good. I think Mike Smith [also with the Texans] getting an opportunity is good as well. I like the fit for Blidi; the Titans are more of a man-to-man, bump-and-run team. That's what they want to do. I think that's Blidi's strong suit. Jacksonville wants a mixed zone along with some man, and I think that's what Gratz does well."

UConn set a school record for the number of players drafted. More than that, it sends a signal that Pasqualoni can help players get where they want -- ultimately, the NFL.

"On the NFL Network and ESPN, I think it really sent a message that UConn was very strong," Pasqualoni said. "I think the timing of it, with respect to recruiting, is very good. We've got our camps coming up soon as well. ... The culture of the program and the approach to football hopefully will be something people in the NFL will notice and have a high level of respect for."

Now the Huskies need to find a way to take these talented players and win. In Pasqualoni first two years, UConn has finished 5-7.

It's hard to believe that we're even having this conversation but such is the nature of non-stop conference realignment, especially when the Huskies have been on the outside looking in throughout the nearly two-year-long process. Instead of graduating to the greener pastures of the ACC, UConn has been the odd man out. By the time the dust settled, the conference formerly known as the Big East had been renamed the American Athletic Conference and the Huskies were the only original member remaining.

And there's a chance, thanks to a recently signed grants-of-rights deal signed by the current ACC members, that UConn will be stuck in the American Athletic Conference for the foreseeable future. And as such, fans are left wondering what it all means. Like, does the AAC have automatic bids to the NCAA Tournament? Seems silly in light of how things worked in the Big East but, well, things have changed -- rapidly -- and it's now a legit question.

But there's some good news, via the Hartford Courant's Dom Amore:

"The American Athletic Conference, AAC or Americon, will have an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. It has a new name, but as far as the NCAA is concerned, it is  the old Big East and inherits that slot, with all the automatic bids in all sports. The “new Big East,” the league with the non-football playing schools, et al, is the new entity. It will have automatic bids, too, but has to go through a process of applying for them. So for UConn, nothing changes as far as automatic tournament bids.

"The XL Center, I have been told, is working on a proposal to host the AAC men’s Tournament. I would think its chances are fairly good, so long as UConn is staying in the league. This league does not have a natural 'capital,' like New York and MSG were, so the process of locating the league tournament will not be as cut and dry. It is likely to be rotated, and cities like Memphis, Orlando, Dallas, Houston, Philadelphia, Tampa, that have NBA-caliber arenas are also viable sites and I am sure some of them will make bids, also. But I would guess Hartford is as good a place as any to have the tournament, it would probably draw well because of UConn, so if it doesn’t happen this coming season, I have to believe it will come here eventually."

With Shabazz Napier returning to UConn for his senior season, automatic conference bids should be irrelevant to the Huskies, a team that should be stacked next season. That said, automatic bids are as much about conference prestige as they are about an open path to the Big Dance. Whether the Americon can become a player on the national stage is another matter. For now, the Huskies don't have many (any?) options -- other than compete and win.

The 2013 NFL Draft is officially in the books and the Huskies set a school record: five players were taken over the three-day event in Radio City Music Hall: CB Dwayne Gratz (selected by the Jaguars), LB Sio Moore (Raiders) and CB Blidi Wreh-Wilson (Titans) all went in the third round; LB Trevardo Williams (Texans) went a round later, and TE Ryan Griffin (Texans) heard his name called in Round 6.

But that wasn't it for former UConn players. WR Mike Smith also signed with the Texans as an undrafted free agent. According to the Hartford Courant's Desmond Conner, Smith originally got a call from the Texans late Saturday as the draft was wrapping up.

“[Texans receivers coach Larry Kirksey] called me about the sixth round … and he was telling me they were really interested in me and stuff like that,” Smith told Conner. “They told me they wouldn’t be able to draft me because they didn’t have a seventh round pick but that they wanted to sign me immediately after the draft if I didn’t sign anywhere else or get drafted.

“I’m going to get a great chance to go out there and do what I’ve got to do, impress these coaches. Coach Kirksey likes me so i have to go in there and do what I’ve got to do. It doesn’t matter who is in front of me. I’m going to go in there work. You can’t go in there star-struck like ‘oh man there’s this guy or that guy’ when you’re trying to make a team you can’t have that type of mindset. You have to go out there and eat just like everybody else.” 

The Texans headed into the draft with needs at wide receiver. Three days later, the depth chart looks like this: Perennial Pro Bowler Andre Johnson, just-drafted second-rounder DeAndre Hopkins out of Clemson -- and the Nos. 3 and 4 receivers yet to be determined. Which is good news for Smith.

It doesn't hurt that former UConn teammates Williams and Griffin will be in Houston, too.

“I talked to Trevardo after the draft I said," Smith told Conner. "‘Trevardo guess who just signed with the Texans?' When I told him he was like, ‘shut up!’ he couldn’t believe it. I haven’t talked to Griff yet but I’m going to be pretty excited to see him down here, too.”

Shabazz Napier is one of the stars of UConn's men's basketball team and Husky fans have been waiting to see if he would return to UConn for his senior year or declare for the NBA draft.

The wait is over. He will stay.

The team was ineligible to play in the post-season, when the team will be eligible. 

“After many days of figuring out what decision was best for my family and me, I have decided to remain at UConn for my senior year,” Napier, of Roxbury, Massachusetts, said. “I am very much looking forward to getting closer to receiving my college degree, as well as becoming a stronger leader for my teammates on and off the court.”

Napier, who led the Huskies to a 20-10 record last year, announced the decision on Friday morning.

“I think Shabazz’s decision is great for him and great for the university,” UConn head coach Kevin Ollie said in a statement. “I believe that first and foremost, it will give him a chance to earn his degree, which is something I know he’ll really cherish.

Napier has been a force for UConn since his freshman year, when the Huskies unexpectedly won a national title and he is looking forward to next season and the chance for another tournament. 

“We think we have a great team for next season,” Napier said, “and we’re excited about playing for a conference championship and in the NCAA Tournament.”

Sophomore guard Ryan Boatright, of Aurora, Illinois, and sophomore forward DeAndre Daniels, of Los Angeles, also told the coaching staff that they plan to remain in school as well.

“I’m pleased that all three of them will continue their education next year and their development as young men,” Ollie said. “As far as basketball is concerned, all of them improved last season and I expect that to continue through next year. We’re all looking forward to what’s ahead of us.” 
 

The Big East might have a new name and new members but the reality remains unchanged for UConn: they'd like out, preferably as soon as possible. The ACC makes a lot of sense -- the conference has had on-again, off-again interest in the Huskies for some time -- but Louisville got the nod last year leaving UConn in hurry-up-and-wait mode while the Big East rebranded itself the American Athletic Conference.

But with all the conference reshuffling, UConn is never that far from bettering their situation -- at least until recently when the ACC just made it a lot more difficult for members to bolt. According to Sporting News' Mike DeCourcy, 15 current ACC members will announce a grant of rights deal keeping them in the conference through the ESPN television contract which expires in 2026-27.

"This announcement further highlights the continued solidarity and commitment by our member institutions," ACC Commissioner John Swofford said via DeCourcy. "The Council of Presidents has shown tremendous leadership in insuring the ACC is extremely well positioned with unlimited potential."

The problem for UConn? Well, Maryland left the ACC for the Big Ten, which left an opening. UConn and Louisville were the finalists for the spot and the Cardinals ultimately landed it. Conventional wisdom is that should another school be lured from the ACC to, say, the Big Ten, the Huskies would be in line to replace them. Except now, that will be virtually impossible because of the aforementioned grant of rights deal.

"It's not certain whether this will end the realignment process," DeCourcy writes. "The SEC (14 members), Big Ten (14) and ACC (15) still have relatively asymmetrical membership numbers that might lead one or all into the market for changes. But with several conferences having GOR agreements in place, it will be tougher to get schools to move."

DeCourcy then asks the question athletic director Warde Manuel doesn't even want to consider: "UConn and Cincinnati might be waiting by the phone, but who's gonna call?"

And that could be a huge problem for UConn's athletic future.

The NFL Draft begins Thursday at 8 p.m., which means that for a handful of former UConn players, their lives are about to change. The mystery remains -- who will go where and when -- but the uncertainty hasn't slowed the speculation.

With a day until then proceedings officially get underway, the consensus goes something like this: Blidi Wreh-Wilson is one of the best cornerbacks in the country, linebacker Sio Moore has seen his stock rise since the Senior Bowl, and CB Dwayne Gratz and DE/OLB Trevardo Williams should expect to hear their names called at some point in the later rounds.

But what the media reports doesn't necessarily mesh with how NFL teams are actually feeling about these players; that's part of the cat-and-mouse game this time of year. There's no benefit for an organization tipping its hand so obfuscation rules. That said, we can still get an overall sense for how teams feel about some of these players thanks to NFL Network draft expert Mike Mayock, whose thoughts often mirror those of the organizations he covers.

Which brings us to Dwayne Gratz. Here's what Mayock said about the "other" UConn cornerback last week.

"Gratz is kind of an intriguing guy. He's long, has some size, and he ran better than people think," Mayock said during a conference call with reporters. "He ran 4.47 I had him at the combine. Teams are talking about whether or not he should be a safety, because he tackles. You know, UConn's got two corners, Blidi Wreh-Wilson was supposed to be the more gifted kid on one side, and the Gratz kid on the other. I'm sensing more momentum towards Gratz. I've got him in my third round. He tackles, he competes, he's long, and he ran better than people thought. So there is no way he gets out of third round."

And this is a perfect example of how perception doesn't always match reality. Wreh-Wilson has garnered more attention because of his size and speed but we thought Gratz had a better senior season and, honestly, we wouldn't be surprised if he went as high as Round 2.

Which, incidentally, is how Mayock feels about Moore, too.

"The guy that's moved up the most from the end of the season is probably Sio Moore, the linebacker from Connecticut," Mayock said. "He was kind of a fifth or sixth round consideration in most people's eyes, had a great week in the East-West game and has continued to ascend since then. I think he's going to be a late second round to early third round pick."

The good news: by Saturday night we won't have to guess.

When Rodney Purvis announced earlier this month that he was transferring from NC State after just one season, the initial reaction was shock. That was quickly replaced with curiosity since a year ago during the recruiting process Purvis considered UConn his second choice behind the Wolfpack.

Curiosity turned to certainty when Purvis made the announcement that the Huskies would be his next team and now all that's left to do is wait; per NCAA rules Purvis will have to sit out a season before competing on Kevin Ollie's squad. Last week Ollie, who has three recruits coming to Storrs for the Class of 2013, spoke about what the addition of Purvis could mean.

"It definitely makes us feel good that he chose UConn to further his career in our program," Ollie said via the Hartford Courant. "With all the different things we went through last year, people transferring out of here, [that] they're coming to us means we're doing something good. People are still gravitating toward us and our program. [Purvis] is going to have a great time, I really believe that."

It's a good point; Alex Oriahki and Roscoe Smith transferred last spring, leaving the Huskies with little experience outside of Shabazz Napier. Now, with the NCAA sanctions in the rearview, UConn is poised to regain it's place among the nation's best programs. And part of that includes Purvis, who left NC State because he didn't see eye to eye with coach Mark Gottfried, something Ollie was asked about.

"I have no concerns, no issues," the coach said. "It's a change for him, a new lease on life for him and his basketball career. I don't know what happened with their staff. I have nothing but great things to say about Mark Gottfried — he recruited me for UCLA, so I know what type of man he is. ... Sometimes, it just doesn't work out, it's just not the right choice at that time. I told Rodney, it's not to destroy his dream, it's just delayed. Hopefully he comes in rejuvenated, hopefully he likes the style of play we incorporate and can flourish on the basketball court. Our staff is going to make him work, we're going to challenge him in every area of his life."

We've heard plenty about incoming freshmen Kentan Facey and Terrence Samuel, the big man and point guard headed to UConn this summer as part of the 2013 recruiting class. But now there's a third member of the group: 6-11 center Amida Brimah out of Miami, Florida who made it official Monday when he signed his letter of intent.

Brimah committed to Kevin Ollie's program back in January after visiting Storrs. Brimah, like Facey, is a relative newcomer to basketball. Born in Ghana, he played soccer for most of his life and didn't take up organized basketball until several years ago. Either way, Ollie was ecstatic about the addition.

“Amida was one of the most passionate basketball players I saw during the entire recruiting period, and I fell in love with his passion for the game,” the coach said according to the Hartford Courant. “He showed leadership both on and off the court, and then he was the best player in the game.”

Brimah may arrive in Storrs short on experience but the potential is clearly there. As a senior at Archbishop Carroll in Miami, he averaged 16 points, 11.7 rebounds and 7.2 blocks per game. He also shot 68 percent from the field.

“We think Amida can be another in the long line of outstanding UConn big men,” Ollie continued. “He’s a terrific shot-blocker and rebounder. He’s obviously got to get stronger, but he’s got a chance to make an impact right away. I love the fact that he is dying to get up here this summer.

“With Amida joining Kentan and Terrence, we think we have three new players coming in who can all help us,” Ollie said. “What I like best is they each have a relentless motor that just keeps going. They are excited to play basketball.”

As expected, Brittney Griner, Elena Delle Donne and Skylar Diggins were the first three players selected in the 2013 WNBA Draft on Monday night in Bristol, Connecticut. Former Huskies standout Kelly Faris would hear her name called eight picks later when the Connecticut Sun took her 11th overall.

On Monday, we wrote that the Sun could be a potential landing spot, and hours later that's exactly what happened. Not surprisingly, Faris is embracing the opportunity.

“To be honest, I am so excited to be coming back to Connecticut,” she said via the Hartford Courant. “I wasn’t really ready to leave anyway. I’ve built a strong foundation here with so much support. I couldn’t be happier to stay here.” 

Sun general manager Chris Sienko has followed Faris' college career closely and knows what she brings to the court.

 “Being fortunate enough to watch her over the last four years, knowing what she can contribute, she will be a great asset to the team,” Sienko said.

And now Faris joins a Sun team with three former Huskies on the roster: Renee Montgomery, Tina Charles and Kalana Greene. 

“That will be an amazing experience for me,” Faris said of playing her freshman season with Charles and Greene on UConn's national championship team. “It’s a great opportunity to be back with UConn players. I was hoping that would be the case. We have a common bond and mindset.”

 As for the draft experience, which Faris attended in person, she said "I was just waiting to hear my name and the sigh of relief. My heart was beating out of my chest. I am so happy Connecticut decided to show their faith and trust in me. I’m glad I am going to have this family behind me.”

UConn officially unveiled the new logo for the school's athletic teams on Thursday.

UConn promised Jonathan the Husky would be more intimidating, than the grinning, tongue wagging face that has been the school's logo for nearly 20 years.

The other change includes the use of "UCONN" across the front of every uniform worn by every team, according to UConn's website. The decision to use "UCONN" on the uniforms is in line with the school's change in branding for the entire university. Last week, president Susan Herbst announced the university was officially rebranding itself as UConn, rather than the University of Connecticut.

Unlike men's basketball, where the professional draft isn't until late May, there's very little time between the end of the season and the WBNA Draft for the women. And for senior Kelly Faris, who is a week removed from her second national title in her four years at UConn, this means she'll be sitting in Bristol, Conn. on Monday night with the very real chance to hear her name called in the first round.

"When I look at Kelly Faris, I think of how Sue Bird and Lindsay Whalen flourished in the league," said Indiana Fever coach Lin Dunn, via the Hartford Courant's John Altavilla. "They are both tough and physical. There was some question about their foot speed when they came into the league, too. But Faris is much more athletic than you might think."

One WNBA insider told Altavilla that Faris could go to the Fever at No. 9 or the Connecticut Sun two picks later. Worth noting: Faris grew up in Indiana and played collegiately at UConn, so both destinations make a lot of sense.

"I think Kelly is an intriguing player, definitely an overachiever, a blue-collar kid, which I love," Sun coach Anne Donovan said. "She is the type of player that will embrace any big goal that you put in front of her and take care of it."

"It will be interesting for me to see which training camp she ends up in," Donovan continued. "The rosters are so tight with just 11 players and it is critical that she ends up in a place that has a need for a great competitor and all-around utility player like her."

The fun starts at 8 p.m. ET Monday on ESPN where Brittney Griner, Elena Delle Done and Skylar Diggins are expected to be the first three players chosen.

For as exciting and unexpected as 2012-13 was under Kevin Ollie, the reality is that the true test of what this Huskies team can do will come next season. They'll be again eligible for the NCAA Tournament and the underdog role won't really apply. It will also be the first year Ollie will have his own recruits, too, which could go a long way in determining how successful the '13-'14 season is.

Which brings us to Terrence Samuel and Kentan Facey, two high school seniors who will be in Storrs next fall, and who also happened to play together at Jordan Brand Regional Game at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn Saturday night.

"This is my favorite point guard right here," Facey said of Samuel (via the Hartford Courant's Dom Amore).

Samuel was happy to return the compliment.

"There are a lot of things I like about playing with Kentan," he said. "One of them is that he can run the floor, so if we're on the break I know he's right behind me. We're great on screens, on the pick and roll, and on the 'pick-and-pop' -- he has the range to step out and make a jump shot."

Samuel is the ball handler and Facey is the 6-9 big man. Together, they will be counted on to add depth to UConn's back and frontcourt, respectively. But like most things, the transition from high school to college will be a process.

Facey is going to have to get better offensively," said Joe Arbitello, who both plays during the exhibition and also coached Omar Calhoun at Christ the King High. "But there are things he can do that you just can't teach, the way he goes after rebounds — in traffic. He came up big tonight and they had some guys who are humongous. I think Kevin Ollie is going to do an outstanding job with them — I saw Omar's growth during the course of the year. Terrence is pure point guard, and you don't see many of those guys walking around. He'll make the pass that leads to the pass, and a lot of point guards have forgotten about that."

Geno Auriemma has his favorites and Kelly Faris certainly qualifies. Back in January, the coach made a case for his senior as an All-American candidate

“It goes way beyond the numbers," Auriemma said at the time. "Some people just impact the game in such a way that the numbers only tell not even half the story. That’s what Kelly is.”

And after the Huskies won their eighth national title under Auriemma, the coach remained effusive in his praise of Faris.

"She deserves this championship because she competes for a national championship every day in everything she does," he said. "I'm really, really happy for her."

And Auriemma can continue to be happy for Faris because now she's headed to the WNBA Draft. According to SNY.com's Carl Adamec, Faris, along with 10 other top college seniors, is headed to ESPN headquarters in Bristol, CT for the draft.

Other invitees include: Alex Bentley (Penn State), Kelsey Bone (Texas A&M), Elena Delle Donne (Delaware), Skylar Diggins (Notre Dame), Brittney Griner (Baylor), Tianna Hawkins (Maryland), Tayler Hill (Ohio State), Lindsey Moore (Nebraska), Sugar Rodgers (Georgetown), and Toni Young (Oklahoma State).

Griner, Dell Donne and Diggins are expected to be the top three selections.

Faris' list of accomplishments at UConn are long and distinguished. Details via Adamec:

The Plainfield, Ind., native was named to the all-Big East second team, the Big East Defensive Player of the Year, and shared the Big East Most Improved Player award with DePaul’s Brittany Hrynko. She was an Associated Press honorable mention All-American pick.

She was also chosen to the NCAA Bridgeport Regional all-tournament team as well as the all-Final Four team. In Tuesday’s 93-60 win over Louisville at New Orleans Arena, she had 16 points, nine rebounds, and six assists to go along with a solid defensive effort against Cardinals’ leading scorer Shoni Schimmel.

Faris finished her college career 34th at UConn in scoring (1,109 points), 11th in rebounds (821), sixth in assists (545), and fifth in steals (294). The only other UConn player to end their career with 1,000 points, 750 rebounds, 500 assists, and 250 steals is three-time Wade Trophy winner Maya Moore.

Former UConn great Maya Moore was the first-overall pick in 2011, and Tiffany Hayes was a second-rounder a year ago.

On Sunday, UConn fans cheered the national championship women's basketball team at the victory parade.

It kicked off in Hartford at 4 p.m.

The parade began and ended at the State Capitol, followed by a rally on the north steps of the Capitol building.

PARADE MAP

"The UConn women have once again focused the spotlight of college basketball on Connecticut by bringing home another national championship and proving to the nation why the road to the Final Four always runs through Connecticut," Govenor Malloy said in a statement.

The Hartford Business Improvement District, which is the host of the parade, will rely on private donations to fund the event.

Things didn't go exactly as planned, but after a two-month period of self discovery during the middle of the season, freshman forward Breanna Stewart is -- to borrow insights from former NFL coach Denny Green -- exactly who we thought she was. And she didn't let Louisville (or Notre Dame before them) off the hook.

And now she heads into the offseason with expectations ratcheted up several notches above the already-otherworldly level that greeted her when she arrived on campus. It's just that now, with her confidence -- and game -- fully intact, Stewart seems fully capable of handling it.

"I just think I played really confident and stopped thinking," Stewart told ESPN's Rebecca Lobo after the game. "When I second-guess myself nothing good comes out of that."

UConn associate coach Chris Dailey said echoed those sentiments Tuesday night.

"Young players can sometimes get liked and respected confused," Dailey told SI.com's Richard Deitsch. "While everyone wants to be liked, when you are on the court you want to be respected for how hard you work and what you are willing to do for the team. I think she felt a responsibility to the older players and that's what bothered her the most. I don't think she cares what the media writes about her or what people say. I think she thought she was letting her team down."

And Geno Auriemma, whose coaching genius can sometimes be obscured by his courtside bluster, understands how far his star freshman has come.

"She's really, really innocent and in so many ways," he said. "She has a little kid's attitude towards everything that happens. She sees the fun and the joy in everything, and that's why I'm really thrilled for her because there were times this year where all that went away, and I was really worried about her. She got it back and she got it back just in time, and here we are."

"Got it back" might be an understatement; Stewart scorched Notre Dame for 29 points in the Final Four, and followed that up with a 23-point effort Tuesday, with 18 points coming in the first half. It was good enough to be named Most Outstanding Player honors, only the fourth time in NCAA history a freshman has won the honor.

"She has so much potential and to see her max it out at the right time was really fun," Maya Moore, one of the best players ever to come through UConn, told Deitsch. "I'm excited to see her add things to her game. She is pretty unique. She can do things on the perimeter and not look awkward. Her offensive competence was fun to watch."

Kelly Faris began her UConn career with a national title and now, three years later, that's how it ends. In between: two Final Four appearances. All in all, not a bad run for a player who is obviously one of Geno Auriemma's favorites.

"She deserves this championship because she competes for a national championship every day in everything she does," the coach said of Faris Tuesday night after the Huskies rolled to a 93-60 win over Louisville. "I'm really, really happy for her."

But true to form, Faris' competitive nature always leaves her wanting more.

“It would have been nice to win the other two,” she said while fighting back a smile (via SNY.com). “But, man, I don’t even know what to say but thank you to everyone that was a part of it. My teammates? I’m so proud of them. I know a lot of people on the outside don’t know what they did for us. They did an amazing job.”

Faris scored 16 points in her final game, adding nine rebounds and six assists. It was a fitting end to a fantastic senior season, and one that, six weeks ago, Auriemma promised would end in a shot at a national title.

"The trick for us is to try to reward every senior who deserves it with a national championship,” Auriemma said. “When we recruit them, we tell them that is what is going to happen when you come to Connecticut. And the pressure is all on me. The pressure is on my coaching staff, that we need to get them to this point where we are right now. That is our job. And some players, quite frankly, don’t deserve it, because maybe they don’t put the time and effort in and they don’t work as hard. ...

"Morning to night, there is not a day that goes by that she is not winning a national championship in her mind with her sacrifice and her hard work and what she is doing. That is all she thinks about every single day."

Maya Moore, the Minnesota Lynx star and one of the best players to come through UConn concurred.

“I remember sitting on that podium next to Kelly after we lost to Notre Dame (in 2011),” Moore said. “To see her go out as a champion and the way they did it, it was unbelievable.”

Not a bad run for Faris who, since high school, has been apart of six championship teams.

“It never gets old. Are you kidding me?” Faris said. “I told (assistant coach) Shea (Ralph) I wish I could do this for four more years here. That’s something you can’t take for granted. Ten years down the road it will mean that much more when I think back about it. I would love to keep doing it.”