UConn Recruit Wins Another Player of the Year Award

To paraphrase Rick Pitino when he coached the Celtics in the mid-'90s, "Maya Moore isn't walking through that door." And for the UConn women's basketball team, that's okay. Unlike Pitino's Celtics, the Huskies have a plan.

At its most basic it includes recruiting the best players in the country and, usually, getting them. Sounds simple. But it's not like Geno Auriemma and his staff just woke up one morning with the ability to sign any high school player they targeted. It's the product of decades of hard work, and those seven national championships don't hurt, either.

We have discussed previously the Huskies' 2011 and 2012 classes, both considered among the nation's best. For incoming freshman Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis, a 6-foot sharpshooter and the top-ranked player in her class, the honors keep piling up.

The latest via the Connecticut Post:

Another national Player of the Year award was recently announced. Again the choice was UConn incoming freshman Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis, from Anaheim, Calif. This time Mosqueda-Lewis was honored by MaxPreps. She has also been recognized by Naismith, the WBCA, Gatorade and Parade Magazine.

Mosqueda-Lewis averaged 22.0 points, 6.1 rebounds, 2.5 assists and 2.6 steals this season in leading Mater Dei (34-1) to its second straight California Interscholastic Federation Division I state championship and a No. 1 national ranking. She set team single-season records in made 3-pointers (116) and free throw shooting percentage (.870).

Not too shabby.

Mosqueda-Lewis will join 5-9 guard Brianna Banks and 6-3 forward/center Kiah Stokes as the part of the 2011 recruiting class. (Three equally talented players have verbally committed for 2012.) And the influx of talent will come in handy because the Huskies have an extremely difficult schedule next season. You get the sense that Auriemma wouldn't want it any other way.

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