Huskies Set To Face Washington

THE GAME - Nov. 24:
The Connecticut Huskies, ranked No. 1 in the country, face the Washington Huskies in only the second meeting between the two teams in the sport of women's basketball. UConn owns a 1-0 lead in the series after defeating the Huskies, 101-81, in Gampel during the 1998-99 season home opener. The home-and-home series was pushed back a season in order for UConn to help christen Washington's renovated Bank of America Arena. The Huskies meet the Huskies in the first women's basketball game ever in the new facility.

ROAD OPENERS:
The west coast swing is UConn's first road trip of the season; the Huskies are now 17-10 in road openers, including the Pepperdine game. However, in the Geno Auriemma era the record stands at 12-4. In fact, it was a road test that provided Auriemma with his first-ever victory as a head coach as he began his career against Iona (11/23/85). In that game, Auriemma guided the Huskies to a 73-67 victory.

UCONN AND THE PAC-10:
UConn holds a 8-4 edge over the Pacific-10 Conference. Three of UConn's four losses came against Stanford, who is the only team in the PAC-10 to hold a winning edge over UConn (3-2).

COAST-TO-COAST:
UConn's coast-to-coast trip from Storrs, CT to Malibu, CA and to Seattle, WA, will be its longest road swing of the year. From Storrs to Malibu it's 2,945.8 miles. The next leg of the West Coast tour up to Seattle is 1,145 miles. Finally, from Seattle back home is another 2978.6 miles. All together, the trip will be 7,069.4 miles. If someone were to drive from place to place it is estimated the total trip would take 119 hours and 20 minutes. That time is 40 minutes shy of exactly five days. TAURASI HOMECOMING Considered by many the top prospect in the country coming out of high school last season, Diana Taurasi (Fr., G/F) got a chance to return to her home state of California. As the Pepperdine campus is just about an hour and a half from her hometown of Chino, CA, many of her friends and family were able to use this as an opportunity to see her play. The rookie finished the night with five rebounds, one assist and two steals. Taurasi on coming home- "It was great fun for me. My high school team was here, which really surprised me. I didn't play as well as I wanted, but I had a great time."

BRONCO BUSTERS:
UConn's Keirsten Walters and UW's Melissa Erickson both attended Heritage High School in Littleton, Co. Erickson graduated a year ahead of Walters. Both still hold a tremendous amount of loyalty to the Rocky Mountain state's Denver Broncos. Walters lists John Elway as her favorite athlete while Erickson cites #7 as the athlete she would most like to meet.

TWIN MEETINGS:
For the second time this season, UConn will have to take on a set of twins, well sort of. Earlier this season, UConn defeated Georgia, 99-70, as the Bulldogs boast the duo of Coco and Kelly Miller. Washington head coach June Daugherty and husband Mike, have four-year-old twins.

RANKED FROM THE START:
Since 1990-91, the Huskies have been ranked nationally at the start of the season. UConn earned the AP No. 1 spot at the beginning of the 1995-96 season, the 1999-2000 season and at the start of this season. UConn's lowest preseason ranking over the last 10 years was No. 24 by the AP in 1990-91. Since an AP ranking of No. 4 to start 1994-95, the Huskies have not opened the year lower than No. 6 (1997-98).

TRUE INCUMBENTS:
Including the week of 11/20, the Huskies have been nationally ranked in the Top 25 for 134 consecutive polls dating back to November 23, 1993 (seven seasons). UConn has been ranked No. 1 in the polls since preseason of 1999 making their stay 22 consecutive weeks at the top; a school record for consecutive rankings.

EARLY GAMERS:
By 19 hours, the Nov. 12 start for UConn was the earliest tip-off to a UConn women's basketball season in school history. The closest to it was the 1998-99 season when Connecticut and Duke squared off against one another on Nov. 13 in the Four in the Fall Classic in San Jose, CA. The Georgia game start time was 4 p.m. ET, the 1998-99 UConn-Duke game started at 6 p.m. PT.

WIRE-TO-WIRE-TO-WIRE?:
UConn's remarkable journey to the national championship in 1999-2000 started with a preseason No. 1 ranking and ended with the same. The hype currently surrounding this year's squad expects nothing less than a repeat. LaTech is the only school in history to hold the No. 1 spot for two consecutive seasons, 1980-82, when they also won back-to-back championships. The last time a team was ranked wire-to-wire was Tennessee in 1997-98. Prior to that season, Texas was ranked No. 1 all through the 1985-86 season. (AP Rankings).

HEAD COACH GENO AURIEMMA:
Head Coach Geno Auriemma heads into his 16th season at the helm for the Huskies. Entering the Washington game, he is 395-95 (.805) overall in his career, and has two national championships at Connecticut (1995,2000). Auriemma is third among active Division I coaches in winning percentage. He was also the first Division I coach (men or women) in basketball history to earn five consecutive 30-plus winning seasons. Auriemma has taken UConn to the 1995 and 2000 National Championship, four Final Four appearances, seven Elite Eights and eight Sweet Sixteen games. During his tenure, the team has also won 10 regular season BIG EAST titles and nine league tournament championships, including the last seven consecutive titles in each regular season and postseason.

HUSKIES HANDLE ELITE TEAMS:
The Huskies ended the Georgia game 38-9 overall versus ranked opponents over the past five seasons and are now 19-8 versus Top 10 opponents in that span. All-time, UConn is now 54-28 versus ranked teams and 26-17 against Top 10-ranked teams. The Huskies finished the 1999-2000 season 16-1 versus ranked opponents and an astounding 10-1 vs. Top 10 foes. Four of the nine occasions that the Huskies reached the century mark in 1999-2000 were against ranked teams. UConn boasted an average margin of victory of 20.0 points over ranked opponents (and a margin of defeat of 1.0 points).

NO. 1 UCONN TOPS PEPPERDINE:
MALIBU, CA (AP) - Svetlana Abrosimova scored 16 points and Swin Cash added 13 points and seven rebounds as No. 1 Connecticut took control early and beat Pepperdine, 98-63, Tuesday night.

The Huskies (2-0) scored the first eight points.

UConn reserve Tamika Williams scored 15 points in her 14 minutes of play, Shea Ralph added 13 points, and Asjha Jones had 12. Nadja Morgan led Pepperdine (2-2) with 11 points. Abrosimova scored six points in the first five minutes. Then, with coach Geno Auriemma substituting often, Williams scored six points in a row and Jones came in and scored six more as UConn opened a 29-15 gap with 8:33 remaining in the first half. Cash scored 10 first-half points and had five rebounds. Dominating the scrappy Waves in every aspect of the game, the Huskies shot 58 percent for the floor to Pepperdine's 37 percent. The Huskies who have their top eight scorers back from their 1999-2000 national championship season, were coming off a 99-70 rout of then-No. 3 Georgia in their season opener.

IT'S SVET'S TURN:
Senior two-time All-American Svetlana Abrosimova has opened the year with a bang. The forward scored a game-high 18 points, dished a game and career-high 11 assists, and grabbed a total of seven rebounds, all without a turnover, en route to being named the ESPN/Tip-Off Player of the Game in UConn's season opener versus Georgia. Versus Pepperdine, her performance didn't miss a beat scoring a game-high 16 points on 6-of-7 shooting and adding three assists, four rebounds and five steals. Abrosimova's season turnover totals have dropped steadily since her freshman year, and only three times in her career did she finish a game with no turnovers, including the Georgia game. So far on the season, Svet has only one turnover in 52 minutes of play.

RALPH OFF TO HIGH PERCENTAGE START:
After shooting a career-high .624 field goal percentage last season (second in BIG EAST), senior All-American Shea Ralph is off to a strong start going 8-for-10 from the field versus then-No. 3 Georgia and Pepperdine. Shea was a perfect 4-for-4 versus Georgia.

STEADY FLOW OF CASH:
Swin Cash has been UConn's most consistent player on the boards. The junior forward leads the team with 17 total rebounds (8.5 rpg) after pulling down 10 versus Georgia and seven against the Waves. Cash opened the year with her seventh career double-double over then-No. 3 Georgia and finished with 13 points, two blocks and two assists versus Pepperdine. Cash, a starter at forward, is also averaging the second most minutes per game on the team (26.5 mpg).

AID FROM ASJHA:
Asjha Jones started her first game of the regular season, and first since her freshman year, against Pepperdine Tuesday night. She is currently fifth in scoring for the Huskies and the fifth to average double-figures (10.0 ppg). Jones, usually a reserve player, stepped into the starting lineup when Schumacher was sidelined. Jones finished the Pepperdine game with 12 points, six rebounds, two assists and two blocks. She scored six consecutive points in the opening of the second half to give the Huskies an offensive boost.

WILLIAMS ON THE MOVE:
Tamika Williams picked up from where she left off last year with a stellar 7-for-7 shooting performance versus Pepperdine. The junior forward led the league last season with a .714 clip (115-161) and is currently shooting 12-of-16 in two games (.750) to lead the post players (Ralph is at .800). Williams scored a season high 15 points versus Pepperdine.

THE BLOCK PARTY CONTINUES:
Despite missing Schumacher, UConn's premier shot-blocker, the Huskies swatted seven shots versus Pepperdine. Four different players played block party host with Cash (2), Jones (2), Rigby (2) and Conlon each joining the effort.

ABROSIMOVA AND SHEA STILL CLIMBING:
Entering the Washington game, Svetlana Abrosimova (1,632) is currently ranked No. 5 in UConn's all-time career scoring list- 501 points behind No. 4 Rebecca Lobo (2,133). Shea Ralph (1,409) is tied for the No. 10 spot with Chris Gedney (1,409). Peggy Walsh is next on the list at No. 9 with 1,413 points.

ONE TOUGH GAME AFTER ANOTHER:
The 2000-2001 season is going to provide another tough schedule for the Connecticut Huskies. The Huskies will face six schools ranked in the preseason top 12 in both the AP and ESPN polls, including No. 2 Tennessee who they will face twice. The Huskies will also see action against No. 22 (ESPN) Boston College and No. 24 (ESPN) Illinois, while George Washington, Pepperdine and Virginia Tech all received votes between the two polls. UConn will play 11 schools who competed in the NCAA tournament last season, including two 1999-2000 final four teams (Tennessee, Rutgers), two final eight schools (Georgia, LaTech), two sweet sixteen schools (Notre Dame, Old Dominion), three second round schools (Boston College, George Washington, Illinois) and two first round teams (Holy Cross, Pepperdine). UConn adds ACC school Wake Forest to the schedule as well as Virginia Tech, the newest member of the BIG EAST conference.

UCONN VERSUS THE FIELD:
Of the 23 scheduled teams UConn will face this year, none hold a winning record against the Huskies. With UConn's win over Georgia, the Huskies move to 2-1 in that series. LaTech and Wake Forest come the closest though. The LaTech series is tied and the Wake Forest meeting will be the first between the two in the sport of women's basketball.

HUSKIES RETURN NATIONAL, BIG EAST LEADERS:
Last season, UConn led the BIG EAST and the nation in several statistical categories. The team will try to do the same this year. As a team, UConn led the nation in five categories - Scoring Margin (+30.6), Field Goal Percentage (.539), Field Goal Percentage Defense (.339), Three-Point Field Goal Percentage (.425) and Won-Lost Percentage (36-1, .973). Individually, Sue Bird was second in the nation in three-point field goal percentage (.497) and first in the BIG EAST. Beyond Bird, a single individual player for UConn was rarely found in the top five in any individual conference category and not in the top 20 in national statistics. Teamwise, the Huskies led the conference in nine different categories.

ANOTHER FIRST FOR THE HUSKIES:
The University of Connecticut women's basketball team will have another `first' to talk about this year. Every single regular season UConn game will be televised during the 2000-2001 season. That's more television coverage received than any other women's team in the nation, ever. Along with the national games telecast by Fox, ESPN, ESPN2 and CBS, UConn will have the rest of the games in the 2000-2001 season televised by Connecticut Public Television. CPTV has been covering the UConn women's program since the 1993-94 season. During the past six years, 106 UConn games have been televised regionally by CPTV. WTIC Radio will broadcast all the women's basketball games for the 2000-2001 season as well.

UCONN BASKETBALL -AN ADVANCE SELLOUT:
Connecticut's entire 16-game home schedule (14 regular season games, 2 exhibitions) in the Harry A. Gampel Pavilion (10,027 capacity) and the Hartford Civic Center (16,294 capacity) is an advance sellout.

UCONN TO HOST 2000-2001 BIG EAST TOURNAMENT:
The University of Connecticut will serve as host for the 18th BIG EAST Women's Basketball Championship, March 4-7, 2000, at the Harry A. Gampel Pavilion in Storrs... UConn has hosted the 13-team tournament on five previous occasions: 1990, 1992, 1994, 1996, and 1997... Connecticut was awarded the 2000 and 2001 tournaments by a vote of conference Directors of Athletics... The 2001 league championship will be held March 3-6.

ABROSIMOVA, RALPH EARN ALL-AMERICA HONORS:
Seniors Svetlana Abrosimova and Shea Ralph received recognition as preseason First-Team All-America members by The Associated Press... Abrosimova and Ralph are the fourth pair of teammates, second from Connecticut, to make the preseason team since it started in 1994, following Catchings and Semeka Randall last season, Catchings and Holdsclaw in 1998 and Connecticut's Jennifer Rizzotti and Kara Wolters in 1995.

BIG EAST DEBUTS A NEW LOOK- WELCOME THE HOKIES:
The BIG EAST Conference will continue its 16-game regular season league schedule during the 2000-2001 season and invites Virginia Tech into the mix... Each team will play three conference opponents twice (home and away) and will have five additional league home games and five road games... The Huskies have drawn home-and-away games with the following teams: Miami, Villanova, Syracuse... UConn will host Georgetown, Providence, Rutgers, St. John's, West Virginia... The team will travel to Boston College, Notre Dame, Pittsburgh, Seton Hall and Virginia Tech.

A WINNING PROGRAM:
Since UConn's first NCAA Championship in 1995, the Huskies have had the most victories of any other team over the last six seasons. UConn boasts a six-year record of 201-14, followed closely by Tennessee with a record of 198-24.

INJURY UPDATE:
Kelly Schumacher is sidelined for two weeks due to a stress fracture in her right foot. At the end of the two week period, she will be reevaluated before being cleared to play.

University of Connecticut Athletics

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