NCAA Basketball connecticut Huskies

Tina Charles' stat line in the box score looks just fine by almost any measure: 15 points, 11 rebounds in 18 minutes.

Unless the person doing the measuring is UConn Huskies coach Geno Auriemma, who sees the personal fouls that kept her out of the game for much of the first half.

Auriemma has a knack for viewing the glass half-empty when it comes to Charles. Fine has never been good enough to stop the yelling and the cajoling. It is really an existential thing between the demanding coach and his senior center who hasn't always risen to meet his demands.

"It's easy to be frustrated with Tina. If I didn't get frustrated with Tina it wouldn't be any fun coaching this team," Auriemma said Tuesday after the top-ranked Huskies' 83-58 win over Texas in San Antonio. "You watch Tina play for the first six or seven minutes and you will say 'Wow, there is nothing this kid can't do.' She could go for 30 every night.' "

SAN ANTONIO -- Tennessee and Connecticut in the same gym, but not on the court at the same time. Maybe San Antonio will bring Pat Summitt and Geno Auriemma back together, but not on this night.

Instead, the top-ranked Huskies and the Lady Vols combined to behave a little ungraciously to their Texas hosts in the ESPNU Road to the Championship doubleheader at the AT&T Center.

Tennessee routed overmatched Texas Tech in the first game, 91-53, while the Huskies had little trouble with No. 10 Texas, winning 83-58.

But the night wasn't going to end without a little excitement. Not with Auriemma in the house.

When Connecticut ran through the 2008-09 season with a 39-0 record and cruised through the Final Four to a national title, they turned an entire season, thousands of games involving hundreds of teams, into an exercise in inevitability.

At the cusp of a new college season, the biggest question is: Can the Huskies do that again? Or will the search for a new point guard to replace Renee Montgomery will bring UConn back to the pack?

Connecticut is the undisputed No. 1 team in the nation at its start, the unanimous choice in both national polls. But, of course. The Huskies have Maya Moore and Tina Charles, two of the top three or four players in the country, they have outstanding role players such as Kalnna Greene and Kaili McLaren. They have Geno Auriemma, who embraces the role of front-runner in a big, enthusiastic bear hug.

Tara VanDerveer, right, has been coaching for nearly 30 years. She doesn't think she's recruited siblings before. So as new experiences go, it's worked out pretty well.

Chiney Ogwumike, a 6-foot-3 forward from Texas and the No. 1-rated recruit in the country, signed her national letter of intent to play at Stanford on Thursday. Chiney will join her older sister Nneka, who is a sophomore forward for the No. 2-ranked Cardinal. Ogwumike chose Stanford over Connecticut and Notre Dame.

Part of the beauty of college basketball is that it isn't like college football. The top teams don't have to be afraid of playing a tough opponent; worried that risking a single loss would derail a season's worth of effort.

Instead, the best teams in college basketball want to cut their teeth on one another, learn from their shortcomings, shore up before spring, or build a resume for the NCAA committee by collecting wins against stiff competition.

The following is a list of the top five schedules in women's college basketball this season. These teams are going to do it the hard way. And you gotta admire that.

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) -- Connecticut basketball coach Jim Calhoun was hospitalized Saturday after he collapsed following a 50-mile charity bicycle ride during which he fell and broke five ribs.

Calhoun, 67, was taken to the UConn Health Center in Farmington, where he was listed in good condition. He was to be held overnight for observation and released Sunday, said Maureen McGuire, a hospital spokeswoman.

On its face, one of the sillier declarations of testing the NBA draft waters was UConn freshman forward Ater Majok declaring for the draft. Ater Majok never played for UConn this season, as Majok's academic situation took quite a while to unravel. Not too surprising for a Sudanese native that first went to Australia before getting to the United States. The NCAA decided that Majok would not be eligible until the 2009-10 season.

Nate Miles, briefly of UConn, but this past season with the College of Southern Idaho (a junior college) has also declared for the NBA draft. Having both players go pro -- even if they do not get drafted -- is probably the best case scenario for UConn and Jim Calhoun.

The Big East Tournament gets underway Tuesday, and this year the Big East Tournament (BET) matches the construction of the conference -- oversized, a bit confusing and very clearly divided.

The Big East at this point has seven teams that are definitely going to the NCAA tournament and one team that lies way out on the fringe of the bubble. This year, the BET is all about teams trying to improve or maintain their projected seeding for the Big Dance.

There is nothing more terrifying at the end of the season than to be the road opponent on Senior Day. UConn was harshly reminded of that in their 70-60 loss to Pitt, a win largely won by the Pitt seniors.

Elder statesmen Sam Young and Levance Fields were unstoppable, even though Fields entered the game as questionable with a lower back contusion.

The win likely clinched a No. 1 seed for Pitt in the NCAA Tournament. It might've also put UConn's hopes of a top slot in peril.

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In a now-infamous press conference exchange last month, Connecticut coach Jim Calhoun was reminded that he makes $1.6 million while working for a public university in a state that has a huge budget deficit. Before the questioner could finish, Calhoun snapped, "Not a dime back."

Southern Mississippi coach Larry Eustachy is no Jim Calhoun. Eustachy has decided to give not just a dime back, but 250,000 dimes back.