University Of Connecticut

The road to Storrs runs through small towns and stretches of wooded countryside where the trees are still mostly bare. On a drizzly afternoon with few cars around, it is hard to imagine that day in 1995 when the people of Connecticut lined this route for miles on end, waving flags, cheering as their college basketball team came home with a championship trophy. Their women's college basketball team. "From the airport all the way to campus," recalled Geno Auriemma, the women's coach at the University of Connecticut.

The University of Connecticut's fleet is short one remote-controlled submarine. The submarine, insured for $71,100, sank in 378 feet of water on Dec. 9 off the island of Molokai in Hawaii when its control cable snapped, officials said. The submarine, measuring about 2 feet by 3 feet by 2 feet, is "essentially a camera with some motors on it," Peter J. Auster of the university's National Undersea Research Center said Wednesday.

Before Saturday's Final Four game at Ford Field, Kalin Lucas decided to become a Detroit native. The Michigan State point guard asked to have his hometown on the official game roster changed from nearby Sterling Heights, Mich., to the city hosting the Final Four.

Sophomore point guard Ricky Moore and senior center Kirk King, both two-year starters for the University of Connecticut, were declared ineligible Thursday amid allegations they accepted improper gifts. The university and the Big East Conference agreed that Moore and King would not play until all questions are answered regarding the allegations. The university and the Big East did not identify the gifts. Published reports Thursday said King and Moore had accepted airplane tickets in 1995.

Connecticut women's basketball Coach Geno Auriemma simply wanted a happy ending. Now the story won't go away. Auriemma assailed the media Thursday for their criticism of the staged shot that allowed a hobbled Nykesha Sales to set a school career scoring record Tuesday night, prompting a debate about the integrity of women's basketball. "You guys just want a freaking story, and I gave you something to write about for two days," Auriemma said during a conference call. "We're feeding the fire.

When the University of Connecticut hired its new head football coach last week, Notre Dame's Lou Holtz gave him his blessing and three pieces of advice: "Surround yourself with people who care about the end result. "Be yourself. Don't be me. "Don't call collect." Skip Holtz, who has served on his father's coaching staff for four seasons, the last two as offensive coordinator, is certain he can master the first two, especially the second. He knows not even one magic trick.

Pat Calhoun is no less devastated than her husband, University of Connecticut Coach Jim Calhoun, by the death of Boston Celtics captain Reggie Lewis. It is like a death in the family. Luckily, she is a strong woman who can help her husband along as he helps her. When the coach-player relationship becomes as special and binding as this one, which is seldom, the families of both are inextricably involved. Today, the Calhoun family is grieving right along with the Lewis family.

The road to Storrs runs through small towns and stretches of wooded countryside where the trees are still mostly bare. On a drizzly afternoon with few cars around, it is hard to imagine that day in 1995 when the people of Connecticut lined this route for miles on end, waving flags, cheering as their college basketball team came home with a championship trophy. Their women's college basketball team. "From the airport all the way to campus," recalled Geno Auriemma, the women's coach at the University of Connecticut.

Jim Calhoun brought a prop, a University of Connecticut student newspaper. With his finger, he pointed to a front-page column. With the conciseness of a writing instructor, Calhoun summarized the subject. Get off Calhoun's back. As the No. 3-ranked Huskies arrive in Southern California for a Friday game against Pepperdine, Connecticut's coach is still facing the repercussions of a summer of trouble for two of his key players. Point guards A.J.

A.J. stands for Anthony Jordan. "I wanted to name him after the two greatest basketball players alive," Inga Price said of Connecticut's A.J. Price, breaking into a conspiratorial giggle. "That's his daddy and Michael Jordan." She was a point guard for Morgan State. Tony Price led Penn to the 1979 Final Four in Salt Lake City, where the Quakers fell to Magic Johnson and Michigan State. Yet it turns out basketball didn't bring Tony and Inga Price together. Insurance did.

It wasn't a short, sweet, four-game, two-week trip to college basketball's grand stage. It wasn't as simple as winning two games in Philadelphia, two more in Arizona, throwing on some hats, doing a few dances, grabbing a trophy and moving on to Detroit. But Connecticut, single-minded and tenacious, is back in the Final Four for the third time. On Saturday afternoon at cavernous University of Phoenix Stadium, the top-seeded Huskies outlasted No.

It was long past midnight, headed for 2 a.m., when Syracuse guard Jonny Flynn sat on the podium and gave some thought to his lower appendages. "I can't even feel my legs right now," Flynn said. Flynn had played 67 minutes in the longest game in Big East Conference history, a tournament quarterfinal that had begun at 9:36 p.m. Thursday, ended at 1:22 a.m. Friday and provided 3 hours and 46 minutes of most remarkable college basketball.

TAMPA, Fla. -- Candice Wiggins put her name in the record books with her scoring ability this season. She lifted the Stanford women's basketball team into the NCAA finals by excelling across the board. Wiggins scored a team-high 25 points Sunday afternoon against top-seeded Connecticut, but it was also her rebounding and ballhandling abilities that made the difference in the 82-73 victory at the St.

PISCATAWAY, N.J. -- Rutgers Coach C. Vivian Stringer could think of only one way to describe Epiphanny Prince's night against No. 1 Connecticut. "I don't think her game was anything less than spectacular," Stringer said. Prince scored 27 of her career-high 33 points in the second half and No. 7 Rutgers handed Connecticut its first loss of the season, 73-71, on Tuesday.

Every instinct says today will be it for George Mason. Thanks for the charming story, and glad the bus ride back to Fairfax, Va., won't be long. It would be one of the greatest upsets in NCAA tournament history if George Mason were to defeat top-seeded Connecticut today in the Washington Regional final to reach the Final Four.

As a young graduate in the 1967 movie "The Graduate," Dustin Hoffman is advised to go into plastics. These days, plastics precede graduation by at least four years. This fall, University of Connecticut students have been able to swipe their student IDs at vending machines to buy Cokes or Doritos or to make photocopies in the library. Students already can use their IDs in the campus laundry machines, libraries and dining halls or even to buy food at any one of the campus coffee shops.

A cold New England wind rides through north central Connecticut, scattering yellow leaves and sending the unmistakable message that winter is close behind. Students on the University of Connecticut campus bundle up against the cold as they walk stiffly into the wind. Heads covered, hands shoved deep into pockets of bulky jackets, they make their way to class.

After lapse upon lapse in this NCAA tournament, Connecticut was seemingly down to its very last gasp. On the verge of being upset by Washington, Connecticut showed why this team laden with NBA-caliber talent is still the favorite to win the NCAA championship. It took an off-balance three-pointer with 1.8 seconds left in regulation by Rashad Anderson to get Connecticut to overtime.

The tightest matchup in an NCAA tournament round filled with tight games is the top-seeded Connecticut Huskies against themselves and their coach, a constant battle to survive their own mistakes and advance. They will play another game, against George Mason if not each other, after drawing their tournament lives to the last seconds, tempting fate and the limits of Jim Calhoun's patience.