The Notre Dame Fighting Irish were picked to win 2011-12 Big East Conference Regular Season Title in a poll voted on by the league coaches today at Big East Media Day in NYC. For only the second time since the 1992-93 season the Huskies were not selected as the favorite in the Big East. Notre Dame narrowly edged out UConn as the favorite with 219pts. to UConn's 216. The other time was in 2005-06 when Rutgers was picked to finish first in the Big East. Notre Dame's Skylar Diggins was unanimously selected as the 2011-12 Preseason Big East POTY while Connecticut's Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis was picked as the 2011-12 Preseason Big East FOTY. Due to a tie in voting, 12 players were named to the 2011-12 Preseason All Big East Team including Connecticut's Tiffany Hayes and Bria Hartley.

2011-12 Preseason BIG EAST Coaches’ Poll:
1. Notre Dame (9) 219
2. Connecticut (7) 216
3. Louisville 191
4. Rutgers 176
5. Georgetown 175
6. DePaul 152
7. St. John’s 145
8. Syracuse 123
9. West Virginia 108
10. South Florida 96
11. Marquette 92
12. Pittsburgh 62
13. Villanova 54
14. Providence 51
15. Cincinnati 38
16. Seton Hall 22

( ) - First-place votes

2011-12 Preseason Big East Player of the Year:
Jr. G Skylar Diggins, Notre Dame*

2011-12 Preseason Big East Freshman of the Year:
Fr. F Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis, Connecticut

2011-12 Preseason All-Big East Team^:
So. G Bria Hartley, Connecticut
Sr. G Tiffany Hayes, Connecticut
Sr. F Keisha Hampton, DePaul*
Jr. G Sugar Rodgers, Georgetown*
Sr. W Monique Reid, Louisville
So. G Shoni Schimmel, Louisville
Sr. G Natalie Novosel, Notre Dame
Sr. F Devereaux Peters, Notre Dame
Jr. G Shenneika Smith, St. John's
Sr. F Da'Shena Stevens, St. John's
Jr. C Kayla Alexander, Syracuse

* - unanimous selection
^ - additional member added due to voting tie

2011-12 Preseason All-Big East Honorable Mention:
So. C Stefanie Dolson, Connecticut
Sr. G Khadijah Rushdan, Rutgers
Sr. W April Sykes, Rutgers
Sr. G Andrea Smith, South Florida

2011-12 CPTV Broadcast Schedule (more may be added at a later date).


2011-12 UConn WCBB Media Day.

Today Coach John Wooden’s daughter, Nan Wooden, announced at the annual Wooden Award preseason tipoff luncheon that UConn Head Coach Geno Auriemma will be presented with the 2012 John R. Wodden Legends of Coaching Award this coming April. Auriemma ranks as one of the winningest coaches in NCAA history, with seven national titles, 12 Final Fours and four undefeated seasons, including 39-0 NCAA title-producing campaigns in 2009 and 2010. His all-time coaching record is 771-124 (.861/26 yrs), tops among active NCAA coaches and No. 2 all-time in win percentage. His all-time record in the NCAA tournament is an astounding 81-16 (.835/24 yrs.). Since Geno Auriemma arrived at UConn, all players who have exhausted their eligibility have graduated. He will coach the U.S. Olympic team next summer in London. UConn’s men’s basketball coach Jim Calhoun was the Legends of Coaching winner in 2005; Connecticut is the only school with two recipients. Auriemma has coached the last three John R. Wooden Award women’s winners, Maya Moore (2009 and 2011) and Tina Charles (2010). Auriemma and Coach Wooden became linked in fans’ minds last year when Coach Wooden’s grandson, Greg Wooden, was on hand as the Huskies broke the Wooden-led UCLA consecutive win streak at 88 last December.

For those of you who cannot make it to this year's UConn First Night (myself included) should tune into Midnight Madness on ESPNU & ESPN3 on Friday, Oct. 14th from 9p-1a to catch highlights of all the action going on around the college basketball world including the UConn National Champion men's and UConn women's teams as ESPN analysts Doris Burke and Mark Jones will be broadcasting from Gampel Pavilion throughout the evening.

Today the UConn trio of Sr. G Tiffany Hayes, So. C Stefanie Dolson, and So G Bria Hartley were named to the 2011-12 John R. Wooden Award Preseason Top-30 list. For the last 3 seasons a UConn players has won the Wooden Award (Maya Moore in '09 & '11 and Tina Charles in '10). UConn leads the way along with Notre Dame by having 3 players named to the list and the Big East leads all conferences with a total of 9 players.

Congratulations...

to former UConn Stars Maya Moore and Charde Houston and the 2011 WNBA Champion Minnesota Lynx!!! Today they defeated the Atlanta Dream, 73-67 to sweep the WNBA Finals 3-0 en route to their franchises first-ever WNBA Title. Maya finished the game with 15p, 7r, 2a, and 1s in 28mins. while Charde did not play. Former LSU Star Seimone Augustus took home Finals MVP honors after averaging 24ppg in the series.