Pirate Galaxy » being unfair to your student athletes and yo

STORRS, Conn. -- No. 2 UConn was expected to be tested against No. 15 DePaul, the first of five ranked teams it will face this month.It quickly became clear that the Huskies had all the answers Thursday night.Kia Nurse scored a career-high 33 points and UConn routed the Blue Demons 91-46 for its 81st straight victory.Napheesa Collier added 18 points, and Katie Lou Samuelson had 16.Kelly Campbell had 10 points to lead DePaul (5-2).The Blue Demons missed their first eight shots and were held to a single free throw for nearly 6 minutes to start the game. UConn (6-0), which has won 53 straight at home, hit its first nine shots, most of them on the break, and jumped out to a 22-1 lead.By the end of the quarter, UConn led 37-6.We played with a little bit more of a purpose defensively and that got us off and running, coach Geno Auriemma said. We created a lot of easy shots for ourselves.Nurse, who hadnt scored more than 15 points this season, made three quick layups and had 19 points after 10 minutes. She hit 12 of her 16 shots, including her first nine and was 6 of 9 from 3-point range.She didnt miss until a corner 3-pointer at the halftime buzzer, when she had already eclipsed her previous career high with 24 points.I came into this game and said I was going to do the little things that I was good at and running the floor is one of those things, Nurse said. To get out in transition and have that work out the first couple of shots was pretty cool.UConn was 15 of 19 from the floor in the first quarter, while holding. DePaul to just 2 of 14. UConn also had a 20-0 advantage in the paint and 16 fast-break points.The Huskies went into halftime leading 53-19 and pushed that to 80-30 after the third quarter.UConn made 59.3 percent of its shots and held DePaul to just 25 percent shooting.THE BIG PICTUREUConn: UConn coach Geno Auriemma has said he hopes someone gives his team a wake-up call to show them that winning isnt as easy as they think. The Huskies face four more ranked opponents before the end of the month that might be able to do that, including No. 14 Texas on Sunday and No. 1 Notre Dame three days later. UConn also plays No. 9 Ohio State and No. 5 Maryland before January.Theres no guarantee like the past couple years that, yeah we got this, Auriemma said. Its a wait and see. Its a process. I just dont want to take any steps back. I dont know how many steps forward were going to take. I just dont want to take any steps back.DePaul: The Blue Demons made just 17 of 68 shots and made seven of their 40 shots from behind the arc. They came into the game making just under 39 percent from 3-point range, and were averaging a nations best 13.5 3-pointers a game.This was DePauls third straight game against a ranked team. They lost to No. 5 Baylor 104-72 and beat No. 11 Syracuse, a game in which they hit 19 3-pointers.College basketball really is cruel and its cool, DePaul coach Doug Bruon said. When you throw the ball to the other team and give up breakaway layups like we did tonight its pretty cruel, especially against good players. Its also cool because you get a chance to come back pretty quickly, and Ive seen teams throughout my many years, six, seven, eight days later, you dont even know its the same team. We really are going to be better for what happened tonight than for not having played tonight.POLL IMPLICATIONSShould they have a similarly impressive win Sunday against No. 14 Texas, UConn may pick up a few more first-place votes going into the Dec. 7 showdown with top-ranked Notre Dame in South BendBREAKING GOODUConns perimeter defense led to 24 DePaul turnovers and sparked the Huskies transition game. UConn outscored the Blue Demons 26-4 on the fast break and 44-10 in the paint.CRYSTAL CLEAREDUConn freshman guard Crystal Dangerfield, who missed the Huskies win on Tuesday against Chattanooga with concussion-like symptoms, came off the bench in this one. She played 23 minutes and had three points and two assists.GOLD MEDALAuriemma and Bruno received Olympic rings from USA Basketball in a ceremony before the game. Bruno has served as an assistant to Auriemma on the last two gold-medal winning USA Olympic teams. Auriemma was named USA Basketballs co-coach of the year Thursday, sharing the honor with mens Olympic coach Mike Krzyzewski.HOME COOKINGUConn wont be spending a lot of time playing in Storrs during the next two months. This was its last game at Gampel Pavilion until Jan. 22 against Tulane. They Huskies will play at Mohegan Sun on Sunday and have four games at the XL Center in Hartford in December and January. They play eight games on the road.UP NEXTUConn: The Huskies continue their string of games against ranked opponents when they face the Longhorns on Sunday at the Mohegan Sun arena, about 30 miles south of UConns campus.DePaul: The Blue Demons host Prairie View on Monday, before welcoming Notre Dame on Dec. 10. Dallas Mavericks Jerseys . Clarkson had been dealing with an elbow injury in early January and will be out of action for at least one week. He has three goals and five assists through 36 games with the Leafs this season. Custom Dallas Mavericks Jerseys .J. -- Marty Brodeur beat the Pittsburgh Penguins yet again. http://www.officialmavericksfanstore.com/kids-luka-doncic-mavericks-jersey/ . The nimble-footed quarterback got his wish, dashing through the snow and a weary defence all the way into the NCAA record book. Jason Kidd Jersey .B. - Sebastien Auger made 44 saves as the Saint John Sea Dogs edged the visiting Acadie-Bathurst Titan 2-1 on Saturday in Quebec Major Junior Hockey League action. Kostas Antetokounmpo Mavericks Jersey . Fernandez, coached in Toronto by former two-time Olympic silver medallist Brian Orser, scored 267.11 points and is the first champion to successfully defend since Russias Evgeny Plushenko in 2005 and 2006. Since Massachusetts moved to the Bowl Subdivision five years ago, the Minutemen have eight victories and 40 losses, have averaged less than the NCAA minimum attendance of 15,000 for their homes games and were essentially kicked out of a conference.Instead of giving up its major college football aspirations -- as some on the Amherst campus would prefer -- UMass is sticking it out and going it alone, becoming an FBS independent this season at a time when that has never been more challenging.Scheduling is harder. Bowls are tougher to access. Television exposure is more difficult to find. Revenue often has to come at the expense of wins. Even Notre Dame has given up some of its treasured independence for the stability of partial conference affiliation with the Atlantic Coast Conference.UMass athletic director Ryan Bamford knows having an independent football program is not a long-term solution. With the Big 12 looking at expansion, the trickle down could open up a spot in a conference for the Minutemen soon. Or not. Regardless, Bamford believes the lonely road is worth traveling to stay in college footballs top tier.With a little bit of risk theres great opportunity and great reward there, Bamford said this spring.Faced with a similar stay-or-go choice, New Mexico State decided it will become an independent in 2018 after the Sun Belt Conference ends its football-only relationship with the school.Idaho, however, went the other way after being ousted by the Sun Belt and is prepared to head back to the Championship Subdivision after the 2017 season and join the Big Sky Conference, a natural geographic fit. Idaho athletic director Rob Spear said geography and finances were working against the Vandals, but the school could have made it work in the FBS with a conference home.Independent, in my opinion, was not a good situation, Spear said.For New Mexico State, geography and finances were reasons to stay in the FBS. Dropping down would have put rivalries with New Mexico and UTEP, located only about 30 miles away from Las Cruces, New Mexico, in jeopardy. Also, being in the FCS would have put New Mexico State at a disadvantage against its rival state school in other areas, athletic director Mario Moccia said.We benchmark ourselves against them on virtually everything. State funding comes into play. Competition for students comes into play, he said.Plus, New Mexico State needs the millions it makes playing a couple of road games a year against Power Five teams to pay off debt and fund the athletic department. As an FCS school, those payouts would drop as much as 75 percent.In the 1980s, independence was common in major college football. Penn State, Miami, Florida State, Syracuse, South Carolina, West Virginia and Pittsburgh were among the high-profile independent programs. As conferences became the power points in college football in the 1990s, negotiating television contracts and aligning with bowl games, schools flocked to them for security. The money didnt hurt, either.Just three schools played as major college football independents last season: Notre Dame, Army and BYU, which is eager to join the Big 12.Notre Dames $15 million per year TV deal with NBC protects the Fighting Irish, but money cant fix everything. When Notre Dame moved all its sports but football and hockkey into the ACC, the deal also called for Notre Dame to play five games per season against ACC teams.dddddddddddd It also gave the Irish access to ACC bowl games.UMass transitioned to the FBS in 2012 and went 2-22 in its first two seasons as a football-only member of the Mid-American Conference. In 2014, the MAC invoked a clause in its contract with UMass that gave the school two years to either join the conference as a full member or leave.Most UMass teams compete in the Atlantic 10 and a full move to the Midwest-centric MAC made little sense. The FBS transition has gone so poorly that members of the UMass faculty senate in April pushed for a vote on a nonbinding motion to urge the university to return to the FCS or drop football altogether. The vote failed.When Bamford took over at UMass in March 2015, the most pressing issue was the schedule. UMass had one home game scheduled for 2016. The NCAA minimum is five.We were 15 months away from playing and Im saying, `Crap, how am I going to do this? Bamford said.Bamford was able to put together a six-game home schedule and six road games that will help compensate for the lost $850,000 MAC payout. UMass will receive $1.5 million to open the season at Florida, an additional $1.25 million to play at South Carolina and a combined $650,000 for trips to Hawaii and BYU.UMass also has a home game against Mississippi State to be played at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts, home of the NFLs Patriots. That game, along with a game at Gillette against Boston College, should help UMass reach the 15,000 minimum attendance it needs to hit this season after averaging 11,124 last season. Over three seasons, UMass average FBS attendance is 14,347.This seasons schedule helps the bottom line for a program with an $8 million budget that includes about $5 million in student fees and state funds. It wont help the inexperienced team coming off a 3-9 season.Were overloaded some, theres no question about that, said UMass coach Mark Whipple, in the third year of his second stint at the school. Theres reasons for that. I understand those reasons.Idaho spent a season as an independent in the FBS in 2013, waiting for a spot to open up in a conference after Western Athletic Conference football dissolved. The Vandals played at Arkansas, Mississippi and Florida State and lost by a combined 187-52.Youre being unfair to your student athletes and your coaches, Spear said.Bamford and the UMass administration believe striving for potential gains in prestige and revenue that can come with FBS football is worth it. The football program simply needs to be good enough to get into a conference. The American Athletic Conference, with UConn and Temple, is the perfect spot for UMass. But with no recent football success, UMass is not necessarily a perfect match for the AAC if it loses members amid Big 12 expansion.If nothing else, UMass seems to have an athletic director who embraces the challenge.Im so competitive and I love the fact that people dont think we can get this thing going, Bamford said. That it drives me Ive never had anything drive me like it does.---Follow Ralph D. Russo at www.Twitter.com/ralphDrussoAP ' ' '