How Did UConn End Up In This Tournament?

I don’t blame you for wondering how UConn got themselves into this weekend’s tournament against Boston University, Monmouth and St. Bonaventure?

I can’t say that I know. So we asked Geno Auriemma after Saturday’s game to explain it to us. He knows.

“You always get something out of every game you play. It is rare that you would walk away from something and say there was no point to it,” Auriemma said. “But it does make things difficult on the coaches, the players … everyone involved.

“You agree that it would be great to play in the Hall of Fame Classic and that it would be great to play three home games in the process, especially after the stretch of games we just had [Stanford, Maryland and Penn State].

“So you agree to it, you set aside the time and you look forward to it because its an exempt tournament [which counts as only one game toward the NCAA maximum of 29 regular-season games].

“Then you cross your fingers, you hope and pray that [tournament organizers] find at least one team that is at a high level and unfortunately it doesn’t always work.”

This field of teams was put together by the Hall of Fame committee and then presented to UConn.

“Then you get into a situation where certain teams don’t want to come unless they feel they can win at least two games. That narrows the field somewhat. And then there are so many other events that have popped up across the nations and off the mainland that it seems anyone who wants to go someplace has the chance to do that.”