UConn to face Big East test in Villanova’s Maddy Siegrist
UConn women’s basketball will play its fourth game in the eight days on Sunday when it takes part in its biggest Big East test of the season.
Not only is Sunday’s game against Villanova (2 p.m., CBS Sports Network) at the XL Center a rematch of one of the Huskies’ most historic losses last season, but it will also test the Huskies’ frontcourt against one of the nation’s best players: Maddy Siegrist.
The No. 5 Huskies enter Sunday’s matchup on a 12game win streak and remain on top of the Big East standings with an 11-0 conference record. The No. 21 Wildcats are second to UConn in the standings with a 9-1 Big East record.
Last year, the then-No. 8 Huskies were coming off a 19point win over longtime foe Tennessee when they met Villanova three days later.
Whether it was fatigue from their previous game or the effect of losing Olivia Nelson-Ododa last minute to a groin injury, UConn couldn’t find any rhythm against the Wildcats.
Villanova led the whole game and shot 52% from the floor and 45.5% from the 3point line.
The Wildcats’ defeat of UConn was their first since 2004 and snapped the Huskies’ 169-game win streak over conference opponents.
While Lior Garzon led Villanova with 19 points, thenjunior Siegrist finished with a double-double of 17 points and 12 rebounds.
“I don’t think we did anything to deserve to win that game. They did everything to deserve that game,” UConn coach Geno Auriemma said after the loss. “They played harder than us, they played smart than us, they beat us to every loose ball, they rebounded better than us, they made more shots than us. You don’t win games just because you show up, you know? You have to go out and actually win the game. And today, Villanova came in here and won the game.”
The two teams met again in the Big East Tournament Championship with UConn pulling out the revenge win. While the Huskies again won the conference crown (with a 16-1 conference record), the Wildcats finished right below them in second place at 15-4.
This fall Villanova was picked to finish third in the Big East’s Preseason Coaches’ Poll below both UConn at No. 1 and Creighton at No. 2.
Siegrist, a two-time USBWA All-American, was named the 2022 Big East Player of the Year and was chosen as the preseason Player of the Year for the 2022-23 season.
And the 6-foot-2 senior forward has already had a historic season just three months in.
On Jan. 20, Siegrist became Villanova’s all-time leading scorer with 2,414 points in 103 career games — the most career points of any male or female Villanova basketball player of all time.
“It’s surreal. I never could have dreamed of something like this,” Seigrist told Fox Sports’ Kim Adams after the game. “It’s all credit to my teammates and coaches. I’m just so grateful to play at Villanova.”
Siegrist has scored 20 or more points in every game this season, including scoring 41 against Temple on Nov. 20. She scored 18 of her points in the fourth quarter in the third 40-plus-point game of her career.
The New York native currently leads the nation with 28.5 points per game. She’s been named the Big East Player of the Week a conference record 15 times in her career (former Husky great Rebecca Lobo previously held the record at 12).
“I know Maddy Siegrist is probably conference Player of the Year because that son of a gun is damn good,” Auriemma said last week. “She has a huge impact on Villanova.”
The key of Sunday’s game will be how efficiently Aaliyah Edwards and Dorka Juhász are at containing Siegrist under the basket without getting into foul trouble.
Against Tennessee on Thursday, Edwards finished with 25 points (one shy of her career-high), seven rebounds and four assists. Juhász finished with 13 points, six rebounds, five assists and three steals.
The Huskies will likely have just eight players for the fourth-straight game on Sunday as both Caroline Ducharme (concussion) and Azzi Fudd (knee) remain out.
the likes of Sue Bird and Kara Lawson to Hartford.
“He made an imprint on so many eras in Connecticut,” said Ticotsky.
“He changed women’s basketball in our state,” said Lyman Hall coach Christie Madancy, Nick’s daughter. “He created what I got to experience, what my daughter now gets to experience. So many players across the state. I’m so proud of him.”
So there they were, nearly 50 women and a few former male coaches standing at center court Friday night at halftime of Lyman Hall’s 56-22 SCC crossover victory against Wilbur Cross. Smiling. Waving. Posing for photos.
It was billed as an alumni night, but just as importantly the current Lyman Hall team remained there standing and cheering for the former players.
With a 50-50 raffle and raffle for gift baskets, the night also marked the kickoff for a scholarship fund in Nick’s memory. It will go to the Lyman Hall senior who best epitomizes Economopoulos’ values.
“It’s a really emotional night for me,” Madancy said. “It was a small idea I had when I first got the job about trying to get alumni here and get a scholarship going, but the turnout we had exceeded all expectations.
“I talked to the team about how there were women here tonight who played in the ’70s and were fighting for women’s sports and that they needed to take in the history of this and appreciate they came back to see them play. They built this program.”
Madancy’s daughter Ellie, Nick’s grandchild, is the starting freshman point guard for Lyman Hall. On the bench is assistant coach Shamika Jackson, two-time state player of the year on Economopoulos’ East Catholic state champs. In more than one way, this night was one of family.
Madancy, who played for her dad at Lyman Hall, had been an assistant and interim coach at University of New Haven before coaching Sheehan from 2001-2006 and then becoming Sheehan’s athletic director. She served as an assistant at Lyman
Hall last season and, with her dad’s passing, the time was ripe for her to take over the seat Nick once occupied.
“He meant the world to me, the world,” Madancy said. “He taught me everything I know when it comes to basketball. He was a great father. He was a great grandfather. I miss him every day. I can’t tell you how many times I want to call him to talk strategy, to talk anything.
“As much as people know him through basketball, my father had a huge heart. He helped people all the time.”
Madancy, one of three sisters to play for their dad at Lyman Hall, looked around the gym. She said Nick used to bring guys in to practice against the girls to teach them the physicality of the game.
“He had this theory, he didn’t care it was girls’ basketball,” she said. “It was basketball. He was going to teach them the game the right way fundamentally to understand what they were doing. And they were going to play hard.”
Christie keeps a seat at the end of the bench for her dad. Her brother, Jimmy, who coached Hand to the Division III state championship last season, has a seat on the bench for him, too.
“That’s where he would always end up,” Christie said. “He’d show up out of nowhere, which was amazing considering how big he was. He’d disappear out of nowhere, too.
“I coached little fourth graders and they’d go, ‘Coach, there’s a guy sitting at the end of the bench.’ I’d say, ‘Don’t worry it’s just my dad.’”
This much you can say about Ellie Madancy. Beyond her obvious ball-handling abilities and court sense, no one appears to have more fun playing. She hit three 3s on this night. Smiled. She missed connections on a pass. Smiled. She threw up an air ball. Smiled anyway.
“I love basketball,” Ellie, 15, said.
As a fifth grader she played on a seventh-grade team for her grandpa, who played football and baseball at Central Connecticut.
“He had a hard shell on the outside, but he definitely was a softy inside,” Ellie
said. “I look up to him a lot of as a player. He taught me everything, the fundamentals. He was always supportive, even when he screamed at me in in the middle of a game. When we got home, he’d go, ‘You played good though. You played good.’
“He definitely influenced a lot of women and where
they are today. It means a lot to me to know he had that kind of impact.”
Jackson admitted she felt like jumping into line when the former players who had played for Economopoulos were introduced. But, no, this was Lyman Hall alumni night.
“There aren’t enough words to put into what he
means,” said Jackson, who went on to play at Boston College and Southern Connecticut after East Catholic. “His presence, the things he did, the big heart he had, he was more than a coach. The impact he had is pretty evident tonight.
“The family atmosphere that Coach Eco created was the No. 1 thing. From Day One, it wasn’t anything fake. It was organic. We take care of her own. And it wasn’t just kids who won state titles or went on to play in college, it was the impact he made on so many to be a better person.”
A physical education teacher in Middletown, this is Jackson’s first year with Lyman Hall. It’s not coincidental.
“It comes back full circle,” Jackson said. “I was on board with what they wanted to do, the timing and opportunity was perfect.
“Coach Eco’s presence is missed, but his legacy goes on through his kids and his grandkids.”
And the scholarship, Christie and Nick’s wife Sue, created.Jackson said she was thinking the other day how Economopoulos would do something outrageous and out of the blue to lighten the mood.
“To bring a smile to our faces, whether it was after a tough loss,” Jackson. “We’d come to the next practice, and he walked out in an Allen Iverson jersey and a head band on, playing music, dribbling the ball. He was a rare breed.”
When the AAU Starters began in 1988, Lyman Hall was a state power. After losing to the Trojans, Ticotsky said, a lot of kids didn’t start out as Coach Eco fans.
“Then they started playing for him in the summer,” Ticotsky said. “And they were like, ‘I didn’t realize what a great coach and nice guy he was.’ A lot of older coaches get stuck in their ways. He adapted to the times. And he did so many things for other people.”
When Economopoulos’ name is introduced into a conversation one of the first reactions is a laugh or smile.
“He was fiery as a competitor, but he was the funniest guy,” Ticotsky said. “When he passed, people would come up to me and say, ‘I’m so sorry. I know he was your best friend.’ Nick probably had 25 best friends.
“I had people come down from Canada once and two days after they met him, they were telling me, ‘This guy Nick is great, he’s unbelievable.’”
Yes, he is.