View from Portland: Basketball and bonding
PORTLAND, Ore. — While you were gathering with the family over a Thanksgiving dinner, the UConn basketball teams were playing and practicing on the other side of the country.
The men's and women's teams traveled to Oregon together and on Wednesday were with each other at a welcome reception at the Nike World Headquarters, where they received new shoes (of course, brand new Nikes) and listened to remarks from the brand's co-founder, Phil Knight.
Attention soon turned to the reason for the trip, though: Geno Auriemma's team in here for the Phil Knight Legacy Tournament, Dan Hurley's squad for the Phil Knight Invitational. There was practicing and the men spent Thursday ringing in the holiday spirit with a school-record 17 3-pointers in a 83-59 rout of Oregon in the first round of its tournament.
The women were in the crowd cheering on their classmates. Earlier, they practiced at the NBA Portland Trail Blazers' practice facility in front of a couple of UConn legends: Sue Bird and Asjha Jones.
Also Thursday, the women's team had Thanksgiving dinner downtown at Portland City Grill — a restaurant known for its 30th-floor views of the city and pricy entrees.
Thanksgiving dinner is likely a new thing for UConn's international freshmen Ines Bettencourt (Portugal), Yarin Hasson (Israel) and Apostolos Roumoglou (Greece).
Fairfield grad student transfer and France native Lou Lopez Senechal said this year's Thanksgiving was her fifth stateside. She's had a couple back home in France because her stepdad is American, but usually, her holiday is spent with her team. Her favorite dish? The turkey.
“It kinda depends on where we are but definitely the turkey is always the best I think,” she said Wednesday.
Both teams were set to play Friday night — the women against Duke and the men vs. Alabama — so we won't see them at each
others games for the rest of the weekend. The teams will practice Saturday and play again on Sunday.
They are staying at the same hotel and will be returning to Connecticut together after the tournaments end, but the focus the rest of the weekend is basketball.
It’s early in the season and both coaches are hoping to learn about their teams.
“You do want to see, are they mature enough to take care of themselves when you’re not around them, to handle their business in a mature way, to be able to stay level-headed, to keep their priorities straight and not get caught up in whatever else is going on here with this event,” Auriemma said. “So that’s why you like coming on these trips. You’re going to play good teams, and you’re going to be in an environment that’s going to challenge them a little bit.”
Said Hurley, “It’s an early-season, big-time tournament with only big-time programs out here. It’s a litmus test early. Obviously, you’ve got to put it in perspective. But it’s also a lot of fun to come play in a big event like this.”