It didn't take long for Geno Auriemma to have seen enough of Lorin Dixon. Less than four minutes in, the plus was pulled in favor of Ketia Swanier. In 20 seconds, the Huskies scored twice, including a jumper from Swanier. They had two baskets in the previous 3:44.

Outside by threes on the opening possession for both teams, it's been a whole lot of back and forth with missed baskets. Not much else.

Tonight is Senior Night for DePaul, and they're exhibiting some class, by holding their ceremony after the game, allowing the Huskies to conduct their post-game interviews sooner so they can leave ASAP.

That's great, but if DePaul loses, I'm not sure how much that diminshes the event.

I'll call the result predictable, but go ahead and vote on the right. After winning the last two Big East Player of the Week awards, is Alley Quigley of DePaul better than Maya Moore?

From the In Case You Care department, Charde Houston has removed her extensions. That means she should see a minute more than she did against LSU, which was 10.

Taking to Geno Auriemma, its becoming more evident that any sense of hope that Houston can contribute is quickly evaporating. A few weeks ago, he had said the key to the season will be the play of Tina Charles, Kaili McLaren and Charde Houston. Thursday, Auriemma revised his expectations and said that the burden fell on Charles and McLaren, his two sophomore post players. Just the mention of Houston and Geno looks ready to pull his eyes out.

DePaul would be a great chance for her to get back into the rotation to a degree. The problem is, if she plays well, it now only adds to the frustration.

The Huskies head out to Chicago for a big matchup with DePaul. While DePaul is not ranked and had a bad shooting/coaching night against Rutgers Wednesday (36 3-point attempts/0 free throws), a win for UConn is vital. If they, and the Scarlet Knights win Saturday, it sets up the game Monday for the conference title.

Now, in the event they finish tied, the tie breakers goes through the head-to-head of UConn and Rutgers against the rest of the Big East. Provided UConn doesn't lose to DePaul, the tie breaker lies with West Virginia, who UConn beat and Rutgers did not.

What happened in Baton Rouge was the Huskies grew up. And I know they pulled off this accomplishment last year in comeback fashion, but that was different. That was Renee Montgomery taking over the game and with some help here and there.

Monday night Maya Moore, Kaili McLaren, Tina Charles and Ketia Swanier shared the load. I've said before that what McLaren did against Sylvia Fowles was incredible. But even Charles, who at times seemed scared of Fowles, played inspired in the final 15 minutes or so, not backing down from Fowles and attacking the rim as the best center in the Big East should. Afterwards, Geno Auriemma said he hopes that Charles understands that her misses Monday weren't because Fowles made her miss, it was because Charles allowed herself to miss them. And he's right. How many easy layups didn't fall for her? I can think of three right off the top of my head.

and since McLaren was benched a few weeks back and was told to not take being a Husky for granted, she has played some inspired ball off the bench. It couldn't have been any more significant when you consider that Charde Houston played so poorly that she sat the entire second half and that Brittany Hunter didn't play.

This is what Auriemma had to say about his two post players after the game:
"Kaili and Tina are their own worst enemies. To me, players are generally as good as they want to be if they have some God-given talent. They're as good as they want to be. Kaili sometimes wants to be great; sometimes she just settles for being good, and sometimes she's just OK. (Monday) she played like she wanted to be really good and great at times. And it's not like she did anything tonight that surprised anybody on our team. We've seen her do those things on a regular basis. It's just you got to get that all the time now. That's the bad side of being really good."

Speaking of really good, Moore was again named the conferences top freshman, while DePaul's Allie Quigley was named the top player for the second straight week. You know, Quigley, who was statistically inferior to Moore and who's Blue Demons beat Georgetown by four and lost to Notre Dame by two. Meanwhile, all Moore and the Huskies did was win two games by large margins.

What's the message the Big East is sending? If you are a freshman, no matter how good, you can't be the best player.And you can be a good player on an average team that loses and that trumps the best player on the best team. Well, UConn visits DePaul Saturday. Let's see how that works out for Quigley and company.

If you caught a glimpse of Brittany Hunter on the bench, you might have noticed a bandage-like patch under the brace on her right knee. I initially thought she might have had a cortisone shot, but when I spoke with Geno Auriemma after the game, he said it was one of those 8-hour heat patches like those made by ThermaCare.

The officiating in this game is horrendous. LSU misses a layup and Sylvia Fowles goes over the back of Renee Montgomery, knocking her out of the way in the process. Who is the foul called on? Montgomery.

There was a steal by LSU which Geno Auriemma felt Maya Moore was fouled. He marched onto the court in a rage and was assessed a technical foul at 13:52. After one of the free throws was made and a Fowles jumper, the score was 45-43 UConn. Since then, the Huskies have built the lead to 10 by the time the clock read 11:38.

This is the type of response the Huskies need to show in big games if they want to win a national championship.

If this game is decided by three points or less, remember this play:

Tina Charles backs down Sylvia Fowles for a layup with 16:01 on the clock. LSU goes down the court and a player takes a shot from the right side and misses everything. Fowles grabs the ball, puts it on the floor and lays the ball in with 15:30.

There are two problems here, first is that you can't legally score in 31 seconds without the shot clock resetting. The other is that when Fowles got the ball, the clock was reset to 30 despite the previous shot didn't come close to the rim.

Fowles made the basket and a foul was called on Tina Charles leading to a three-point play.

The fans here as well as LSU coach Van Chancellor have been complaining about how physical UConn has been, but the Tigers have taken 10 free throws to one for the Huskies.

Also, Kaili McLaren is starting the second half over Charde Houston.

Kaili McLaren gets called for a foul that should have gone against Sylvia Fowles at the 6:26 mark and everything begins to fall apart. Fowles has eight points since and the 12-point Huskies lead is just four.

With seven minutes left, McLaren is 6 points on 3-for-4 shooting and six rebounds.

In attendance is former Husky Barbara Turner.

The battle between Sylvia Fowles and Tina Charles is a draw through the first eight minutes. Charles has more points, but Fowles has made her presence known defensively. What I've been impressed with -- and if you saw last year's game here, you'd recall -- the job Kaili McLaren is doing is fantastic. McLaren presents a big body that Fowles can't get around or move easily.

Brittany Hunter is not in the starting lineup and will not play. In her place is Charde Houston.

For an arena that's not at better than 90 percent capacity, the crowd is fantastic here. I would argue it is better than either meeting between teams last season or anywhere else for that matter.

My head is spinning a bit right now. The touching Senior Night tribute yesterday is still fresh, and I have to say, it was great to see the fans support Charde Houston, Ketia Swanier, Mel Thomas and Brittany Hunter.

Houston has had two consecutive solid games, something coach Genon Auriemma hopes continues. But it was Thomas who stole the pre-game ceremony, capped by her being introduced with the starters. Once the ball went up, it was all Swanier, all the time. It would have been nice for Hunter to have played, but that's the nature of her right knee.

Anyhow, I am in Baton Rouge preparing for tomorrow night's showdown with LSU. On my way to find some lunch (if you've ever had Wienerschitzel -- the fast food chain -- then you know how good my meal was) I drove over to the campus to see if there was much anticipation. From all accounts, no. It is about 75 degrees and everyone wanted to take in the sun and worry about the game when the time comes.

Meanwhile, there's some good women's games on television here. ESPN had Michigan State-Purdue and now has Texas-Texas A&M, but the one that has my attention is Tennesse holding on with a five-point lead over Mississippi State at the half from Knoxville. Yes, we know how this game will end. I just want to see how it gets there.

St. John's suspended six players -- Kia Wright, Nikki Jo Rotolo, Charisse Curtis, Kristin Moore, Sheree Ledbetter and Recee Mitchell -- have been suspended for today's game for violating an an unspecified team policy.

That leaves the Red Storm with just six players.

This, my friends, will be uglier than expected.