What to expect from UConn in exhibition vs. Boston College

UConn women’s basketball will take the court in live game action for the first time on Monday when it faces Boston College in an exhibition at Mohegan Sun Arena.

It’s unusual for the Huskies to take on another Division I team this early in the calendar, especially in front of the crowd. In recent years, they’ve had two preseason tuneups — a closed-door scrimmage against a nearby Division I foe and a live exhibition against Division II competition.

The former typically resembles a competitive practice more so than a legitimate contest, allowing for instruction throughout. The latter provides UConn with a significant talent advantage, so it can work through any and all mistakes without fear of actually suffering a loss.

The Huskies will be exactly two weeks into official practice and 22 days away from their season opener when they take the court against Boston College, so Geno Auriemma understands his team won’t look like a finished product.

“You really can't expect a lot execution-wise in these things, but you can expect a lot of the energy level, the effort,” he said. “The people that you have coming back from last year, can they add to the group? Then the new guys, just follow the leader and hope they blend in.”

Still, there’s value in playing a real exhibition as opposed to a secret scrimmage. Everyone will go through the motions of a game day, just without the stakes that come with a regular season contest.

“You gotta get on a bus, you gotta stay over, [play with] uniforms and crowds and all that,” Auriemma said. “So I think the whole experience will be really good, it’ll really get to show how quickly people can adapt… At least it'll be a pretty good dress rehearsal for going forward.”

UConn will also go against an unfamiliar opponent for the first time. Between the month-long summer workouts in June, the fall workouts from late August to late September and now official practice, the Huskies only battle their own teammates and the male practice squad. They know everyone’s tendencies at this point.

The Eagles will provide a completely different look.

“When we play against each other or we play against practice guys, you can pretty much control it,” Caroline Ducharme said. “You don't know what they're gonna run. They don't know what we're gonna run. So it's more exciting.”

Injury report

UConn will have at least 13 players available on Monday with only Morgan Cheli (foot) ruled out. Jana El Alfy (calf) is questionable while Ashlynn Shade (right hamstring) is good to go.

“Jana went a little bit today in practice — actually longer than I thought. So we'll see how she responds tomorrow,” Auriemma said. “But Ash — for sure; Jana — we'll see. I hope so. That'd be nice.”

New and improved Sarah Strong?

All throughout the offseason, Auriemma has gone out of his way to praise Sarah Strong. During summer workouts, he mentioned that she looks “way better” than she did in the national championship game when she dropped 24 points on 10-15 shooting to go with 15 rebounds. At the start of official practice on Sept. 29, Auriemma said Strong’s impact will be “pretty significant, even more so than last year.”

That trend continued on Friday when the coach seemed downright giddy about the sophomore.

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