The UConn Fast Break - 7/5/2022

Welcome back from the holiday weekend. We've got some exciting news!

July 05, 2022

Welcome to this week’s Fast Break, and thank you for being a subscriber. Hope you enjoyed your Fourth of July weekend!

This weekly newsletter is brought to you by the folks who run The UConn Blog on SB Nation, Storrs Central, The UConn Hockey Hub on Patreon, and the UConn WBB Weekly newsletter! Please consider sharing or supporting our work!

A few updates from us

You may not follow the UConn athletics media sphere too closely, but some changes did recently occur.

We are no longer the publishing team behind the UConn Rivals site. Owned by Yahoo, they have been a solid partner to us since 2015 but the time came to go our separate ways. There is a limit to how many times I want to chase down a high school football player to do an interview via DM and then write about how much he loved UConn and the facilities and the energy of the coaching staff. We believe in covering recruiting, but there is a better way.

We were always more focused more on in-depth team coverage and features on Rivals, and all that goodness is now moving to our newsletters. The Fast Break will become a hub for UConn men’s basketball fans, and a new newsletter coming out this week will serve fans of Husky football. We look forward to raising the bar for coverage of these programs.

Please subscribe and tell your friends! We plan on bolstering this newsletter offering with robust podcasting and video content, and hope you’ll enjoy checking it out!

Subscribe to the yet-to-be-named UConn Football newsletter here!

Weekly Rewind

Men’s Basketball

Solo Ball commits to UConn - One of two recent commitments for Hurley and staff. Ball is ranked no. 69 by 247 in the Class of 2023.

Jayden Ross commits - The No. 136 overall prospect, Ross chose UConn over Penn State and Virginia Tech, among others.

Film review: Joey Calcaterra - A look into the strengths and weaknesses of UConn’s latest transfer.

Tyrese Martin selected No. 51 overall in NBA Draft - Golden State made the pick before trading Martin to Atlanta.

Whaley signs Exhibit 10 contract, Cole inks Summer League deal - The NBA Draft has come and gone and two former stars look to begin a professional career.

Women’s Basketball

Qadence Samuels commits - A wing in the class of 2023, Samuels is UConn’s third commitment in the class and is ranked No. 35 by ESPN.

UConn WBB Weekly - With news of the non-conference slate dropping, the newsletter focuses on the biggest games the Huskies will play this year.

Conditioning key for Juhasz - An elite player, Dorka Juhasz has disappeared for stretches due to fatigue. Curing that weakness could help her make the next step.

“I don’t know if I was fully ready to leave” - An inside look at Dorka Juhasz’s decision to use her extra COVID-19 year and return to UConn.

Fudd working to heal injury the right way - After foot injuries kept the star from reaching her potential freshman year, Azzi Fudd is taking it slow to ensure full health this year.

Griffin staying confident - The guard is working her way back from back surgery that ended her 2021-22 season before it began.

UConn WBB Weekly - With so many different languages spoken by team members, it’s been a source of bonding for the Huskies.

Chasing Perfection - The latest episode of the podcast looks at whether UConn added enough to its roster in the offseason.

Women’s Soccer

2022 schedule released - The Huskies will open the 2022-23 athletic year on the road against Army on Aug. 18.

Baseball

Jim Penders receives contract extension - After Michigan showed interest in the longtime head coach, he accepted a five-year deal from UConn, instead.

Football

Jim Mora adds several commitments - A trio of Class of 2023 players and a transfer pledged to the Huskies.

Support the most in-depth coverage of UConn men’s hockey out there!

Visit: https://www.patreon.com/uconnhockeyhub

Highlights

Former UConn guard Moriah Jefferson somehow became the first Husky to record a triple-double in the WNBA with her 13-point, 10-rebound, 10-assist performance on Tuesday for Minnesota against Dallas. Check out some of the best moments from her effort.

Memory Lane

With the NBA Draft occurring last week, it’s time to throw it back to 2011, when Kemba Walker was selected No. 9 overall in the draft by Charlotte on the back of an incredible three-year career at UConn, including the 2011 NCAA title. Check out some behind-the-scenes footage of Walker at the NBA Combine.

UConn, Great Pic

Many UConn dignitaries were at last week’s Traveler’s Championship Pro-Am, despite the rainy weather, including men’s hockey head coach Mike Cavanaugh, with his son caddying.

Parting Thoughts

We thought it might be nice to share the bios of the people behind this work, so you can get to know us better.

I’ve been running The UConn Blog since 2013, was running the UConn Rivals site from 2015-2022, and we have a few newsletters, podcasts, and a YouTube channel out there. This is a “labor of love” and very far from a full-time job, however over time we have developed to a point where many team members can legitimately call this a part-time job or side hustle, and one of us is covering UConn sports full-time.

My name’s Aman Kidwai. I graduated from UConn in 2010 and was an office worker for about ten years before becoming a full-time journalist (not in sports). I’ve mostly lived in Washington D.C. since graduating but moving north this summer and very excited about it.

Shawn McGrath is the lead writer of The Fast Break and an editor for The UConn Blog. He’s a 2018 UConn grad and previously covered the men’s soccer, hockey, and baseball teams closely as a reporter for The UConn Blog. Shawn grew up in Massachusetts, currently resides in New Jersey, and is about to get married, reportedly.

Daniel Connolly is a managing editor of The UConn Blog and our lead women’s basketball and hockey reporter. A member of UConn’s Class of 2020, Connolly is the brains behind the UConn WBB Weekly and UConn Hockey Hub newsletters and has done tremendous work over the years on The UConn Blog and UConn Rivals site across all sports.

Dan Madigan is a managing editor of The UConn Blog who oversees coverage of anything and everything but mostly men’s basketball and football. Madigan graduated from UConn in 2017 and was the sports editor at The Daily Campus, an experience which included the privilege of covering the historic 2016 women’s hoops team as a beat writer.

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