STORRS — Geno Auriemma remembers the yellow specs scattered throughout the stands of a cavernous Hartford Civic Center.
The security guards, donning yellow jackets with their backs to the court, were the only people in attendance during the early days of UConn basketball doubleheaders, which always featured the women first followed by the men later. Auriemma’s voice, the only other audible noise outside of the squeaking of players’ shoes on the court, echoed through the concourse and up to the upper deck.
“There were no tickets to buy,” Auriemma said, recalling the doubleheaders of the mid-1980s. “If you bought a ticket to the men’s game and you wanted to come a little bit earlier, you got to watch a little bit of the women’s game. So, you think back to that in those early years, now you might have two sold-out games in one night.”
The last UConn basketball doubleheader was in Nov. 2022, when the women played NC State, and the men played Delaware State. But note Auriemma’s language: Monday’s “doubleheader” at PeoplesBank Arena — where the second-ranked women will play Cornell at 5 p.m. and the No. 4 men will play Gardner-Webb at 9 p.m. — isn’t a doubleheader like the ones of the program’s infancy.
The games will operate independently, with separate admission and a clearing out of the arena taking place between the end of the women’s game and start of the men’s game. That’s by design, though.
UConn is trying to max out its revenue to stay competitive in the Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) era; selling separate tickets to see two top-five-ranked programs on opening night is a nice opportunity to bring in some cash.
The chance to see Sarah Strong, the reigning Big East and national player of the year and assumed leader of the team, is also enticing.
“If what I’ve seen (this off-season) is any indication, there is a different look to her,” Auriemma said. “It’s different. You can see it already, it’s different. And, you know, she’s going to need some help from the rest of the team to make sure that it’s not all about Sarah all the time.”
Strong will certainly get some help from Blanca Quiñonez (shoulder), Morgan Cheli (undisclosed) and Marine Dursus (foot), all of whom will be available for Monday’s opener, according to Auriemma.
“Not 100%, but they were all there and they all did something,” Auriemma said of his injured players. “Some did more than others, but I’m expecting everyone to be available Monday night for at least something.”
Getting Quiñonez back in the rotation could kick steely freshman Jovana Popovic, who started and starred in all three of UConn’s preseason exhibitions, to the bench. Auriemma will have his hands full delegating minutes throughout what could be a 10-deep rotation.
“You have to play your best players, right?” Auriemma said. “You have to play your best players 40 minutes. But it can’t be your five best players for 40 minutes. So you have to determine how many of those players can you play for 40 minutes during that 40 minute period.”
Ask the players about minutes and lineups and they’ll give a less-than-colorful answer.
“It’s been a tough preseason,” Strong said. “We are all really excited to play.”
Ask them how they’re feeling — why they’re nervous and/or excited — and they’ll give a different response, though.
“My freshman year, I’d be a little nervous,” KK Arnold quipped. “Now, I’m just excited to just get it rolling.”
Arnold, Shade and Strong, along with seven others, all return from last season, but Monday’s regular-season opener will be the first official game for freshmen Popovic, Dursus and Olivia Vukosa — an official indoctrination into the Basketball Capital of the World.
“It’s hard to gauge vibes,” Auriemma said. “People are so vanilla a lot. I think one of things that I want to see is what the identity of the team is early on — how we approach the game, what it looks like, what it feels like. You don’t know those things until you play your first regular season game.”