Better Than a Long Shot

Carefree and loose, Connecticut’s California kid is a serious concern for opponents.

Diana Taurasi’s NBA-range 3-pointers and sleight-of-hand passing help give the Huskies a good chance to challenge for a third NCAA title.

But first coach Geno Auriemma has to keep the spirited sophomore focused. Occasionally there is too much California in the kid.

“Sometimes it’s OK because it helps her to be really carefree on the court. She doesn’t get tight before big games,” Auriemma said. “Sometimes it’s bad because she doesn’t pay any attention to certain things that I think are important.”

Taurasi arrived at UConn from Chino with quite a prep-school pedigree. She was a high school player of the year and scored more than 3,000 points at Don Lugo High School. Her uncanny knack to make long-range shots was quickly evident -- in her first high school season she hit a 78-footer in a game.

The 6-foot forward/guard finished her rookie season at UConn averaging just under 11 points a game with a team-leading 71 3-pointers, helping the Huskies reach the Final Four, where they lost to eventual champion Notre Dame.

Connecticut leaned on her heavily after All-Americans Svetlana Abrosimova and Shea Ralph sustained season-ending injuries late in the season. Abrosimova went down against rival Tennessee, and the rookie came in and finished with a game-high 24 points in a losing cause.

By then, Lady Vols coach Pat Summitt was well acquainted with what Taurasi could do. The freshman hit a key 3-pointer late in the game in the UConn-Tennessee matchup earlier in the season to seal a 81-76 win.

“She stretches the defense out unlike no one else,” Summitt said. “Diana is physically so strong that she could probably shoot from half-court better than most people can shoot from the 3-point line.”

Recruited heavily in her own back yard, Taurasi picked UConn over UCLA despite her mother Liliana’s desire to keep her close to home. The small rural setting couldn’t be any different from the glitz of Los Angeles. Look at all the trees, Liliana told her during a recruiting visit. No stores. No nothing.

“There was definitely an adjustment not being with my parents, or them not coming out here much,” Taurasi said. “But with the help of everyone, it was a good situation. I was never homesick.”

Her adjustment to big-time college basketball came easier.

“It was definitely everything I expected,” she said. “It didn’t end the way I wanted it to. Throughout the season, there were situations that happened that devastated us. The basketball was quicker and faster. It’s something you have to adjust to, but that’s what your freshman year is for.”

Throughout her first year, UConn’s opponents were ones making the adjustments.

“She’s a very dangerous player and creates a lot of problems for the defense,” Notre Dame coach Muffet McGraw said. “We had to go a little bit further than we had to go for any other team or any other players.”

Auriemma recalls watching Taurasi sink 3-pointers during a Nike camp in the final minute of a game. She moved back with each one--22 feet, 27 feet and 30 feet.

“Nobody would have the guts to do it, let alone make it,” Auriemma said. “But that’s D.”

Keeping her somewhat reined in for 40 minutes is Auriemma’s job, a task that at times can be trying.

“She’s supremely talented, tremendously gifted. In my experience, dealing with talented, gifted kids is that they’re very precocious,” he said. “And they have their own way of doing things. It’s my job to make sure I keep giving her direction. She wants to be great.”

Yet for all her rookie-season miscues--she was third on the team with 72 turnovers--Taurasi continues to amaze her coach. She can contort herself in the lane so that she’s virtually unblockable and finds a way to score, and in the next possession make a 30-foot 3-pointer with a defender in her face.

“Every day I see things I’ve never seen before,” Auriemma said.