Hailey Van Lith is in Corvallis for the OSU Team Camp

That always bugged me.  Sydney is a smart girl, but the lure of playing for a national championship and with the best players in the nation pulled her towards UCONN in spite of the fact that Auriemma is narcissistic jerk and has a history of sexual harrassment.  Says something about priorities....

EDIT:  My comment should have been directed at the students who go to UConn who are aware of his history, as I'm sure some are.  My apologies to Sydney, who was surely just naive.

Now which do you think is more likely, regardless of whether the suit was thrown out?  That Auriemma was guilty, or that the lady fabricated the complaint?  Auriemma's perpetual smirk should be a clue to what lies beneath.  Here is a summary of the allegations, which are very specific.  Auriemma is rich and able to hire the best lawyers, so it's no wonder that he got off, and complaints against high profile people like that jackass have to meet a higher threshold, unfortunately.

In a widely publicized lawsuit filed in June 2012 against Geno Auriemma, who led the University of Connecticut women's basketball team to its eighth NCAA championship this season and coached the United States women's national basketball team to the gold medal in the London Olympics, Kelley Hardwick said she had been sexually harassed.

Ms. Hardwick was employed by the National Basketball Association as a director in its security department. She said that, in October 2009, she was providing security oversight to Women's National Basketball Association players who were traveling with the national team to Russia when Mr. Auriemma, the team's head coach, followed her to her hotel room and forcibly tried to kiss her on the mouth, according to last week's ruling by the New York Supreme Court in Kelley D.F. Hardwick. v. Geno Auriemma et al.

She charged that during subsequent trips “he continued to harass her because she spurned his advances,” says the ruling by Judge Cynthia S. Kern. Ms. Hardwick said the situation culminated with Mr. Auriemma telling James Tooley, executive director of the Colorado Springs, Colo.-based USA Basketball Inc., who is a defendant in the case, that he did not want Ms. Hardwick to attend the London Olympic Games and provide security for the national team.

And why was it thrown out?  Not for lack of merit, but because of a jurisidiction issue:

Without considering the merits of Ms. Hardwick's charges, Judge Kern ruled the court had no jurisdiction over the claims. The complaint “contains allegations of discrimination which took place outside of New York by foreign corporations or non-residents,” said Judge Kern in her ruling last week.

“Even if the initial decision to remove plaintiff for the London Olympics work detail was made in New York, the impact of such a decision was felt in London, not New York,” she said in her ruling.

Ms. Hardwick filed a notice Wednesday that she planned to appeal the ruling to the Supreme Court's appellate division.

All this is beside the point. This came up because you stated that it bothers you that Syd doesn't see this your way. That's not fair to Syd. It's possible to like Geno at a professional level, to be willing to ignore a he-said-she-said situation that was thrown out of court, and still be a good - even great - person. And Syd is a great person.

My best guess is that the vast majority of kids like Syd grew up dreaming of playing for Connecticut. At some point, for all but a few, reality came home to roost and they went to other schools. In any given year, about 96% of the top 100 recruits in the nation do not get an offer from UConn. But how many of those 96 do you suppose entered their sophomore year picturing themselves in Storrs? Junior year? Even senior year?

For that matter, how many never get an offer from what would have been their first choice? How many look elsewhere because their number 1 also offered another 4 or 5 star who plays the same position? How many verbally commit and then have a change of heart.

Sydney didn't grow up dreaming of playing for Scott Rueck at OSU. So what? She was probably only peripherally aware of the OSU program, and had never heard of Scott Rueck. But she wound up here, and she and the others put the fannies in the seats, the banners on the wall, and the program on the map. Now young girls do grow up dreaming of playing for Scott at OSU, and much of that is due to Sydney.

Personally, I wouldn't care if she only came here because she did something really bad when she was 17, and a judge sentenced her to 4 years in Corvallis. I'm glad she came, she's glad she came, and all of you are glad she came.

And, if it's all the same to the rest of you, I'd really prefer to read about something other than Geno Auriemma on this site.

Looking at the video, it's evident that Van Lith's strength and quickness are Slocum-like, but with a much better ability to drive to the hoop.  She also displays a level of confidence I've never seen before.  Gave me goose bumps.  Now, can we get back to discussing Auriemma?

We could be in trouble.

Stanford #2
UC Berkeley 3
UCLA 18
UW 20
USC 25
CU 30
ASU 40
AU 49
UU 61 ---- UCON 61
OSU 70
WSU 70
UO -- I gave up at #162

*ucks have one of the nation's west coast's leading programs in fashion technology.  Does that count for Engineering?