Following an easy win over Louisville last season and just days prior to a date with Syracuse, legendary Connecticut head coach Geno Auriemma verbally ripped into then-stud freshman Maya Moore.

Despite Moore’s 23-point performance, Auriemma chewed out his star, pointing to the fact that her effort on the glass was dwindling, telling her she doesn’t rebound anymore. Just shoots 3-pointers and runs back.

The former blue-chip prospect just sat there unfazed at the least from one of Auriemma’s signature tirades.

Days later, her response to Auriemma’s diatribe came at the expense of the Orange: a career-high 17 rebounds to go along with 13 points in a hard-fought 65-59 victory in the Carrier Dome on Jan. 15, 2008.

It was just another day at the office, or rather on the hardwood for Moore, who last year became the first-ever freshman to win the Big East Player of the Year award, while finishing second in voting for National Player of the Year.

No. 1 UConn hosts Syracuse on Saturday at 2 p.m. at the XL Center in Hartford.

The rookie from Lawrenceville, Ga., put together arguably the greatest maiden campaign ever seen in women’s college basketball, averaging 17.8 points per game while amassing 7.6 rebounds on average. Moore finished seventh in the Big East with a .543 percentage from the field, shot .420 from behind the arc, fifth best in the Big East, and recorded 11 double-doubles, tying a league record.

After head coach C. Vivian Stringer’s Rutgers squad lost to Connecticut, she didn’t hold back when asked about Moore, who had 19 points and seven rebounds.

‘She is the best player of this decade, there was nothing we could do with her,’ Stringer said at the press conference. ‘Maya is in another category.’

Halfway through this year, Moore is averaging 18.3 points and 8.9 rebounds per game, as the nation’s clear-cut leading candidate for Player of the Year, leading the No. 1 Huskies to an undefeated record (16-0).

During the preceding years, while strolling the confines of Collins Hill High School, Moore became one of the most decorated players in prep history, twice winning the Naismith National Player of the Year Award.

Subsequently, the 6-foot-0 sophomore endured one of the most heated recruiting battles in recent memory, as Southern powers Duke, Georgia and Tennessee sought the skills of Moore.

But in the end, Moore surprised many people when she signed on with the Huskies, along with Auriemma, the coach who Moore would soon find out was more like her than she had anticipated.

‘They are like mirror images of each other,’ said Lorin Dixon, Moore’s roommate and fellow teammate on last year’s Big East All-Freshman team. ‘They have a great relationship, and they understand one another.’

In all of Auriemma’s 24 years with the Huskies, there have been few players so much like him. No example better proves this than their uncanny, almost unhealthy, obsession for excellence.

‘We both strive for true perfection,’ Moore said. ‘That perfect game or that perfect play, even though we know you are never going to have that all-around perfect game, we still try as if it’s possible’

And for Moore, at the end of the recruiting process she felt that only one coach was in another category, only one coach could take her to the next level, Auriemma.

‘Sometimes his expectations even exceed mine,’ Moore said. ‘But that’s why I came here, to exceed my expectations. I chose to come here because I want that from him.’

Through Moore’s one and a half years in Storrs, Conn., she has proven she is more than up to the challenge, as Auriemma hasn’t been able to faze Moore in games, let alone in practice – something Husky greats like Rebecca Lobo, Diana Taurasi

and Tina Charles even eventually succumbed to.

‘I haven’t seen him break her in practice,’ Dixon said. ‘Maya handles it very well, she keeps up the same intensity.’

As a sophomore, Moore’s next step is to move into a leadership role, something she already has experience with. When she was in high school, Moore received a call from her middle school coach, with a request. A middle school player named Stephanie Whitaker was struggling in her classwork, and Moore’s coach called on the high school star to return as a mentor. Moore was happy to oblige.

‘She was in the eighth grade, I was in high school, and she had some problems getting her priorities in order in the classroom,’ Moore said. ‘I came by practice one day, and talked to her for a few minutes, and she got some really good grades the next semester, it was great to see her reaction from only talking to her one time.’

It’s a trait Syracuse sophomore guard Erica Morrow has witnessed in her time with Moore.

‘We played each other all throughout high school,’ Morrow said. ‘We happened to be on the same team in the McDonald’s All-American game, and all through AAU she’s a great person, a nice person.’

And when Moore faces the Orange for the first time since that indelible night last year this Saturday, the question for Orange fans shouldn’t be whether or not she is the best player in the country.

Rather how great can this player truly become.

Dixon believes even the sky, as people know it, may not be the limit.

‘There are things that Maya will accomplish that aren’t even known yet,’ Dixon said.

‘She is gonna be one of the greatest players to ever live, if not the best.’

aolivero@syr.edu

Published on January 14, 2009 at 12:00 pm