In the no good deed goes unpunished department, UConn women’s basketball coach Geno Auriemma met with reporters recently to talk about the upcoming U.S. national team training camp and during the course of the interview he was asked about his brief congratulatory call to Little League pitching phenom Mo’Ne Davis from the Taney Dragons, who is from his hometown in Philadelphia and has publicly said she someday hopes to play basketball in his program.
A coach from a rival school immediately turned Connecticut in for a recruiting violation, claiming Auriemma was not allowed to talk to her until July 1 of her junior year in high school.
Someone needs to read the NCAA rule book more carefully. Since Davis is only going into eighth grade, she is not considered a prospective student athlete. UConn officials did the right thing here and quickly got behind Auriemma on this one.
“I will probably get in trouble for saying this but somebody from the Sixers called and contacted some friends I know and said this kid is great, this kid loves basketball and I think congratulations from Coach Auriemma would really go a long way to helping this kid,” Auriemma told reporters. “I go and get contacted by some people with Little League World Series and they say, “Is it OK if she calls you?” I said ‘How about I just call and you tell her I said congratulations.’ I call the office and they said, ‘You know Coach, she is standing right here.’ I said ‘put her on the phone, I want to say congratulations.’ I say congratulations. She is 13 and the conversation lasts about two minutes and she hangs up. How about a school turned us in as a recruiting violation because we are not allowed to talk to her until July 1 of her junior year of high school. But that is the world that we live in.
”It shows you what is wrong not only for things that go on but also with some of the people that I coach against.”
Auriemma, for the record, has never seen Davis play basketball.
