Stanford players remember the agony of watching Connecticut steamroll them out of the Final Four last year, except junior JJ Hones.
She had a bad Internet connection.
Sidelined last spring after blowing out her left knee for the second time at Stanford, Hones spent the spring semester in Spain. It fulfilled a degree requirement but left her few options to watch her teammates play the Huskies in the Final Four.
While the Cardinal got rolled by the Connecticut 83-64, Hones tried making out the game on a choppy Internet feed from her host family's computer.
``I couldn't have watched it necessarily as good as I wanted to, and been yelling at the computer screen,'' Hones said Monday.
Hones is healthy for an NCAA tournament for her first time at Stanford - sort of. Three days after Stanford (36-1) gets its rematch against Connecticut (38-0) in Tuesday's championship, Hones will have surgery again on her twice-repaired knee.
Hones is undergoing microfracture surgery Friday she hopes will ease the cartilage damage. She doesn't know whether she will return to the Cardinal next season but says she needs the surgery regardless.
``I don't want to be one of the old people that goes for a walk and has to put ice on their knees and back,'' Hones said.
Hones played 13 minutes against in Stanford's semifinal win over Oklahoma on Sunday. Since she's going in for surgery, Hones isn't worried about doing more damage to her knee.
Teammate Jayne Appel is glad to have Hones against Connecticut this time.
``She's one of our greatest outside shooters,'' Appel said. ``I think that will play a big part in tomorrow's game.''
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ANOTHER TRIUMPH: Connecticut Tina Charles, named The Associated Press player of the year when she arrived in San Antonio, picked up another honor Monday by winning the Naismith Trophy.
Charles was selected over teammate Maya Moore, last year's recipient, and two other finalists, Stanford's Jayne Appel and Nebraska's Kelsey Griffin. Charles is the sixth Connecticut player to win the award, one of several accolades handed out during the Final Four.
Moore isn't leaving San Antonio empty-handed. The junior repeated as the Wade Trophy winner on Saturday, becoming just the third player to do so.
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GOING NOWHERE: With six national titles and a record 77-game winning streak, UConn coach Geno Auriemma has practically conquered it all in women's college basketball. And at 56, Auriemma said Monday he has no interest in trying his luck on the men's side.
That's not to say Auriemma hasn't thought about it.
``I just have one huge advantage over everybody else,'' he said. ``I never had to make that decision because nobody ever asked me.''
Auriemma pictured one job as good as his: the life of NBA assistant, which Auriemma imagined as working with the best players in the world, going home and never having to answer questions about why your team is terrible.
But for an assistant gig, Auriemma comes with a steep price tag.
``Two million,'' he said.
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TUNING IN: Television ratings for UConn's win over Baylor on Sunday were up 37 percent from when the Huskies played in the national semifinals last season, according to ESPN.
The UConn-Baylor game drew a rating of 2.6, which ESPN said was its best overnight rating for the Final Four in two years. Stanford-Oklahoma had a rating of 1.7.
