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Message: [QUOTE="UConnCat, post: 4046202, member: 15"] Best wishes for Samarie. A little misremembering on how things went down. Here's a summary of events: [URL unfurl="true"]https://www.swishappeal.com/2011/1/23/1951193/samarie-walkers-departure-from-uconn-leave-many-astonished[/URL] [I]Sources have said that Walker approached UConn coach, Geno Auriemma, shortly after his return from the World Championships in October saying she was unhappy with basketball and wanted a change. It was said that it had nothing to do with UConn but everything to do with not liking the sport since her sophomore year in high school at Chaminade-Julienne. She accepted her scholarship to UConn because, ‘it was what she was suppose to do’. Her idol was former UConn player Tamika Williams and she should follow in her footsteps to make her parents proud. She showed up at UConn overweight and out of shape. She wasn’t interested in playing pickup with her teammates or working on her game during individuals. In that meeting it comes out that she wanted to leave UConn to study fashion in Chicago. She stated her parents did not know how she felt and she just wanted to make them happy. The coaches decided that they will try to work with her to resolve the situation because they thought she hadn’t thought it through enough. UConn starts the season and Walker is a solid contributor for them and the coaches genuinely believe that she has taken a turn for the better even though there is some disconnect in some of her practice efforts. That apparently all changed after they returned from Christmas break. At this point it was like pulling teeth to get anything accomplished with her. According to the source, it was during the Louisville game that everything boiled over. Disenchanted with Walker’s performance, Auriemma asked 'if she wanted to play.' Walker reportedly just stared at him. She was then benched for the remainder of the game. It was at that time that the decision was made to leave her home from the road trip to North Carolina, for some "self discovery." She reportedly tells her mother that she has injured her hamstring again and was left home because of that. Once the team returns from North Carolina, it is assumed by many involved with the program that Walker would have a renewed focus and be ready to contribute again. Walker meets with Maya Moore on the team's return and its reported that she was unfazed about being left home and had no desire to be a part of their program. The coaches apparently meet with Samarie again on Thursday. Samarie informs them that she does not want to play basketball at UConn. This is apparently different from her thoughts in the Fall that she just didn't like basketball, now it was that she didn't want to play at Connecticut because of the pressure and scrutiny. It is at this time that coach Auriemma makes Samarie call her mother and inform her of her intentions so they can begin the paperwork to get her released. Samarie Walker’s mother was apparently confused as she thought Walker was going to do anything to remain at UConn and proceeds to beg her to stay. Not wanting to upset her mother Samarie states she will stay until the end of the season but the source says the UConn coaches aren’t interested in the idea after the 4 months that she had just put them through. When asked what she wanted to do, Kentucky was on top of a couple of schools she mentioned. It seemed to surprise UConn how quickly everything developed because as of Thursday she was still enrolled in and attending classes at UConn. Geno Auriemma was informed when returning from an event in New York on Friday that she was going to play basketball at Kentucky. Apparently in 2 days she rediscovered her love and passion for the game, after not being able to do that for the last 4 months at UConn and decided that Kentucky was the place to continue her career. Maya Moore after UConn’s 66-46 victory over Pittsburgh on Saturday night wanted nothing to do with the conversation. "We’re done with that," she said. "That’s an old subject. We are moving on from that."[/I] [/QUOTE]

Verification: First name of men's bb coach

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