Lady Tigers travel to UConn

• By SCOTT HOTARD
• Advocate sportswriter
• Published: Jan 3, 2009 - Page: 1C - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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Happy New Year, Van Chancellor. Your young, improving Lady Tigers just broke in 2009 with a 64-50 breakthrough against Nebraska.

Up next? A trip to the XL Center in Hartford, Conn., the University of Connecticut’s home away from home.

An XL challenge, to be sure.

In UConn, LSU will face a team the 65-year-old Chancellor dubbed one of the best five in the history of women’s basketball.

“They’re No. 1,” Chancellor said, “and nobody else is No. 2 in my mind.”

For the record, North Carolina is No. 2. But only one team — UConn — has first-place votes in either the AP poll or the coaches’ poll.

The Huskies (12-0) have held the top spot in each poll since the preseason. They have won all 12 of their games by double figures, including six wins by 40 points or more.

Sophomore forward Maya Moore, widely regarded as the nation’s top player, has averaged 18.2 points and 8.3 rebounds while averaging just 27.3 minutes a game.

No wonder the Huskies get such high praise from Chancellor, a Women’s Basketball Hall of Famer with 21 years of college coaching experience.

“I think these are the opportunities — as an athlete and a coach — you have to welcome,” he said. “If you don’t, you ought not dress out.”

To be sure, this LSU team is not the one a national TV audience watched Nov. 16, when the Lady Tigers lost 63-52 to Notre Dame on ESPN2.

Seven freshmen have grown. Junior Allison Hightower, the team’s most experienced player, has become the go-to force Chancellor needs her to be.

After a 1-3 start, LSU (6-4) has won five of six, including Thursday’s coming-of-age performance against a promising Nebraska squad.