The release of UConn's 2014-15 schedule means -- never mind football -- college basketball is just around the corner. Sort of.

The Huskies can actually start practicing on Oct. 3, per NCAA rules, though they likely will start after that. Teams can get in 30 practices in the 42 days prior to their first game (in UConn's case, on Friday, Nov. 14 against Bryant).

Anyway, here's a breakdown of UConn's 2014-15 schedule, with a look at some of the Huskies' opponents:

Tuesday, Nov. 4, vs. Southern Connecticut State University (exhibition): Huskies play Owls in an exhibition for second straight season. Won 93-65 last season at Gampel.

Sunday, Nov. 9 vs. Assumption College (exhibition): Greyhounds, Huskies have never met in an official game.

Friday, Nov. 14 vs. Bryant: Just second time programs have met. UConn demolished Bulldogs 88-58 in 2008 in Hartford.

Thursday, Nov. 20 at Puerto Rico Tip-Off in San Juan, Puerto Rico, 12:30 p.m.: Huskies open up against College of Charleston. Will UConn be going against current assistant Karl Hobbs, who is reportedly a candidate for the (amazingly) still vacant head coaching job?

Friday, Nov. 21 at Puerto Rico Tip-Off in San Juan, Puerto Rico: UConn will face either Texas A&M or Dayton. Flyers beat Ohio State, Syracuse and Stanford last year en route to Elite Eight, where they finally fell to Florida.

Sunday, Nov. 23 at Puerto Rico Tip-Off in San Juan, Puerto Rico: Huskies could face Boston College for second time in as many seasons after not playing former Big East rivals for nearly 10 years. Steve Alford's New Mexico, which beat UConn in Paradise Jam finals in 2012, and George Mason (need we remind you) are other possible foes.

Sunday, Nov. 30 vs. Texas: Longhorns return all five starters and should be a preseason Top 15 pick – until Rick Barnes finds a way to mess it all up.

Friday, Dec. 5 vs. Yale: Huskies tamed Bulldogs 80-62 last year in the teams’ first meeting in 10 years.

UConn holds a 44-22 all-time advantage. Yale won't have Stratford's Brandon Sherrod, who'll be singing somewhere across the globe with the Whiffenpoofs.

Sunday, Dec. 14 vs. Coppin State: UConn is 5-0 all-time against Eagles, who will also play at Michigan this season.

Thursday, Dec. 18 vs. Duke at IZOD Center, East Rutherford, N.J., 8 p.m.: Despite losing Jabari Parker and Rodney Hood to the NBA draft, Blue Devils will be a preseason Top 5, maybe even No. 1. Duke boasts the top-rated recruiting class in the land, led by 6-foot-10 center Jahlil Okafor. This should be a fun one, as great rivalry is renewed. Two of Huskies’ biggest wins in program history (the 1999 national championship game and the 2004 Final Four) came against Duke. The Blue Devils, of course, handed UConn a crushing, overtime loss in the 1990 Elite Eight, ending the Huskies’ “Dream Season” on a Christian Laettner buzzer-beater. Duke holds the overall series edge, 5-4, including the most recent meeting, a 68-59 win on Nov. 27, 2009 in the NIT Season Tip-Off championships at Madison Square Garden.

Monday, Dec. 22 vs. Columbia: UConn is 7-2 all-time against the Lions, most recently with a 70-57 win on Nov. 11, 2011 at Gampel.

Sunday, Dec. 28 vs. Central Connecticut: Huskies face former longtime UConn assistant Howie Dickenman’s crew for first time in nine years. UConn has never lost in 12 meeting with these Blue Devils.

Wednesday, Dec. 31 vs. Temple: For first time in three years, UConn isn’t on the road for New Year’s Eve. Huskies open up AAC play against Owls, who finished ninth in the 10-team league a year ago at 4-14.

Saturday, Jan. 3 at Florida, O’Connell Center, Gainesville, Florida, 2 p.m.: Gators went 36-3 last season – 36-1 against teams not named UConn. The Huskies edged Florida on Dec. 2 at Gampel, 65-64, on Shabazz Napier’s 15-foot jumper at the buzzer. Gator coach Billy Donovan called the play “luck,” and Florida had the chance to avenge the loss in the Final Four. But the Huskies’ clamped down defensively, frustrating SEC player of the year Scottie Wilbekin all night, and needed no “luck” to score a 63-53 win. This game finishes the teams’ home-and-home series.

Tuesday, Jan. 6 at South Florida, Sun Dome, Tampa, 7 p.m.: Huskies stay in the Sunshine State for an AAC bout with USF and its new head coach Orlando Antigua, the former John Calipari assistant at Kentucky. Antigua should help Bulls on recruiting trail, but that won't do them much good this season.

Saturday, Jan. 10 vs. Cincinnati, 11 a.m.: Sean Kilpatrick (the guy who was peeved he lost out to Napier for AAC player of the year honors) and Justin Jackson are both gone, but Bearcats should play their usual tough defense and be solid once again.

Tuesday, Jan. 13 at Tulsa, Reynolds Center, Tulsa, Oklahoma: Huskies’ first-ever trip to Tulsa would’ve been more fun if Danny Manning were still head coach. But he bolted for Wake Forest, and instead former Missouri, Miami head man Frank Haith is at the helm. This could be a tough game for Huskies.

Saturday, Jan. 17 at Stanford, Maples Pavilion, Palo Alto, Calif.: Cardinal handed UConn its first loss of the season last year, 53-51 on Dec. 18 in Hartford, and wound up advancing to the Sweet 16.

Thursday, Jan. 22 vs. Central Florida, 7 p.m.: Knights have lost virtually everyone from last year’s team that went 4-14 in AAC, including all-league pick Isaiah Sykes. Could be a long season in Orlando. Incidentally, this will be only time the teams play this season.

Sunday, Jan. 25 vs. South Florida, noon: Anthony Collins, a preseason all-AAC pick who missed almost all of last year due to injury, should be back at the point for Bulls. Corey Allen, Jr. and Chris Perry are also decent returnees.

Thursday, Jan. 29 at Cincinnati, Fifth Third Arena, Cincinnati, 8 p.m.: Are the Bearcats UConn’s biggest rival in the AAC?

Sunday, Feb. 1 at Houston, Hofheinz Pavilion, Houston, 3 p.m.: Huskies return to site of their awful New Year’s Eve loss last season. Kelvin Sampson has taken over as head coach, but Ta’Shawn Thomas  (Oklahoma) and Danuel House (Texas A&M) have both transferred, leaving cupboard bare. Had those two stayed, Cougars may have been an NCAA tourney team. Now, they'll rely primarily on a bunch of JUCO's.

Wednesday, Feb. 4 vs. East Carolina, 7 p.m.: First meeting as league rivals between Huskies and Pirates. UConn actually holds a 3-1 all-time series lead, but haven’t played each other since 1978.

Saturday, Feb. 7 at Tulane, Devlin Fieldhouse, New Orleans, 6 p.m.: Green Wave will play most home games at 3,500-seat on-campus arena, but it’s possible this one could be switched to downtown arena where New Orleans Pelicans play.

Thursday, Feb. 12  vs. Tulsa, 7 p.m.: Don’t sleep on Tulsa, which went on a late-season surge and won the Conference USA tournament last season. Golden Hurricane is led by James Woodard, a do-everything guard who could warrant preseason all-AAC honors.

Saturday, Feb. 14 at SMU, Moody Coliseum, Dallas, 9 p.m.: An ESPN College GameDay presentation, should be a rowdy night. Mustangs could’ve been preseason top 15 if No. 1 national recruit Emmanuel Mudiay hadn’t bolted to play professionally in China, but they still might be the AAC favorites. After all, SMU did beat UConn both times they met last season.

Thursday, Feb. 19 at Memphis, FedExForum, Memphis, 9 p.m.: Huskies went a perfect 3-0 last year against Tigers, including twice at FedExForum – the latter game a 72-53 dismantling in an AAC tournament bout.

Sunday, Feb. 22 vs. Tulane, 4 p.m.: Green Wave return 90 percent of its offense from team that went .500 overall (17-17) and in C-USA (8-8).

Wednesday, Feb. 25 at East Carolina, Williams Arena, Greenville, North Carolina, 7 p.m.:  Four of five top scorers are back from team that went 17-17 overall.  However, top scorer Akeem Richmond is gone.

Sunday, March 1 vs. SMU, 2 p.m.: A CBS-televised affair, could be marquee game of AAC schedule. Despite no Mudiay, Mustangs have all-AAC standouts Nic Moore and Markus Kennedy back, along with talented Keith Frazier and Xavier transfer Justin Martin.

Thursday, March 5 vs. Memphis, 9 p.m.: Tigers lost Joe Jackson and other top guards to graduation, but may have league’s best frontcourt, led by all-AAC pick Shaq Goodwin and AAC rookie of the year Austin Nichols.

Saturday, March 7 at Temple, Liacouras Center, Philadelphia: Owls lost top scorer Dalton Pepper to graduation, top rebounder Anthony Lee to transfer (Ohio State). Could be another tough one for coach Fran Dunphy, who'll rely on whole slew of newcomers.

Sports reporters are supposed to be neutral and play it right down the middle when it comes the teams and sports that they cover. There's no cheering in the press box, they say, and with the occasional notable exception, that largely holds true in college basketball.

What we can root for, however, is the story. It makes things much more enjoyable and interesting to cover when there are intriguing storylines behind certain teams, games or -- in this case -- conferences. The American Athletic Conference, to be exact.

While no one was happy to see Louisville leave (and no one really cared about Rutgers' departure), we all knew it was coming. We also were hoping for some good stories to pop up in the AAC, even without Louisville. Danny Manning was joining the league as head coach at Tulsa. His two battles against Larry Brown, who coached Manning to a national title with Kansas in 1988 (or did Manning lead Brown to that title?) was juicy stuff. And joining Brown at SMU was Emmanuel Mudiay, the No. 1 recruit in the nation, per most recruiting services.

Mudiay would make SMU better than it already was -- and the Mustangs already were pretty good, with Nic Moore, Markus Kennedy and Keith Frazier returning and Xavier transfer Justin Martin joining the fray. SMU beat UConn twice last year and would rightfully be not only the preseason favorite to win the conference, but a legit candidate for the Final Four. This was going to be fun.

Then, it all unraveled. Manning joined Louisville as another ACC defection, bolting incoming Tulsa for Wake Forest. All whole bunch of good players transferred (TaShawn Thomas and Danuel House of Houston, to Oklahoma and Texas A&M, respectively; Temple's Anthony Lee to Ohio State; USF's John Egbunu to Florida). 

And the big blow was Mudiay, who apparently had a whole bunch of eligibility concerns stemming from his two years at Deion Sanders' Prime Prep (who ever would have guessed that could happen?), is instead going to play professionally in China.

Suddenly, the AAC just got a whole lot less interesting next season.

Mike Aresco addressed the media an hour before tip-off today. Here's some of what the AAC commish had to say:

“The conference is doing well, obviously having five teams in the Top 25. It’s not something that necessarily surprised us. We knew we had good teams. We thought Temple might be in a transition year, they’ve gone to six straight tournaments. But SMU picked up the slack and ended up being ahead of schedule. It’s been a good year, and obviously that’s on the heels of the Fiesta Bowl and UCF, and what the football teams have done in our conference.”

(on how important SMU’s success has been)

“It’s huge. You can’t overstate it. We need that additional team, and a team that’s going to have that kind of focus. Larry Brown is Larry Brown, you’ve got a Hall of Fame coach. (Rick) Pitino’s leaving the conference, obviously, a Hall of Fame coach. In addition, he’s got some great recruits coming in … we know he’s got great people coming in. That’s going to be enormous. There’s a special thing going on down there. They’ve been selling out. They’ve got Moody Coliseum renovated. I’m going down March 5 – I had been down there before they opened it – it’s a beautiful place. People have really embraced the team in Dallas, and I think it’s going to continue.”

“Next year, you’re still going to have Temple, UConn of course, Cincinnati, Memphis, and Tulsa, with its basketball tradition and Danny Manning, coming into the conference. Our lower-tier teams have not had a lot of success this year, but they’ll get better, quickly. Their recruiting will be improved, because of the conference they’re in. Donnie Jones at UCF told me his recruiting has been way better than it’s been, because of the conference he’s in. We’re really optimistic about basketball.”

(on whether AAC could offer student-athlete stipends if power-5 do so)

“Yes, indeed. This is permissive legislation … Although we don’t have the resources they have, we don’t have the TV deal money they have – we have exposure just as good as any of them – (and) they can do certain things, but it’s permissive, meaning we can do it, too. As a conference, we’ve already committed to provide a full cost of attendance stipend, if that’s passed. It’s unclear yet what that’s going to be – whether it’s going to be based on federal guidelines, whether it’s cost of attendance for each individual school, and that can include incidentals, laundry, travel and other kinds of things that kids have not necessarily had covered by their full scholarships. But whether it’s a fixed amount, we’ve committed as a conference that we’re going to do it. And we’re probably going to do other things that they plan to do (paying for families to come to certain events, etc.) … we have every intention of being a conference just like those other five, which we’ve always been as a BCS conference.”

(would the league let some schools do things that others can’t?)

“We’ll let the individual schools make those decisions … for instance, there are some programs in certain conferences that are really good in one sport, and they would want to compete for national titles where maybe they can’t do it elsewhere. Would that particular school be allowed to reinforce that particular sport? We’re going to have Title IX issues, we want to ensure that if there’s a stipend, it would include our women’s sports. There’s a lot unclear we need to settle. Right now, I think the concept of autonomy in terms of financial issues with those conferences, I wouldn’t say it’s settled, but it’s moving in that direction. I think if there’s no real opposition among the NCAA, the real issue is how it’s going to be defined.”

“The one thing we do know, our group of five conferences – we want to be viewed like those other five – we as an individual conference, we’re establishing that we’ll be able to do what the other five are going to do, if we want to. How we vote and how we determine that, we don’t know yet.”

(on Cincinnati AD Mike Bohn’s assertion that his chiefgoal was to get Cincy out of AAC and into a power-5 league)

Aresco added: 

“Right now, realignment seems to have settled down. We’re very proud of the conference we have, it’s a strong conference. We want people to support our conference. Cincinnati will support our conference. I think you’ll see a lot of supportive comments coming out of Cincinnati about our conference.”

Elswhere, Omar Calhoun was putting up some pregame shots:

Of all the head coaching jobs Larry Brown has had over the years – and there have been 13 of them, between college basketball, the NBA and the ABA – his first one very nearly was at UConn.

Brown was Dean Smith’s assistant coach at North Carolina in 1967 when Jim Hickey, the former UNC football coach who had just taken the athletic director’s job at UConn, offered him the Husky job that had been just vacated by Fred Shabel, who had left for Penn.

Brown, 26 at the time, politely declined.

“I was just a little bit nervous about me being that young,” he recalled on Friday morning, prior to leading his newest team, SMU, in practice. “It was my second year as a coach. Even though, playing for Coach (Frank) Maguire and Coach Smith and Mr. (Henry) Iba (in the 1964 Olympics), having an opportunity to coach your own team – coach let me coach the freshman team, even though I was involved with the varsity – I just thought maybe I was too young. So, I passed it up.”

Instead, UConn hired Burr Carlson, who was subsequently fired after two poor – (11-13, 5-19) seasons.

“I wouldn’t have been 5-19,” Brown promised.

In 1969, Dee Rowe was hired and helped lead the program back to respectability. And, of course, when Jim Calhoun took over in 1986, UConn went on to unprecedented success – three national titles, four Final Fours, etc.

For all his success – induction into Naismith Hall of Fame, only coach to win NBA and NCAA titles – Brown doesn’t look back on what could have been had he taken the UConn job.

“Nobody could’ve done what Jim (Calhoun) did, what Dee did,” Brown noted. “Except Dee played that damn 2-3 zone.”

In fact, Brown has few regrets at all when it comes to his coaching career. Still, the one thing he might have done differently is stay in the college game a bit longer.

“I’ve been so lucky,” he said. “Coach Maguire and Coach Smith and Coach (John) McLendon were really mentors for me. Coach Smith spent 36 years at North Carolina. If you go over his first five years – the scandal when he got the job, there were a lot of issues – they were not smooth for him. I would’ve liked to have been able to stay at one place. Even though I love the pros, I wouldn’t change one of those jobs for anything, I just think I’m more of a college coach. But I think as a pro coach now, you’re coaching college kids.

“I would’ve liked to have had the opportunity to have families come back, ex-players come back. That’s why I love being here now. (Saturday), we’re going to have a lot of ex-players coming back. I used to take a lot of pride in Coach Smith remembering everybody’s name, every family member’s name. There was some continuity to being a Carolina player.”

There will be a family atmosphere on Saturday against UConn. Some of Brown’s former NBA players – including Allen Iverson and Dikembe Mutombo – are expected to be at the game. And, of course, so will UConn coach Kevin Ollie, who played with Iverson and Mutombo under Brown with the 76ers in 2000-01.

"I’m proud of Kevin, I admire what he’s done and what he’s going to continue to do,” said Brown. “But, it’s like playing against Danny (Manning), there’s no fun in that. But, the one nice thing is, when you play Connecticut, you know you’re in a big-time conference, playing against the type of team that I was hopeful we’d have the opportunity to play when we came here.”

While the word out of UConn has been that 7-foot-1 German product Enosch Wolf will be joining the team in mid-December, that doesn't appear to be a done deal quite yet.

Wolf, who started playing for Wilbraham & Monson Academy in Winchendon, Mass. last week, may stay and play there for the full season rather than enroll at UConn.

Wolf is currently battling a knee injury and has gained about 30 pounds (now checking in at about 260) since April. He's not in great shape, and the UConn coaching staff is a bit disappointed about that right now.

"We're not sure yet what's going to happen there, in terms of whether he's going to stay for the whole year," said Wilbraham & Monson coach Chris Sparks. "I think they're still working through some of that stuff ... I go on what they tell me."

Wolf has already signed his national letter of intent and has been accepted at UConn. It's also possible he'll enroll at UConn in mid-December, red-shirt, and let the Huskies' staff get him in better shape.

"It's not figured out yet," was about all Wolf would say about the situation.

Wolf said he's had some problems with his left knee for the past couple of weeks, though he says it's been feeling better lately. He played in a National Prep Showcase game today at Albertus Magnus College against Tilton School. Wolf didn't do much offensively, staying out on the perimeter a bit more than you'd expect from a 7-footer. He also picked up a couple of first-half fouls. He did tear down some impressive rebounds on the defensive end.

Here's a little video footage of Wolf on the basketball court:



Ha ha, just kidding. OK, here is some footage of Wolf today, stepping out and missing a 3-pointer (it's probably no more revealing of his abilities than the previous video I posted):



If Wolf is cleared to join the Huskies a week or so before Christmas, he could help the team off the bat, according to Sparks.

"I definitely think he can. His conditioning is improving, but playing us every day and playing in the Big East are two different things ... He's got a high basketball IQ, shoots the ball well (and) is just a great guy."

Said Wolf: "I know I have to get way bigger for the Big East. I'm tall, I think I know how to use my body, get some rebounds."

His strengths, Wolf said: "I can pass the ball pretty good. I have good court vision for a big guy. I really love to pass the ball."

And what does he need to work on?

"Everything," Wolf said, point-blank. "You can never stop working."

"He's been terrific," Sparks added. "He's working really, really hard. He's focused on getting in shape and being ready to help UConn out next year and give them a lift."

By "next year," Sparks seemed to mean the 2011-12 season, not this upcoming January as had originally been thought.

*** Oh, and keep this name in mind for the future: Nerlens Noel, a 6-11, 195-pound Class of 2013 center for Tilton School. Noel lists UConn, as well as Duke, Providence and Washington among his schools of interest.

"He'd definitely be interested in (UConn), they've already got two of our kids there," Tilton coach Marcus O'Neill said referring to Alex Oriakhi and Jamal Coombs-McDaniel. "He's a tremendous shot-blocker, a good rebounder. He's got a pretty good feel for the game overall. For a big guy, he's got good vision."

*** Plenty of Division I coaches (mostly assistants) at this tourney. Went to take a seat at the press table and asked the tall fella sitting there if the seat next to him was taken.

"Yes, it is," said Danny Manning, now an assistant at Kansas.

Beau Archibald is here, too. His brother-in-law, Mark Pope, is an assistant at Wake Forest, so Beau -- who still lives in Connecticut -- is spending the weekend with him. He said he doesn't have any job prospects lined up quite yet.

*** In case you haven't figured it out by now, no, I'm not in Hawaii. No comment.