Shabazz Napier experienced some discomfort during practice on Friday evening, and it will be a game time decision on whether he plays tomorrow against Pittsburgh.

Napier, UConn’s top scorer at 17.1 points per game, injured his left shoulder after being fouled within the early minutes of the Huskies’ 73-58 loss to Louisville Monday night in Hartford. He sat out of practice on Wednesday and Thursday, getting treatment from trainer James Doran, and said Thursday afternoon that he was feeling better and had good range of motion, but was still experiencing pain.

UConn was originally slated to practice in Storrs on Friday morning and fly to Pittsburgh. But in a move to get Napier a little more rest, coach Kevin Ollie moved practice to Friday evening at the Petersen Events Center, where the Huskies (12-4, 2-2 Big East) face Pitt (14-4, 2-3) on Saturday at noon.

Napier went through all of Friday’s practice, which didn’t include much contact, according to UConn spokesman Phil Chardis. He did feel some discomfort in his left shoulder and was somewhat limited. Napier was due to receive more treatment from Doran tonight and Saturday morning to see how his shoulder responded.

The entire UConn men's basketball team (including walk-ons) and coaching staff (as well as former coach Jim Calhoun) spent about 90 minutes at the Newtown Youth Academy Thursday afternoon. They were greeted by about 150 kids, plus several adults. The team sat at tables and signed autographs of the UConn poster of themselves for every kid (or adult) who wanted one, and also posed for many photos.

After that, they broke up into groups at different baskets around the facility and hung out with the kids. They played games like "knockout," shot some baskets and engaged in other fun horseplay.

As the Huskies left, birthday boys Kevin Ollie and Ryan Boatright were presented with cakes.

Here's what Ollie had to say, per UConn men's basketball spokesman Phil Chardis:

"We know that this community is coming together and will prevail and we just wanted to go there and show our support, show them that our team and the whole state of Connecticut is behind them. It was great for us to be able to see some smiles on their faces and to spend some time with them and do what we could. It was a great experience for our kids. We were proud and honored to be able to help.”

As UConn prepares to face No. 18 NC State in the Jimmy V Classic on Tuesday night at Madison Square Garden, it's worth noting that Jim Valvano shares connections with both schools.

That's right: Valvano's first full-time, Division I job was as Dee Rowe's assistant coach at UConn from 1970-72. After graduating from Rutgers, Valvano spent one season at Division III Johns Hopkins before joining Rowe's staff. Ironically, they were the only two losing seasons of Rowe's head coaching career.

(Here's Jimmy V and fellow UConn assistant Billy Kilbaugh (left), circa 1970-71, courtesy of UConn sports info department) ----->>>>

"I uswed to speak at dinners honoring Jim," Rowe told UConn men's basketball SID Phil Chardis, "and all these people would get up and say what a great coach he was. And I would say, 'He isn't that great. Those were two of the worst years I ever had in coaching.' He was great at keeping me from jumping into the Connecticut RIver."

Valvano let UConn in 1972 to become head coach at Bucknell, and later moved on to Iona and, of course, NC State, where he won the national title in 1983.

On the eve of the BIG EAST tournament, SNYwill celebrate UConn’s storied men’s basketball program by unveiling Huskies Heroes: the top 10 all-time players on Monday, March 5 at 9 pm. In this one-hour show, fans can see where their favorite players – such as Ray Allen, Kemba Walker, Ben Gordon and Rip Hamilton rank among the all-time best. SNY experts and college basketball dignitaries debated, discussed and ultimately decided the top 10 Men’s basketball players of all-time at UConn.

The blue ribbon panel that selected the top ten UConn players includes:

· Mike Tranghese: Former BIG EAST Commissioner.

· Donny Marshall: Former UConn star basketball player.

· Joe D’Ambrosio: play-by-play voice for UConn Men’s basketball

· Phil Chardis: Associate Athletics Director of Communications for UConn

· Tim Welsh: Current SNY Analyst and Former BIG EAST Head Coach who previously earned

Coach of the Year honors in 1997 and 1998.

· Tarik Turner: SNY BIG EAST analyst

As the top-ten player rankings are released, host Gary Apple will be joined in-studio by a panel of experts – including Tim Welsh, Donny Marshall, Tarik Turner and college basketball columnist Lenn Robbins of the New York Post – who won the APSE award winner as well as the Jim Murray Award for outstanding college sports writing. The studio panel will debate the players who did – and didn’t – make the top-ten list. The program will also feature exclusive interviews and reactions from the players selected in the top-10.

Late in the game in in overtime, Alex Oriakhi and Roscoe Smith must have felt a little like Colts WR Reggie Wayne ("I shouldn't have even suited up") felt after losing to the Jets a few weeks ago. Both players hardly sniffed the ball as UConn's three-guard attack of Kemba Walker, Shabazz Napier and Jeremy Lamb weaved the ball around the perimeter seemingly every possession, failed to penetrate and wound up settling for long jumpers and 3's -- a few of which went in, but not enough.

The Huskies fired up 30 3-pointers today, hitting just eight of them. The unimaginative offense late in the game wasn't the only reason they lost -- certainly the inability to stop 5-11 Peyton Siva from driving the lane played a major part. Still, the failure of Walker and Napier, in particular, to drive the lane effectively seemed to stick in the craw of Calhoun afterwards.

When the J-I's Phil Chardis started asking Calhoun about Louisville's swarming defense on Walker, Calhoun snapped: "I don't want to talk about Kemba right now. Next question."

That, my friends, was as close to Calhoun has come to publicly criticizing Walker since probably his freshman year.

When asked if there was any friction between he and the coach, Walker simply shook his head "No." And I don't believe there is any. But if Calhoun was looking to pick his spot in perhaps motivating Walker a bit, there was no better time than the present.

After today's 7-for-23 (2-for-10 on treys) performance, Walker is now shooting 32 percent (24-for-74) in his last four games. Worse, he seemed to force some bad shots this afternoon -- and admitted as much afterwards.

"They're throwing a lot of guys at me," Walker said. "I'm not taking good shots. I've got to do a better job getting good shots."

*** Siva scored the game-tying shots at the end of both regulation and first overtime – the latter a dunk with 7.8 seconds remaining that really was inexcusable, from a UConn perspective.

"I have no explanation for it. None," Calhoun said. "I tried to use different centers, but they both got out of the way to make sure he had a clearer view of the rim. And, obviously, we shouldn't be getting beat that easy at the top, either."

Siva (team-high 19 points) added two more driving layups in the second overtime.

"We told our guys: do not let the clock run out, go three overtimes, be offensively aggressive," Louisville coach Rick Pitino said. "Come out and just make sure you attack the rim. You can't win on the road unless you attack the rim, and we came out in both overtimes really looking to attack it."

***Lamb's father, Rolando, was up from Georgia to take in his first UConn game. He saw his son play well (9-for-17 shooting) in the loss, which gave Jeremy some consolation.

"It is (a good feeling)," Jeremy said, "and then again, we didn't get the 'W', so it's not really satisfying, you know?"

***UConn outrebounded Louisville by a resounding 51-36 margin -- a result, in part, of the Cardinals overplaying UConn's guards.

***Two members of last year's UConn team, Jerome Dyson and Gavin Edwards, sat next to each other behind the Huskies' bench. The two played an NBDL game against each other Friday night, with Dyson scoring 37 points in Tulsa's win over Springfield.

***Both teams' coaching staffs wore sneakers in support of the American Cancer Society.

***Calhoun is now 7-14 all-time against Pitino-coached teams and 4-5 since Pitino came to Louisville.