Shenneika Smith, Auriemma have a bond

HARTFORD, Conn. -- Shenneika Smith locked eyes on her idol almost instantly.

Completely starstruck, the St. John's guard turned to the one person she knew could ensure a meeting with him.

"I have a pretty good relationship with [Geno Auriemma], so I brought her over to him," Smith's coach, Kim Barnes Arico -- who brought her to Big East media day when the guard was a freshman -- said Sunday night. "They chatted, and she was just in awe after."

The feeling was mutual.

Auriemma, the longtime coach of perennial power UConn, saw something special in Smith -- and the overconfidence of a 'typical New York kid."

"I just tried to tell her that you've got a lot to learn, and if you pay attention and you listen to your coaches and go to school and work hard, you've got a chance to be a great player in this league," Auriemma said. "Don't waste it. Don't ruin it. Don't be like one of those kids that comes out, and next thing you know, two years from now, we don't know where you are."

This season, Smith has made it tough for basketball fans to forget her name. And because of that, Auriemma and the third-seeded Huskies were aimed at payback against St. John's Monday night in the Big East Tournament semifinals at the XL Center in Hartford.

Smith's 24 points helped the second-seeded Red Storm outlast seventh-seeded Louisville in overtime in Sunday's quarterfinal. And it was Smith who propelled the Red Storm to a 57-56 upset of UConn in hostile Storrs, Conn., on Feb. 18. Her three-pointer with eight seconds left snapped the Huskies' home winning streak at 99 games and marked UConn's first home loss to an unranked opponent in almost 19 years.

"They just have this look about them -- and it's kind of bugging me, because they think they're really good," Auriemma playfully said of St. John's. "I liked it better when they weren't sure whether they could win or not. But I get the sense watching them that regardless of whatever situation they're in or whatever the score is or the time, they're going to find an answer, and somebody's going to step up for them.

"Shenneika's been fabulous the whole year. She's become somebody that they can count on for big plays at big moments. It's remarkable what they've done over there."

In some ways, Auriemma had a hand in reshaping Smith -- and, in the process, the Red Storm.

"I probably said more to her than I would say to any other player because she started the conversation off by saying that she's been in love with me her whole life, and that she wanted her picture taken with me and my autograph," Auriemma said with a grin. "And that's when I kind of fell in love with her."

Thanks to another nudge from Barnes Arico, Auriemma chatted with Smith the following year at Big East Media Day when the guard was a struggling sophomore in need of a confidence boost, Barnes Arico said.

"I said, 'Coach, can you just grab Shenneika for a minute and talk to her for a minute?' And he did," she said. "He really pumped her up. He gave her a bit of confidence and made her feel good. She came back and was a different player."