Elliott pays visit to her old home

Storrs - The day UConn assistant coach Jamelle Elliott announced her departure to take the head coaching job at Cincinnati, Kaili McLaren said she overslept and didn't know there was a team meeting.

To get to the locker room quicker, McLaren parked her car in front of Gampel Pavilion without the proper authorization and received a ticket.

"So it was just a bad day all in all," said McLaren, a UConn senior who is, like Elliott, from the Washington D.C. area. "… We kind of knew what was happening (with Elliott), but it was still kind of like, 'ugh.' She was taking a step in her life she needed to make. We couldn't just be mad at her."

Today, Elliott returns to Gampel Pavilion with her Cincinnati team to play No. 1 UConn (7:30 p.m., CPTV) in a Big East Conference game.

It is the first time since she was 17 years old that Elliott won't be a part of the UConn entourage, having taken part in all six of the Huskies' national championships as either a player or a coach. She graduated in 1996 with 1,387 points and 1,054 rebounds and the 1995 national title before becoming an assistant under Geno Auriemma for 13 seasons.

"I know today that I'm not really looking forward to the emotions that I'm going to feel when I walk out there," Elliott said in a conference call earlier this week.

"I know they're not going to be happy, laughter and all those types of things. I'm going to feel some emotions that are really sad. I spent half my life there. … The place that I grew up and matured is the state of Connecticut."

Elliott said upon arriving in Cincinnati she spoke to anyone who would listen to promote the Bearcats, even appearing on a Cincinnati Reds television broadcast.

Cincinnati (7-6, 0-1) sold out of floor seats to the women's home games, which were purchased by fans as "VIP" packages. Elliott then won her first game, Nov. 15, against Furman, 85-46.

The basketball part has been more challenging at times than she thought, Elliott said.

"I've always wanted to come to a program where it's a situation that I have an opportunity to build it and establish a foundation and turn it around and start a winning tradition," said Elliott, who took over a team that has finished under .500 in the league each of its four seasons since joining the Big East.

"Whether or not I was prepared for that and knew what to expect and knew what it meant to do those things. … I think I've been pretty patient. There's times I haven't been patient. I think we're moving in the right direction."

Auriemma believes Elliott is in the right spot in Cincinnati. There were times she was passed over for other head coaching jobs, he said, but at Cincinnati she takes over in an established conference that consistently sends its top seven or eight teams to the NCAA tournament.

Elliott said she keeps in contact with Auriemma and also his wife Kathy, as well as associate coach Chris Dailey.

"Those are people I'm gonna lean on no matter what I do in my life," Elliott said.

Auriemma joked that's how he found out he was having dinner with Elliott on Wednesday night, from his wife.

"I remember when I met her she was 17. I remember going to the airport and picking her up," Auriemma said of Elliott. "… I never got to experience that much time with a kid starting at that young of an age."

Elliott said in watching film of UConn (13-2, 2-0), she found herself still yelling at McLaren and senior center Tina Charles for a few of their transgressions, just as she used to when she was coaching them.

"She can relate," McLaren said of the players' relationship with Elliott. "She played under coach. She knows if we don't understand what coach is saying she can break it down for us."