Here's some news from Monday's workout at Gampel Pavilion:

-- UConn (17-15) appears motivated to make a strong run in the NIT. We'll find out Tuesday night when the Huskies host Northeastern at Gampel Pavilion.

The Huskies are looking at the NIT as a second chance.

"We've got to take advantage of it," sophomore Kemba Walker said. "Some teams have already packed up their season. We're fortunate enough to make the NIT."

-- Coach Jim Calhoun is certainly ready for postseason. He never truly considered turning down an NIT bid. He didn't want the season to end with a dismal loss to St. John's in the Big East Tournament first round last week. 

"Rightly or wrongly -- many times wrongly -- there's never been a fight that I've ran away from," Calhoun said. "There's never been a time that I haven't tried to stand up and go after it.

"If you're a coach the only way to ever maintain any form of sanity, if that's possible, is (to believe) that the next time is going to be better.... You always think if I can just do one more thing, I can save them and get them looking in the right direction. I feel the same way about this team." 

-- Calhoun says he'll play to win, meaning that seniors Jerome Dyson, Gavin Edwards and Stanley Robinson will likely see significant action. He does plan on increasing playing time for his younger players. 

-- Junior Donnell Beverly, the first guard off the bench, is out with a bone bruise on his right knee. He suffered the injury against St. John's. If UConn advances, he may be available for an NIT second round game.

With Beverly out, freshman Darius Smith will fill in as a backcourt reserve.

"Darius has had a really good week and a half," Calhoun said. "He looks more comfortable out on the court."

Freshman Jamal Coombs-McDaniel also played well in practice over the last three days, according to Calhoun. 

-- Several Huskies skipped checking out Big East Tournament action and the NCAA Tournament Selection Sunday show. It was just too painful to watch. Senior Jerome Dyson played a couple newly-purchased video games.

Walker's focus is on the NIT and not that other tournament.

"Right now I'm worried about the NIT and Northeastern," Walker said.

-- Edwards was relieved to find out that UConn received an NIT bid. In 2006, the Huskies went 17-14 and failed to qualify for post-season play for the first time in 20 years.

He feared that the final game of his career was last week's embarrassing effort against St. John's.

"My freshman year we had a similar record and we didn't make the NIT or the (NCAA) Tournament," Edwards said. "There definitely was a little bit of worry that the end of my career was on that terrible game. That was probably one of the worst games that I've been a part of since I've been here."

-- For UConn to go deep in the NIT, senior Jerome Dyson has to break out of the worst funk of his career. 

In the last three games, he's averaged 6.0 points while shooting 23 percent from the field (6-for-26). He's also committed 16 turnovers.

"I've just got to go out and play basketball," Dyson said. "I'm not worried about what people think or what people have to say. Opinions will change if I go out and have a tremendous game."

-- After looking at the NCAA's 65-team field, Calhoun says the Huskies fell two wins shy of qualifying for the NCAA Tournament.

"If we had 19 wins we would have gone just on strength of schedule," Calhoun said. "We needed to get those 19 wins and we didn't get them, so we're in another tournament this year."

-- UConn had sold about 3,000 tickets as of late Monday afternoon.