Mohegan

It is heresy in some outposts to dare draw comparisons to men's and women's basketball, save perhaps the same 94-foot court and bad officiating. Notable exception: The UConn women, whose attendance, not to mention revenue streams and television exposure, dwarf many men's programs.

Hence, today's supposition: If any women's program in the country were tempted to cheat, based on the allure of more dollar signs and remaining the game's pillar, it might be UConn. Put it this way: Final scores may suggest UConn has the only 12 good players in the country, but, alas, au contraire.

So why are we talking cheating with the UConn women, the program clean enough to have just been scrubbed with Pine Sol? Look around. The papers and web sites are littered with scandals du jour, from Syracuse to North Carolina and even - saints, preserve us - Duke with Rasheed Sulaimon.

Take Syracuse, for instance. Read the 94-page report, shower afterward: Members of the athletic staff forged school work, players were handed cash for appearances as volunteers, others were allowed to bypass the university's drug policy.

The New York Times called them "some of the most widespread and damning transgressions in college basketball in years."

Moreover, Jim Boeheim, the coach, will likely vacate 108 wins and miss the first nine Atlantic Coast Conference games next season. Twelve scholarships will be lost.

There's a pending academic scandal at Carolina, the largest and most egregious in NCAA history. All while the men's basketball program kept winning. Even Duke, despite reports Saturday that quoted Sulaimon's advisor that his client is not currently under investigation by the school. The truth has yet to surface, although "what did he know and when did he know it?" questions have swirled about Mike Krzyzewski.

All of which brings us back to the Huskies, who began their anticipated march through the American Athletic Conference tournament on Saturday at Mohegan Sun Arena, inhaling poor Cincinnati.

Are there temptations to cheat now?

Were there in the old days when Gampel Pavilion wasn't full? Before it existed? When Tennessee seemed in other stratosphere? When Tennessee became a rival?

And so we consult the program's moral compass, associate head coach Chris Dailey, for the answers. Dailey, for the record, wouldn't let one of the players walk to the press conference eating Saturday, reasoning, "if it's not courteous, they shouldn't be doing it."

So, CD, any temptation to cheat in 30 years?

"I went to 13 years of Catholic school," she said. "There was not a temptation. My parents raised me to do the right thing and that there are no shortcuts if you're going to be really good."

More CD: "Geno and I have always been on the same page with this. It's like parenting. Parents I hear all the time say you have to pick your battles. I believe you do. I feel like we established our standard. Once we established that, encouraged it and the kids understood it and bought in, then we were able to loosen the reins. My background is in teaching. I learned you start strict and let students understand and respond. Once they do, you can give them more responsibility. But you can't start out soft and think you can come back and be demanding."

Dailey told the story Saturday of a day back in the Meghan Pattyson era that a player was seen exiting the team bus wearing headphones.

That was a no no. Hence, no players wore them for the foreseeable future.

Makes you wonder what would happen if more coaches were so steadfast with their discipline.

"We went to eat (Friday) night at Michael Jordan's," Dailey said. "The waitress said to us 'I want to let you now how polite the girls are.' She said they had a team in here the night before and one of them was snapping her fingers at me. I hope a coach didn't see it and allowed it..

"You want people to do the right thing and everybody makes mistakes," CD said. "I can't speak for everyone and everyone has a sense for what they feel is right. There are lots of different ways to do it. I don't want to seem like this is the only way. But it's our way."

This is the opinion of Day sports columnist Mike DiMauro.

Twitter: @BCgenius