Portland, Ore. — Sometimes, in the locker room, they give KK Arnold a microphone and let her ask her UConn teammates questions. It’s generally an exercise in hilarity as Arnold, the freshman guard from Wisconsin, does most of the talking.

On Easter Sunday from the Moda Center at Portland Regional 3, Arnold was interviewing teammate Ashlynn Shade while associate coach Chris Dailey was seated nearby.

“So we’re here with Ashylnn Shade and um, I just want to know ...” Arnold began.

“No ‘um,’” Dailey corrected her.

“I just want to ask you, like ...” Arnold restarted the question.

“No ‘like,’” Dailey said.

“Please!!!!” Arnold shouted, as her teammates erupted in laughter.

It’s what every day with Arnold is like, UConn coach Geno Auriemma said, as the third-seeded Huskies (32-5) get ready to take on No. 1 Southern California in the NCAA women’s basketball tournament’s Elite Eight on Monday night.

“She’s a joy,” Auriemma said. “She brings tremendous light to anything, whether it’s at breakfast in the morning, whether it’s at shootaround, whether it’s on the bus, she just has a lightness to her, she loves life. Her mom is like that.

“Whatever she’s thinking, whatever she’s gone through that maybe she’s not completely happy with, you never see it, ever, ever, ever. That kid is on, the switch is on the entire time you’re around her and I think it’s infectious to all the other players. She has the ability to lift you.”

Arnold played 40 minutes in Saturday’s 53-45 victory over Duke in the Sweet 16, finishing with 12 points, five steals and four assists.

Auriemma, of course, told of the play against Duke where Arnold, who used her defense and quickness to disrupt the Blue Devils, was supposed to “pass it to Aaliyah (Edwards) and get the hell out of the way.” She did not and wound up getting her shot blocked.

“I just didn’t let that affect me,” Arnold said. “Because if I did it would have affected the next two or three plays after that.”

Following the game, UConn star Paige Bueckers was being interviewed by ESPN when Arnold snuck up beside her and wrapped her in a hug.

“Yeah, no, my personality has never changed,” said Arnold, the sixth-ranked recruit in the nation coming out of high school. “I’ve been like this since I can remember, honestly. You can ask my parents.

“I’ve always had just a ball of energy and always very grateful to be in the moment and everything. ... Have to keep the laughter up.”

All-Ivy

Three members of the USC starting lineup are graduate transfers from the Ivy League: Kaitlyn Davis (Columbia), McKenzie Forbes (Harvard) and Kayla Padilla (Penn).

Because the Ivy League does not allow players to compete after graduation, that created a quandary when the NCAA granted all players an extra year of eligibility due to the vast disruption created by COVID-19.

If the Ivy League players wanted to use their extra year of eligibility, they had to do so elsewhere.

“I think that’s the best rule in the history of rules,” USC coach Lindsay Gottlieb said with a smile of the Ivy’s stance on grad students. “No, just kidding. ... That’s bigger than me, us. That’s an Ivy League principle. That league obviously maintains a different kind of philosophical barometer than anyone else.

“That’s great for that league. Certainly these players have shown with an extra year ... they have their Harvard degrees, Columbia degrees, Penn degrees, now they have a year to experience something different.”

Forbes, a 6-foot guard/forward who’s averaging 14.0 points and 3.3 assists for the Trojans, said it’s impossible to say whether, given the choice, she would have stayed at Harvard or chosen to seek a grad year elsewhere.

The players have all had the support of their former teams, Gottlieb said, with Harvard coach Carrie Moore traveling to surprise Forbes at a game this season.

In addition, Gottlieb played basketball in the Ivy League at Brown, where she earned her bachelor’s degree in political science in 1999. She said her ability to “speak Ivy with them in these conversations and experiences” helped facilitate the recruiting process.

“I think she speaks more Ivy than I do,” said Davis, a 6-2 forward. “... I came and visited. Everybody was great. It was just a typical easy recruiting process. Everything seemed to fit. Made a good decision, I think.”

Quotable

Baylor coach Nicki Collen, a former assistant for the WNBA’s Connecticut Sun under Curt Miller, responded Saturday to the Washington Post story about LSU coach Kim Mulkey which purported that after Mulkey left Baylor, the program was “left to wither.”

The Bears were 26-8 this season with a berth in the Sweet 16, falling 74-70 to top-seeded USC in Portland.

“I’m not afraid to say I was really, really offended by the article that came out,” Collen said. “Nothing’s withering in Waco. And we’re going to do it our way and it’s going to be just as good. But nothing is withering.

“You can’t get to the Sweet 16 and take a No. 1 seed down to the wire in a one-possession game and say anything’s withering in Waco.”

v.fulkerson@theday.com