Brian Koonz
Connecticut Post
Newtown, CT, United States
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Past articles by Brian:
Final Four notebook: Staley a rising star in coaching
DALLAS — South Carolina coach Dawn Staley won her first national championship Sunday night with a 67-55 victory over Mississippi State at the American Airlines Center. In 2020, Staley hopes to win her first Olympic gold medal as a coach. Mississippi State opened an early 29-13 gash on the scoreboard in its 66-64 semifinal victory over UConn. The opening barrage set the tone, and ultimately, set… → Read More
Final Four notebook: Staley a rising star in coaching
DALLAS — South Carolina coach Dawn Staley won her first national championship Sunday night with a 67-55 victory over Mississippi State at the American Airlines Center. In 2020, Staley hopes to win her first Olympic gold medal as a coach. Mississippi State opened an early 29-13 gash on the scoreboard in its 66-64 semifinal victory over UConn. The opening barrage set the tone, and ultimately, set… → Read More
Five takeaways: UConn loses a game, finds its heart
[...] even as UConn stayed within striking distance all the way and turned an eight-point halftime deficit into overtime, a historic 66-64 victory belonged to Mississippi State, the team with Texas-sized gulps of courage in one of the unlikeliest upsets in NCAA women’s tournament history. OFFENSIVE REBOUNDS — The Huskies grabbed exactly one offensive rebound in the first half by Napheesa… → Read More
Brian Koonz: Strip club ad shows need for cultural reboot
DALLAS — One by one, the Final Four coaches sat in their chairs and stood on their soapboxes the other day at the American Airlines Center. “I’ve never had anything but women on my staff,” said Auriemma, who built the best program in college basketball history with that philosophy. Up the stairs at the American Airlines Center, in a room called the Gentleman Jack Lounge when it’s not used for… → Read More
Brian Koonz: Strip club ad shows need for cultural reboot
DALLAS — One by one, the Final Four coaches sat in their chairs and stood on their soapboxes the other day at the American Airlines Center. “I’ve never had anything but women on my staff,” said Auriemma, who built the best program in college basketball history with that philosophy. Up the stairs at the American Airlines Center, in a room called the Gentleman Jack Lounge when it’s not used for… → Read More
Brian Koonz: ESPN burns its base with late tipoff
DALLAS — Carol Stiff remembers the old days, when the UConn women’s basketball team started its games at the bottom of a TV screen. “It was a first-round game and UConn was playing like Iowa, but we had Old Dominion going into overtime,” said Stiff, vice president of women’s sports programming at ESPN. Husky fans would do well to burn up the ESPN phone lines again Friday when No. 1 seed UConn… → Read More
UConn notebook: Husky hoedown at the Final Four
DALLAS — When UConn’s Tierney Lawlor graduates in May, she will leave Storrs with a bachelor’s degree in sustainable farm and ranch management. Lawlor, a senior guard from Ansonia, hopes to go West — way out West — and live her dream with cattle and other livestock. [...] what’s better than a hoedown joint with a Texas Longhorn standing guard with a mighty rack, foot-stomping line dancing and… → Read More
Brian Koonz: UConn cuts down Oregon, but not the nets
Just ask Notre Dame and Baylor, the ones waiting to stab national championship flags into a summit they never reached. [...] for No. 1 seed UConn, the program of best practices and best players, the Final Four has become a permanent address as much as an annual pilgrimage, the precious reward for unmatched excellence. UConn coach Geno Auriemma will never take a Final Four for granted, even as… → Read More
Brian Koonz: UConn cuts down Oregon, but not the nets
Just ask Notre Dame and Baylor, the ones waiting to stab national championship flags into a summit they never reached. [...] for No. 1 seed UConn, the program of best practices and best players, the Final Four has become a permanent address as much as an annual pilgrimage, the precious reward for unmatched excellence. UConn coach Geno Auriemma will never take a Final Four for granted, even as… → Read More
Oregon Trail: Hebard hopes next stop is Dallas
“We walked in and it looked like a daycare with toys and slides and things like that,” John Hebard said Sunday by telephone from Fairbanks, Alaska. The little girl with the bottomless brown eyes, soon to be named Ruthy Hebard, was just four days old when her parents adopted her. On Monday, Ruthy Hebard and No. 10 seed Oregon will meet No. 1 seed UConn, the 11-time national champions, for a spot… → Read More
Brian Koonz: In her senior year, Chong isn’t letting go
BRIDGEPORT — For years, Ossining High has kept its best stories inside the gothic cathedral that passes as a school. Never mind the razor-wire fences and the electric chair legacy down the street at New York’s most notorious prison. [...] for UConn senior Saniya Chong, the story was shared early, long before she played the game of her life Saturday for the top-seeded Huskies in an 86-71 victory… → Read More
Brian Koonz: In her senior year, Chong isn’t letting go
BRIDGEPORT — For years, Ossining High has kept its best stories inside the gothic cathedral that passes as a school. Never mind the razor-wire fences and the electric chair legacy down the street at New York’s most notorious prison. [...] for UConn senior Saniya Chong, the story was shared early, long before she played the game of her life Saturday for the top-seeded Huskies in an 86-71 victory… → Read More
Ansonia beats the drum for UConn’s Lawlor
The kid with the drums and the cowlick was Marty Lawlor, who like Ahearn, never left the city — and the people — he loved most. The two became lifelong friends, just like their wives and kids and grandkids. The top-seeded Huskies travel to Webster Bank Arena this weekend for the NCAA tournament’s Bridgeport Regional. For a busload of Ansonia fans on Saturday, Ahearn will be the ringmaster of the… → Read More
Ansonia beats the drum for UConn’s Lawlor
The kid with the drums and the cowlick was Marty Lawlor, who like Ahearn, never left the city — and the people — he loved most. The two became lifelong friends, just like their wives and kids and grandkids. The top-seeded Huskies travel to Webster Bank Arena this weekend for the NCAA tournament’s Bridgeport Regional. For a busload of Ansonia fans on Saturday, Ahearn will be the ringmaster of the… → Read More
UConn leaves Syracuse, and a calendar, far behind
Top-seeded UConn punished No. 8 Syracuse at both ends of the floor Monday and rolled to a 94-64 win in the NCAA tournament’s second round. [...] after two games in Storrs, the Huskies (33-0) have played with orchestrated abandon, running the floor with brilliant passing and executing the kind of defense that crushes a team and ends its season. Before a vocal crowd of 8,274 fans and a national TV… → Read More
UConn leaves Syracuse, and a calendar, far behind
Top-seeded UConn punished No. 8 Syracuse at both ends of the floor Monday and rolled to a 94-64 win in the NCAA tournament’s second round. [...] after two games in Storrs, the Huskies (33-0) have played with orchestrated abandon, running the floor with brilliant passing and executing the kind of defense that crushes a team and ends its season. Before a vocal crowd of 8,274 fans and a national TV… → Read More
UConn chasing a championship and a conference
The Huskies turned into a dominant, national athletic program, most especially in men’s and women’s basketball. The UConn women have won 11 national championships — and counting — while the Syracuse women have made exactly one appearance in the final game of the season, an 82-51 loss to the Huskies last April. In a July 2016 analysis by Forbes that reviewed TV deals, football playoff and bowl… → Read More
UConn chasing a championship and a conference
The Huskies turned into a dominant, national athletic program, most especially in men’s and women’s basketball. The UConn women have won 11 national championships — and counting — while the Syracuse women have made exactly one appearance in the final game of the season, an 82-51 loss to the Huskies last April. In a July 2016 analysis by Forbes that reviewed TV deals, football playoff and bowl… → Read More
Opportunity lost
Hudson, a repeat felon, is already serving 10 years on gun charges, with more time on the docket for attempted murder, police predict. Instead of chasing a college degree, or an honest job right out of King, he chased easy money and hard time selling drugs and popping caps, police say. Hudson’s mother, Donna Lee, disputes the claims of Stamford police and prosecutors. “I need to clear my son's… → Read More
Facilities director helps preserve history, unlock future for Sandy Hook
NEWTOWN — Gino Faiella, the man with the keys, leans over a table and runs his index finger across the paper classrooms. Even now, 60 years after these drawings were rolled into an architect’s tube, the brittle pages still represent a town’s covenant with its children. “I couldn’t bear to throw them away,” said Faiella, 52, the longtime facilities director for Newtown public schools. A new Sandy… → Read More