Jessica Hill/Associated Press
ALBANY — To protest the absence of his star player Napheesa Collier from the recent list of finalists for the Naismith Trophy — awarded annually to the country’s best college basketball player — the UConn women’s coach Geno Auriemma invoked … James Naismith himself.
“Dr. Naismith is rolling over in his grave,” Auriemma said this week. “He is. He never envisioned that somebody that good would be left off his list.
“I feel bad for her,” he said of Collier. “If she played at any other school, she’d be the front-runner with the numbers she puts up.