My mother loves UConn basketball, and she especially loves the UConn women. She never misses a game. It all started when I enrolled at UConn in 1993 and she has had Husky Fever even since.

Now my mother never missed a sporting event of her three kids, but until she found the Huskies she wasn't into watching sports if it didn't involve sitting in the bleachers of a local Ansonia park. Growing up, she never liked us to even watch any sports during dinner, she thought that it was family time and that should not be interrupted by the sounds of a play-by-play announcer yelling. Years later however, she has Husky Fever so bad that she plans her meals and social life around the UConn basketball schedule.

It is amazing what you will do for a Husky-crazed mother. While in college, I had some classes with Jen Rizzotti and Kara Wolters. Do you know how humiliating it is to ask a classmate for an autograph? But she got the 1995 Sports Illustrated with Rizzotti on the cover signed by the UConn star.

Through the years, my mother has even gotten better at understanding the game of basketball. It started with just knowing all the players' names and now she has conversations with me and "breaks-down" the game. She always calls me after a big win or a heart-breaking defeat to talk about her excitement or disappointment. Just tonight we talked about UConn's opening round win over UMBC and how she is looking forward to their second round match-up with Wisconsin-Green Bay. She was even excited to tell me that she had filled out her brackets for the women's NCAA Tournament and wanted to give me her Final 4 picks. So without further ado, here are my mom's picks:

UConn, Duke, Tennessee, and North Carolina

She said she went with all the top seeds because she thinks that these four teams are just too strong right now to get upset. Mom then said she has the Huskies playing the Lady Vols in another classic championship game. You will never meet a more loyal person than my mother, so I didn't even ask who she had winning the whole tourney, but I think we can all assume that she has Geno raising his 6th National Championship trophy on April 3rd in Cleveland.

I hope UConn wins another championship, but not for the trophy case in Storrs, but rather for my mom and the phone call I hope to have with her on April 4th.

Don