Briana Banks is in her sophomore year as a Guard for the UConn Huskies. As an only child, she was introduced to basketball by her mom and dad. "They both played basketball in high school, and they played in the military so I just kind of grew up around it."

Briana knew the first time she talked to Coach Auriemma on the phone that she wanted to come to UConn. "He told me what he expected of me. He let me know that he didn't need me here but he wanted me here. He didn't tell me what he could give me or what I could get out of it. The other schools all said I need this, I need that, and you can be this, and you can be that."

Briana's experience here at UConn is what she expected. "Academically school has been kind of calm. I thought it would be more fast paced and harder but we'll see what happens. On the basketball court it's been more than I expected. I didn't expect it to be as hard as it is."

Briana's best memory so far at UConn was against Stanford University last year as a freshman. "My first big game is most memorable. It was a big game. We had played games prior to that one but that was my first real big game."

When asked what makes Coach Auriemma happy Brianna said, "Go hard, give effort whether you're right or you're wrong, as long as you go hard, he's pretty much pleased. He's the type of person that will be the same guy during a game as he is any day, he's pretty much real with you all the time"