As the UConn men's basketball team prepares to play the UMass Minutemen Thursday evening at the Mullins center, Connecticut Director of Men's Basketball operations Patrick Sellers is experiencing deja-vu. Sellers not only served as an assistant coach at UMass last season but he has also been through this same experience before.

Sellers spent four years as an assistant coach at Central Connecticut under Central head coach and former UConn assistant Howie Dickenman. Last season when he left Central for UMass, Sellers returned to the state of Connecticut with the Minutemen to face his former mentor Dickenman and the Central Connecticut State Blue Devils.

"It's similar to the feeling I had last year at UMass going back to play Central Connecticut," said Sellers discussing UConn's match up with UMass on Thursday. "It's going to feel real different...I really pull for those guys, I speak to those guys still now."

Sellers enjoyed his time at Massachusetts and is grateful for the experience he had coaching under Lappas. "That one year from coach Lappas I learned a lot of basketball, especially breaking down film and player breakdowns."

Even though he had to take a step down from assistant coach at UMass to Director of Men's Basketball Operations at UConn, Sellers feels Connecticut is a great fit for him. He hopes to work his way up to an assistant coaching position at UConn, just as current Connecticut assistant coach Andre LaFleur and other UConn assistants have done.

"The hard part was leaving the recruiting and the coaching because it's so hard when you're not on the floor involved with the guys," said Sellers."But the thing is, when I came here I remember the first day we went to the meeting with the coaching staff. Coach Calhoun said something that reminded me of coach (Dickenman) and I just said to myself I'm back home. It just felt good to be back home and in a situation I'm so familiar with, how we do things here at UConn and Central."

Sellers connections to UConn and the state of Connecticut certainly made the transition easier. Although he's from South Carolina, Sellers has spent a great deal of time in Connecticut. He attended Central Connecticut State University where he played basketball and graduated in 1991. He was named East Coast Conference defensive player of the year as a senior. After spending several years coaching high school basketball, Sellers joined Dickenman's staff at Central as an assistant coach for four years before leaving for Massachusetts. Of course Sellers may be best known in the nutmeg state as the brother of former UConn standout center Rod Sellers.

"It's so eerie," said Sellers. "Just sitting in the office talking to these guys it seems like I've been here forever because with coach (Dickenman) and with my brother playing here I kind of had an inside look at it back then. It seems like I've been here forever."

"Pat has always wanted to come to UConn when he could," said UConn head coach Jim Calhoun. "Even though he had to switch positions, that's always difficult to do. He's good, he's terrific. He's really been great for us."

Game Notes:

Head coach Jim Calhoun isn't sure what to expect from UMass as they have been erratic all year. Calhoun does expect several different zone looks from Massachusetts on defense and spent time preparing his team for such Wednesday at practice. Tempo is something Calhoun also hopes to control as UMass may look to run down the clock and slow things down against the Huskies.

Calhoun also feels a key to the game will be containing UMass standout center Rashaun Freeman. Freeman, 6-foot-9, 255 pounds, is averaging 15 points and 7.3 rebounds per game while shooting 57% from the floor. But the UConn coach isn't taking UMass lightly and feels they are a dangerous team looking for a big win.

"Even though we've dominated this rivalry, still a Connecticut win for UMass would be something they would really like to have," said Calhoun. "Now you add to that the national championship, the Big East, the proximity of the two schools, all those things go into the fact that it certainly would be a very good win for them."

The Huskies will travel to Massachusetts late Wednesday evening. They will participate in a light morning shoot around on Thursday and plan to visit the Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield in the afternoon. UConn will play UMass at the Mullins center Thursday evening at 9:00 pm. The game will be televised on ESPN2.

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