Ann Strother led UConn with 16 points in yesterday's blowout win over Holy Cross.

In case you missed it, yesterday was Ann Strother Day in the Connecticut media. Stories in the Courant, the Day, the Post, and the Bulletin. The basic message of all of them: Ann is doing well, but needs to find a way to be more assertive, especially when it comes to late-game crunch time.

Which leads to a eery tie-in with yesterday's Rick Lopez post.

When the Denver Post broke this story last October with its amazing series of investigative reports, there were more than a few Hoopster parents who strongly defended Lopez. The Strothers were among them.

Jan Strother told the paper: "I know (my husband) Ken and I looked at each other in the beginning of all this and said, 'Do we really want to raise an unassertive girl in this world?' The answer was no."

"I don't think there's anyone that could have prepared me better," said Ann at the time. "He's an amazing coach."

For a time, Lopez lived in the Strothers's house. "Our family was close (to the program). If there was anybody who would know, it'd be me, and I never saw anything," Strother told the Post in 2003.

Some (though not the Strothers, as far as I know) even said that the accusations were just the lies of disgruntled players motivated by their jealously of other Hoopsters' successes. "Parents make up stories, and it's pure, downright jealousy," said Barbara Walters, whose daughter, Keirsten, played at UConn.

As the evidence comes out, those kinds of statements look increasingly callow.

This is a story that we need to pay attention to and see what lessons can be learned. One should be obvious: the coach-player relationship has a potential for abuse, and institutions and parents have a duty to be vigilant even if the coach is producing success on the court.