Day after

Randy Edsall spoke on his weekly teleconference call today, trying to have some degree of normalcy.

That will be the only thing normal about his day today. He will head to the airport this afternoon to pick up the Howard family. From there they will head to St. Francis Hospital, and then eventually back to UConn where Jasper's body is. He will be with the family today.

The UConn-West Virginia game will go on. There was no talk of postponing it because Edsall feels Jasper would want it played.

"We didn’t give it much thought in terms of postponing the game," Edsall said. "Jasper wouldn’t want us to do that. Jasper is a competitor, he loved the game and loved the spirit of the game and will be his want and will to go out there to play the game."


The Huskies have a lot of healing. Several players were close to Jazz and as he lay dying on the pavement outside the student union a pair of UConn players were there with him. Edsall didn't identify the players, but one held Jasper in his arms. The other had his hand on the wound trying to stop the bleeding. They may play, Edsall is not sure where they are mentally.

“There are a couple of guys I have to sit down and talk with to see where they are at," Edsall said. "At least 2 guys, had Jasper in his arms and the other was pressuring where the wound was and had blood on his hands. They are pretty deeply affected right now. I talked to both of them each day, see where they are at today and tomorrow. If they don’t feel like mentally ready to play, that’s their decision.”

Edsall said he would respect the players wishes.

The Huskies will be honoring Jazz by putting JH stickers on the back of their helmet. They are also going to bring his uniform and helmet to the games this season.

West Virginia plans on having a ceremony for Howard. Bill Stewart said he will announce details tomorrow. He has been playing telephone tag with Randy, but he has talked to Hathaway and UConn assistant coach Dave McMmichael, who coached with Stewart and is from West Virginia.

Huskies will practice tomorrow.