There is not a more pressing issue in the sports world right now than the seemingly daily reports of NFL players being charged with domestic abuse. So with UConn director of athletics Warde Manuel meeting with the five Connecticut newspaper reporters who made the trip for tonight's UConn/South Florida game I asked the always straight shooting Manuel if he has addressed UConn's student-athletes about this issue in recent days and weeks.

"I have spoken to the coaches about it," Manuel said. "It hasn't come directly from me to the student-athletes but I have talked to our coaches in the locker rooms and in the meetings they are having with our student-athletes, my address to them is about their behavior and being great citizens on campus and in the community. That is something I say to them but I haven't addressed specifically the issue of abuse. I think it is understood when I say to all of student-athletes male and female that I expect them to carry themselves with pride, passion and excellence on campus and in the community with everything that they do.

"We will address it and we will have programs specific to that - as we have in the past - this year and my expectation from all of our student-athletes is they carry themselves the way their parents, their coaches and the way I, (UConn) President (Susan) Herbst and the university community expects them to do."