A proud-looking woman watched approvingly from the upper section of the stands at The RAC Tuesday night as the UConn men's basketball team warmed up prior to its game with Rutgers.

Her intense interest in the Huskies' otherwise mundane pregame stretches and jump shots, coupled with the No. 11 UConn jersey she sported quickly made it evident that she was more than just a fan. Julie Harriday had made the trip from Maryland to watch her son, Jerome Dyson, make his return to the UConn lineup.

"It hurt him to the bone, not being able to play," Harriday said of Dyson's recent 30-day suspension. "But sometimes you have to have something taken away from you before you can revalue things."

Harriday said Dyson spent much of his suspension "really focusing on his classes. And he had been working out every day, Coach Sellers had him taking 500 shots every day. He was spending time in the gym, running, doing different things."

Most of all, Dyson was regretful for what his stepfather, Kevin Harriday, called a "once-in-a-lifetime mistake. You can see it in his face when you talk to him. He knows he made a mistake."
Added Mom: "I told him he has to put it behind him in order to have his mind focused."

Dyson, of course, was caught along with Doug Wiggins with two bottles of alcohol in Wiggins' parked car by campus police back on Jan. 26. A small amount of marijuana was found near the car and the two were subjected to a university-imposed drug test. Dyson failed for a second time, resulting in the 30-day suspension.

"He basically said, 'Mom, we weren't do anything,'" Harriday reported.

Indeed, there are still some elements about the situation that bother Harriday: how it was handled by campus police and the media, for instance.

"I'm still looking at things," she said. "There are some underlying things."

Meanwhile, her son is looking towards the future, while keeping an eye on the past.

"We have to take a glance back every so often so we don't go back there," Julie Harriday said. "It was a learning experience."