It’s “Feast Week” and the UConn women’s basketball team is in Portland for its first tournament of the season.

The No. 3 Huskies are competing in the Phil Knight Legacy, which is one of two tournaments in Portland this week, along with the Phil Knight Invitational, to honor Nike founder Knight and all the company has done for basketball.

UConn’s first game of the tournament is against Duke at 6 p.m. Friday in the Chiles Center on the University of Portland’s campus. The Huskies will then play either No. 9 Iowa or Oregon State Sunday at the Moda Center, the home court of the Portland Trailblazers.

“It’s the first trip for these kids, this team, so I think it’ll be a good experience for us coming on the heels of what we did last week,” UConn coach Geno Auriemma said Wednesday. “It’ll be a good test.”

Here are five things to know ahead of the Friday’s game:

A familiar face at the helm for Duke

Kara Lawson is in her third season as head coach of the Blue Devils, though their 2020-21 season was cut short after four games due to COVID-19 concerns. UConn fans might remember Lawson from when she played at Tennessee under Pat Summit from 1999-2003.

The UConn-Tennessee rivalry was at its peak back then. Lawson and the Volunteers faced off with the Huskies nine times during that span, most notably in the national title game in 2000 and 2002, both of which were won by UConn.

Lawson went on to play in the WNBA from 2003-2015, including three seasons with the Connecticut Sun from 2010-13. She won a WNBA title with the Sacramento Monarch before that in 2005. She also won a gold medal with USA Basketball in 2008.

After her playing career ended, Lawson got into broadcasting with the Washington Wizards before stepping into coaching. She was an assistant coach with the Boston Celtics in 2019-20 before taking the Duke job.

Defense leads the way for Duke

The Blue Devils have been led by their defense throughout this young season.

Duke is 5-0 with wins over North Carolina A&T, Charleston Southern, Davidson, Texas A&M and Toledo. The team has only allowed 47.4 points per game which is in the top 15 in the country. The Blue Devils have also held opponents to 29.8% shooting from the field, which ranks eighth.

Meanwhile, UConn boasts one of the best offenses in the nation. The Huskies are averaging 90.7 points per game (sixth nationally) and shooting 52.1% from the field (fourth). That efficiency will be tested in Friday’s game.

“They play exceptionally hard defensively,” Auriemma said the Blue Devils. “They really control the pace of the game. I mean, they make the game go at a pace that’s good for them, which is fast. And I think your guards have to do a really good job of not getting caught up in how much you want to run, how much you want to push the tempo. So it’s not going to be easy getting all the shots that we want to get.”

Injury update: Huskies will be shorthanded again

UConn will be without graduate forward Dorka Juhász. Juhász broke her left thumb in the Huskies’ win over then-No. 3 Texas last Monday. It was announced later in the week that she would be out for at least the next three games.

Auriemma gave 6-foot-1 forward Aubrey Griffin the nod to start alongside Aaliyah Edwards in last Sunday’s blowout over then-No. 10 NC State. The duo stepped up down low to make up for Juhász’s absence, with Edwards recording 20 points, 12 rebounds and four assists while Griffin finished with 16 points, six rebounds and six steals.

The Wolfpack played with four guards, which matched up well with the Huskies. Auriemma note that other teams are going to cause a huge height mismatch and the coaching staff will have to adjust game by game. How much freshman forward Ayanna Patterson will contribute will be a factor as well, and Auriemma said that UConn had Edwards, Griffin and Patterson all on the floor together at times throughout Wednesday’s practice.

Also on the injury front, Caroline Ducharme (neck stiffness) saw her minutes slightly increase against the Wolfpack. She was on the court for 11 minutes after only playing three against Texas.

“I think she understands this is a long process and it’s going to be a little bit at a time, progress is going to be measured, slowly, incrementally,” Auriemma said of Ducharme. “But every day in practice she’s doing a little bit more, a little bit more. And so far the reaction has been good, she just has to get back into playing.”

Azzi Fudd off to a fast start

High expectations were placed on Azzi Fudd leading up to the season, pegged as the Huskies’ go-to scorer with Paige Bueckers out for the season. She’s certainly stepped up and then some.

Fudd is averaging 30 points per game on 54.8% shooting from the field through three games. She was named the Big East Player of the Week on Monday following back-to-back 32-point performances to lead UConn to victories over top-10 teams.

The sophomore guard has already made 11 3-pointers on the season, but she’s shown there’s much more to her game than that. Teams have struggled to slow down Fudd no matter where she is on the floor, and she’s especially made them pay in the midrange.

“I’m pleasantly surprised, let’s put it that way, that it’s been so seamless. There hasn’t been like a major struggle or out of sync, I mean, she just looks so fluid out there, you know?” Auriemma said. “She doesn’t play like a sophomore. Or actually, she plays like some sophomores I’ve had — Sue, Dee, Maya, Lou — I mean, you know, just that’s what the really best ones do. You know exactly what she’s doing.”

Of course Auriemma was talking about Sue Bird, Diana Taurasi, Maya Moore and Katie Lou Samuelson.

An update on Chris Dailey

UConn associate head coach Chris Dailey will take her place back on the sidelines after collapsing before the Huskies’ last game against NC State.

Dailey, who has been with Auriemma at UConn since he arrived in 1985, fainted after the national anthem. She fell to the floor, received medical attention and was taken off on a stretcher, but waved to the crowd as she left the court. The scene was very upsetting for the Huskies, but they decided to play for Dailey and went on to blow out the Wolfpack.

The 63-year-old Dailey didn’t travel with the team when it flew out to Portland on Tuesday, but was scheduled to take a flight Thursday to rejoin the group.

“She stayed back just to make sure,” Auriemma said. “They checked everything out. It’s a long flight. They said, ‘You’re good to go, clean bill of health.”

Here’s what else you need to know for the game.

Site: Chiles Center

Time: 6 p.m.

Series: UConn, 12-3

Last meeting: No. 1 UConn 72, No. 20 Duke 59 in Sweet 16, March 24, 2018

TV: ESPN2; Pam Ward, Christy Thomaskutty and Stephanie White.

Streaming: ESPN app

Radio: UConn Sports Network on 97.9 ESPN