This post came later than I hoped, but here is a few updates from today's UConn practice at Gampel and The Hartford Hall of Fame Showcase conference call.
(1) UConn guards A.J. Price (groin, ankle) and Jerome Dyson (groin, hip pointer) seem to be getting back to full health, with Jim Calhoun calling them "good" and "very good," respectively, the past few days in practice. They'll need to be. Saturday's opponent, Gonzaga features big guards in Matt Bouldin (6-foot-5), who the Huskies recruited; Micah Downs (6-foot-8); and David Pendergraft (6-foot-6). And that doesn't even include the 6-foot-4 Steven Gray, who's out with a wrist injury for at least the next month or so.
"We’re going to have to be much more physical than we probably would like to be or are accustomed to," the 6-foot-2 Price said of him and Dyson (6-foot-4). "Their guards do post smaller guards up and they try to get easy baskets off the post. Me and Jerome are going to have to be much more physical and help rebound, that’s going to be a big key for us when we go three guards and things like that. We’re going to have to out-tough this team to be ready to play."
(2) After returning Sunday from the Great Alaskan Shootout, Gonzaga was in Philly Thursday, overcoming St. Joe's 70-65 in overtime before making the trip up to Boston for Saturday's 3:30 p.m. tip-off on ESPN. It's been a busy week, to say the least.
"I was going to try to get them a game down in Florida if I could for Friday night since they weren’t busy Friday night, although I want to see them at the reception," Calhoun joked on the conference call. The reception he was referring to is the one held for all four teams Friday night at Fenway Park. "I was trying to get them a game down in Miami, really down in Florida and then have them drive up Saturday morning for the game."
But kidding aside, Calhoun didn't see the hectic schedule as a disadvantage. Three games in three days is a lot, he said, but he thought the Zags could handle the travel.
"We play a lot of Saturday-Monday games," Calhoun said. "We played on Wednesday, then we traveled, played on a Saturday, traveled and then play in a big Monday game and by the third game, we’re kind of in a game-mode. So you can look at it as being a disadvantage and for us it may be as coaches. But as kids, they sometimes prefer that (to practicing more)."
(3) As detailed in Friday's story, Saturday is a homecoming for Calhoun, who grew up in Braintree , assistant coach Andre LaFleur, who played under Calhoun at Northeastern during the 1980s, and Jeff Adrien, who grew up and played his high school basketball at Brookline. The Huskies are also hosting a youth basketball clinic Friday afternoon at the Reggie Lewis Center, named for the former Northeastern great who played under Calhoun.
Calhoun said visiting the center would be "an emotional time" for both he and LeFleur, who roomed in college with Lewis. Later a star on the Celtics, Lewis died in 1993 when he suffered a heart attack during an off-season workout in Waltham.
(4) Quick note I haven't been able to get into a story this week: The UConn Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) is sponsoring a Holiday Toy Drive at several athletic events, including the men’s ice hockey game vs. Holy Cross on Friday, the women’s basketball game vs. Virginia on Wednesday, Dec. 5 at the Civic Center, and the men’s basketball game vs. Northeastern on Thursday, Dec. 6 at Gampel Pavilion.
It's a good cause, but unfortunately space restrictions haven't allowed me to throw into the notes section of any stories recently.
What's to come: Check out Saturday's edition for the advance of Saturday's game, which will touch upon the Huskies' continued search for respect around the country. Sunday, of course, we'll have the game story and notebook from Saturday's game but also making its debut this season is our Sunday college basketball page.
Arthur Sherman, who I replaced at the Bulletin, started it last year when he covered the Huskies, and did a great job with it. I'm sticking with basically the same format -- it's a pretty diverse page -- and plan to run it each week throughout the college basketball season. It includes: a weekly national feature, a focus on in-state programs, what to expect from UConn's upcoming opponents, and loads and stats and schedules from the region and country's top conferences, among other things. Check it out, you won't be disappointed.
Thursday, November 29, 2007
Correction afoot
Just finishing some research on Gonzaga for Saturday, and I have a correction to make. In Tuesday's notebook, I mentioned that the Zags' Josh Heytvelt (stress fracture) needed surgery to insert two screw into his foot, according to the local newspaper there. But, at least according to the Gonzaga Web site, it's actually his right ankle. The surgery was performed Nov. 12. The team's Web site also lists probable starters for both the Zags' game at St. Joe's on Thursday and Saturday in Boston, and Heytvelt, obviously, isn't included.
I'm about to get on a conference call with all four coaches for Saturday's doubleheader and then it's off to UConn practice later this afternoon. Check back for an update.
I'm about to get on a conference call with all four coaches for Saturday's doubleheader and then it's off to UConn practice later this afternoon. Check back for an update.
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
(My) Poll Update
Alright, it's official: The first blog poll this year (that anybody got a chance to vote on) closed, and let me say 'thank you' to those who voted. There were only three of you, but you gotta start somewhere and I hope you keep checking in.
As for the results (and I'm going to talk in percentages here to make it sound more official), 33.3 percent of you thought UConn would crack one of the Top 25 polls (AP or Coaches') by Dec. 17, 33.3 percent thought it would happen by Jan. 14 and 33.3 percent said it would never happen.
Ouch on the last one. I think this UConn team is better than that, and through Big East play, it will certainly have chances to move up if it doesn't earn the right to sooner. But I think it can happen by Dec. 17 and here's why.
It obviously hinges on Saturday if they can beat No. 19 Gonzaga at the TD Banknorth Garden. The Bulldogs, despite falling from No. 14, have been playing well without Josh Heytvelt (stress fracture in his foot) and they always have good guards, this year being no different with Matt Bouldin leading the way.
But if UConn does win on Saturday -- and it obviously has a good chance, having played well on a big stage in New York already this year in addition to owning the perceived crowd advantage on an otherwise neutral floor -- they'll catapult somewhere just outside the top 25 at the very least.
I write off Dec. 3 only because 12 spots (and 11 in the Coaches' poll) is a lot to make up in one week, even with the Gonzaga victory. But throw in two more possible wins over a scrappy Northeastern team and Quinnipiac the following two weeks and you're looking at an 8-1 record, perhaps a spot right outside No. 25 and a "signature" win over Gonzaga (something the Huskies, in many people's opinions, lacked last season) to push them in if teams in front of them fall.
There's also (recent) history on their side. Five different teams cracked the AP poll this past week after 13 ranked teams lost a game. This week also featured six more games between ranked teams, meaning there's going to be movement either way. So far (and I'm going off the AP rankings here) No. 7 Duke beat No. 20 Wisconsin, 82-58.
Here are the other games:
Tonight (Wednesday) -- No. 10 Michigan State hosts No. 24 North Carolina State;
Thursday -- No. 17 Oregon hosts No. 25 Kansas State;
Saturday -- Southern Illinois (No. 22 in the Coaches' Poll) hosts No. 15 Indiana;
Sunday -- No. 22 USC hosts No. 4 Kansas;
Sunday -- No. 8 Texas hosts No. 2 UCLA (which is No. 1 in the Coaches' Poll).
And that doesn't include:
Thursday -- No. 22 USC hosts a 5-1 Oklahoma team;
Saturday -- No. 16 Butlers hosts 4-1 Ohio State (which also hosts No. 1 North Carolina tonight);
Saturday -- 4-1 Kentucky hosts No. 1 North Carolina.
Now, do rankings really mean anything this time of year? Frankly, they don't. But for this UConn team that built a false sense of confidence last year after reaching as high as No. 12, getting into the Top 25 this time could feel like something earned and something to protect.
Then again, they may play it off like it doesn't mean anything, which is also a good approach to take and one they probably will (at least with the media). Either way, by earning a ranking this time, I feel, it can only mean good things for this team, one that certainly has experienced the lowest of lows for any UConn squad of the last two decades.
I'm going to wait until Monday to post a new poll, and make it a weekly thing. I welcome all suggestions on possible topics and anything else about the blog.
As for the results (and I'm going to talk in percentages here to make it sound more official), 33.3 percent of you thought UConn would crack one of the Top 25 polls (AP or Coaches') by Dec. 17, 33.3 percent thought it would happen by Jan. 14 and 33.3 percent said it would never happen.
Ouch on the last one. I think this UConn team is better than that, and through Big East play, it will certainly have chances to move up if it doesn't earn the right to sooner. But I think it can happen by Dec. 17 and here's why.
It obviously hinges on Saturday if they can beat No. 19 Gonzaga at the TD Banknorth Garden. The Bulldogs, despite falling from No. 14, have been playing well without Josh Heytvelt (stress fracture in his foot) and they always have good guards, this year being no different with Matt Bouldin leading the way.
But if UConn does win on Saturday -- and it obviously has a good chance, having played well on a big stage in New York already this year in addition to owning the perceived crowd advantage on an otherwise neutral floor -- they'll catapult somewhere just outside the top 25 at the very least.
I write off Dec. 3 only because 12 spots (and 11 in the Coaches' poll) is a lot to make up in one week, even with the Gonzaga victory. But throw in two more possible wins over a scrappy Northeastern team and Quinnipiac the following two weeks and you're looking at an 8-1 record, perhaps a spot right outside No. 25 and a "signature" win over Gonzaga (something the Huskies, in many people's opinions, lacked last season) to push them in if teams in front of them fall.
There's also (recent) history on their side. Five different teams cracked the AP poll this past week after 13 ranked teams lost a game. This week also featured six more games between ranked teams, meaning there's going to be movement either way. So far (and I'm going off the AP rankings here) No. 7 Duke beat No. 20 Wisconsin, 82-58.
Here are the other games:
Tonight (Wednesday) -- No. 10 Michigan State hosts No. 24 North Carolina State;
Thursday -- No. 17 Oregon hosts No. 25 Kansas State;
Saturday -- Southern Illinois (No. 22 in the Coaches' Poll) hosts No. 15 Indiana;
Sunday -- No. 22 USC hosts No. 4 Kansas;
Sunday -- No. 8 Texas hosts No. 2 UCLA (which is No. 1 in the Coaches' Poll).
And that doesn't include:
Thursday -- No. 22 USC hosts a 5-1 Oklahoma team;
Saturday -- No. 16 Butlers hosts 4-1 Ohio State (which also hosts No. 1 North Carolina tonight);
Saturday -- 4-1 Kentucky hosts No. 1 North Carolina.
Now, do rankings really mean anything this time of year? Frankly, they don't. But for this UConn team that built a false sense of confidence last year after reaching as high as No. 12, getting into the Top 25 this time could feel like something earned and something to protect.
Then again, they may play it off like it doesn't mean anything, which is also a good approach to take and one they probably will (at least with the media). Either way, by earning a ranking this time, I feel, it can only mean good things for this team, one that certainly has experienced the lowest of lows for any UConn squad of the last two decades.
I'm going to wait until Monday to post a new poll, and make it a weekly thing. I welcome all suggestions on possible topics and anything else about the blog.
Monday, November 26, 2007
FAMU reaction
The Huskies 93-54 win over Florida A&M was out-and-out dominant: a season-high in points, 29 assists, 15 blocks and two double-doubles to go along with five different Huskies in double figures.
UConn coach Jim Calhoun, however, watches his team with a critical eye this time of year, and a 39-point win wasn't all it may have added up to be. He wants his team learning and prepping through games like this, and once the Huskies went up big early and stretched it 28 by halftime, you could see they got a little sloppier, a little less concerned with dominating in certain areas, which is exactly what Calhoun wants.
"I can't explain why we, once again, just didn't jump on them early when it was very apparent that the (2-2-1) press bothered them, that we got the game into the pace we wanted," Calhoun said. "I'm not upset with them, I'm just disappointed. I think we're a better than what we're showing."
What Calhoun said he's also concerned with is his team believes it can just turn it on once the big games come, like this Saturday against Gonzaga. Doug Wiggins said he agreed that it's a problem the Huskies have to get by, but he didn't really know how that crept into their mindset.
"I really don't understand that," he said. "Once we overcome that, we'll be a really great team."
But as Calhoun pointed out, you can't expect a team to play exactly the way you want it to in a close game when it's up by 25, 30 or 40 points. The funny thing is, it's not like UConn raced out to its lead. It took it nearly eight minutes to get 17 points against an inferior Florida A&M squad and really only starting get on a roll in the moments following the Rattlers' first basket.
But a blow-out is a blow-out and there were good things to look to: Hasheem Thabeet nearly had a triple-double, Jeff Adrien was a monster inside in the second half (neeting 16 points and 15 rebounds in only 23 minutes for the game) and Wiggins again proved invaluable as an energy guy and scorer off the bench.
Here are some stats to chew on:
(1) Jerome Dyson, who came in leading the team with 21 personal fouls in five games, picked up only two Monday and one was on a block on a fastbreak that could have went either way. As a result, he made 6-of-12 shots for 15 points and dished out a career-high nine assists. He also added four steals.
(2)Of Hasheem Thabeet's 12 rebounds, five were on the offensive end. He fell one block shy of a triple double (12 points, 12 rebounds, nine blocks) and Calhoun joked afterward that he wanted to fudge the numbers to give Thabeet the milestone. A member of the communications staff told Calhoun, "It's not 1975."
(3) A.J. Price, coming off a sprained ankle, also pulled his groin, Calhoun said, and had another fair game at best, making 1-of-7 shots but dishing out six assists. He also only turned it over once. If Price can get healthy, he is capable of being the motor behind this Huskies offense, as he showed in the team's first three games.
(4) Craig Austrie, who has been struggling to find his shot, had 11 points on 4-of-8 shooting but two of those three 3-pointers came in really late garbage time. Though this doesn't exactly qualify as 'breaking out of his slump' -- he looked uncomfortable at times running the team from the point -- it could be a step in the right direction for a guy Calhoun considers the team's best outside shooter.
(5) The Huskies shot 8-of-21 from 3-point range, good for 38.1 percent. You may have to start getting used to those kinds of numbers. Though Calhoun believes he has some shooters, in their fast-break offense, the Huskies may never find a rhythm to put together a consistent long-range attack. That's just the way it looks right now.
See Tuesday's newspaper and online at NorwichBulletin.com for the game story and notebook from tonight's game. Wednesday's paper will also feature a follow-up from before we start getting fully into Gonzaga and what to expect in Saturday's showdown at the TD Banknorth Garden in Boston.
UConn coach Jim Calhoun, however, watches his team with a critical eye this time of year, and a 39-point win wasn't all it may have added up to be. He wants his team learning and prepping through games like this, and once the Huskies went up big early and stretched it 28 by halftime, you could see they got a little sloppier, a little less concerned with dominating in certain areas, which is exactly what Calhoun wants.
"I can't explain why we, once again, just didn't jump on them early when it was very apparent that the (2-2-1) press bothered them, that we got the game into the pace we wanted," Calhoun said. "I'm not upset with them, I'm just disappointed. I think we're a better than what we're showing."
What Calhoun said he's also concerned with is his team believes it can just turn it on once the big games come, like this Saturday against Gonzaga. Doug Wiggins said he agreed that it's a problem the Huskies have to get by, but he didn't really know how that crept into their mindset.
"I really don't understand that," he said. "Once we overcome that, we'll be a really great team."
But as Calhoun pointed out, you can't expect a team to play exactly the way you want it to in a close game when it's up by 25, 30 or 40 points. The funny thing is, it's not like UConn raced out to its lead. It took it nearly eight minutes to get 17 points against an inferior Florida A&M squad and really only starting get on a roll in the moments following the Rattlers' first basket.
But a blow-out is a blow-out and there were good things to look to: Hasheem Thabeet nearly had a triple-double, Jeff Adrien was a monster inside in the second half (neeting 16 points and 15 rebounds in only 23 minutes for the game) and Wiggins again proved invaluable as an energy guy and scorer off the bench.
Here are some stats to chew on:
(1) Jerome Dyson, who came in leading the team with 21 personal fouls in five games, picked up only two Monday and one was on a block on a fastbreak that could have went either way. As a result, he made 6-of-12 shots for 15 points and dished out a career-high nine assists. He also added four steals.
(2)Of Hasheem Thabeet's 12 rebounds, five were on the offensive end. He fell one block shy of a triple double (12 points, 12 rebounds, nine blocks) and Calhoun joked afterward that he wanted to fudge the numbers to give Thabeet the milestone. A member of the communications staff told Calhoun, "It's not 1975."
(3) A.J. Price, coming off a sprained ankle, also pulled his groin, Calhoun said, and had another fair game at best, making 1-of-7 shots but dishing out six assists. He also only turned it over once. If Price can get healthy, he is capable of being the motor behind this Huskies offense, as he showed in the team's first three games.
(4) Craig Austrie, who has been struggling to find his shot, had 11 points on 4-of-8 shooting but two of those three 3-pointers came in really late garbage time. Though this doesn't exactly qualify as 'breaking out of his slump' -- he looked uncomfortable at times running the team from the point -- it could be a step in the right direction for a guy Calhoun considers the team's best outside shooter.
(5) The Huskies shot 8-of-21 from 3-point range, good for 38.1 percent. You may have to start getting used to those kinds of numbers. Though Calhoun believes he has some shooters, in their fast-break offense, the Huskies may never find a rhythm to put together a consistent long-range attack. That's just the way it looks right now.
See Tuesday's newspaper and online at NorwichBulletin.com for the game story and notebook from tonight's game. Wednesday's paper will also feature a follow-up from before we start getting fully into Gonzaga and what to expect in Saturday's showdown at the TD Banknorth Garden in Boston.
UPDATE: UConn finishes off win of Rattlers, 93-54
Hasheem Thabeet (12 points, 12 rebounds, nine blocks) fell a block short of a triple-double and Jeff Adrien added 16 points and 15 rebounds, leading UConn to a 93-54 blowout win over Florida A&M Monday at the Hartford Civic Center.
UPDATE: UConn mowing down Rattlers, 43-15, at half
The Huskies held Florida A&M scoreless for the first 8:12 and made it 22-2 a little more than nine minutes in before stretching their lead to 28 points by the intermission. Jerome Dyson leads all scorers with nine points.
The Huskies' 2-2-1 press helped create 14 FAMU turnovers, and the Rattlers aren't doing themselves any favors. They have two shot-clock violations, a 10-second halfcourt violation and a lane violation on a free throw.
The Huskies' 2-2-1 press helped create 14 FAMU turnovers, and the Rattlers aren't doing themselves any favors. They have two shot-clock violations, a 10-second halfcourt violation and a lane violation on a free throw.
"A bit of late Thanksgiving turkey"
That's exactly how the Florida A&M media notes describe the Rattlers (2-3) to the Huskies. If you're confused, you're not the only one. Here's how the "UConn Huskies at a Glance" section reads:
"The Huskies are off to a 4-1 start so far and are likely looking forward to Monday's game against FAMU as a bit of late Thanksgiving turkey before Big East play begins in the next couple weeks."
Can you just feel the FAMU sports information staff oozing with confidence entering tonigh's game? High comedy.
But wait, it doesn't end there. Rattlers center Akini F. Akini was named Akini Adkins (Adkins was the last name of his adpotive parents in the United States), but the Yaunde', Cameroon, native changed his name following his marriage during the offseason. Akini, in fact, was actually his last name in Cameroon.
As if there weren't enough similar-sounding names here, his wife is the former Marla Akins of Tallahassee. So, in summary, Akini Akini was Akini Adkins but changed his name following his marriage to Marla Akins.
Also, in his free time, Akini enjoys "eating and watching cartoons." I don't mean to pick on the kid, but there are only a few times such interesting things can be found in game notes, and this is one of them.
As a player, Akini may be someone to watch. The senior is an Alabama transfer and was a McDonald's All-American at Tallahassee Leon High School, averaging 23 points, 15 rebounds and four blocks a game
A side note: This is the second time this year UConn has been in the same building with a player with the the same name as his last and his first. Though the Huskies never played him, Oklahoma's Longar Longar took part with the Sooners in the 2K Sports College Hoops Classic a week and a half ago at Madison Square Garden.
"The Huskies are off to a 4-1 start so far and are likely looking forward to Monday's game against FAMU as a bit of late Thanksgiving turkey before Big East play begins in the next couple weeks."
Can you just feel the FAMU sports information staff oozing with confidence entering tonigh's game? High comedy.
But wait, it doesn't end there. Rattlers center Akini F. Akini was named Akini Adkins (Adkins was the last name of his adpotive parents in the United States), but the Yaunde', Cameroon, native changed his name following his marriage during the offseason. Akini, in fact, was actually his last name in Cameroon.
As if there weren't enough similar-sounding names here, his wife is the former Marla Akins of Tallahassee. So, in summary, Akini Akini was Akini Adkins but changed his name following his marriage to Marla Akins.
Also, in his free time, Akini enjoys "eating and watching cartoons." I don't mean to pick on the kid, but there are only a few times such interesting things can be found in game notes, and this is one of them.
As a player, Akini may be someone to watch. The senior is an Alabama transfer and was a McDonald's All-American at Tallahassee Leon High School, averaging 23 points, 15 rebounds and four blocks a game
A side note: This is the second time this year UConn has been in the same building with a player with the the same name as his last and his first. Though the Huskies never played him, Oklahoma's Longar Longar took part with the Sooners in the 2K Sports College Hoops Classic a week and a half ago at Madison Square Garden.
Poll Update
No surprise, a 17-point over Gardner-Webb last week didn't do much to propel the Huskies up the national polls. UConn checked in at No. 37 in the AP Top 25, receiving 30 votes, and "jumped" one spot to No. 36 in the Coaches' Poll (17 votes received).
UConn hosts Florida A&M (2-3) tonight at 7 at the Hartford Civic Center. As detailed in today's story, coach Jim Calhoun is hoping for a big day out of sophomore guard Jerome Dyson, who has been limited by foul trouble this season (more than four whistles per game).
"I would like to see him go off," Calhoun said.
Dyson has been bothered by a myriad of injuries so far this season, including a bothersome left groin, a bothersome right groin and a hip pointer. Calhoun said a few weeks ago he also had a hamstring problem, but he may have just mixed that up with Dyson's groin issues. Fortunately, the Huskies have had time to rest with the Thanksgiving break. Tonight' game is their first since last Tuesday and they won't play again until Saturday against No. 19 Gonzaga in Boston.
"My body is still not right, (but) I’m starting to heal up," Dyson said. "I still have the hip pointer a little bit but other than that, I’m pretty much OK."
As for his perceived dip in production, which according to the stats as been slight at best (13.8 average a year ago to 13.2 now), Dyson said, "I think just defenses are starting to catch on. I just have to do a better job of staying in the game. My numbers will go up I guess if I’m staying in the game so that’s something I need to work on."
Hashing it out
Calhoun said he wants more blocks out of Hasheem Thabeet, adding that he believes the sophomore center is concerning himself more with offense than defense. But he isn't the first player to do so.
"He said guys aren’t shooting the ball as much," Calhoun said. "My opinion is it’s a combination of a lot different things. But as much as any single one thing, I think that he’s really interested in scoring points. And everybody asks him all the time about scoring points so I think he’s trying to score points.
"Just like his foul shooting, he’s made a remarkable improvement in an awful lot of areas," he later added. "It seems to be once they start scoring, they really like it. (Dikembe) Mutumbo made an incredible career out of blocking shots and getting rebounds, and I still think that’s what he (Thabeet) needs to do."
Thabeet's improved foul shooting (76 percent this year) has been written about before, but he added Sunday, "Last year, I struggled so bad (at the foul line), every time I would get the ball, they would know I couldn’t make free throws so they would foul me and put me on the line. This year, they foul me and put on the line, I’m confident I can go there and make those free throws.
"That’s what you saw," he continued. "Last game, they weren’t trying to foul me as much because every time they put me on the line, I was making shots."
Dyson said he could see marked improvement in Thabeet from the start of the season, which didn't surprise him.
"He has a soft touch and he has good form," Dyson said, "so the ball, it looks good when it’s going in."
Check back prior, during and following tonight's game for more on UConn's tilt with the Rattlers.
UConn hosts Florida A&M (2-3) tonight at 7 at the Hartford Civic Center. As detailed in today's story, coach Jim Calhoun is hoping for a big day out of sophomore guard Jerome Dyson, who has been limited by foul trouble this season (more than four whistles per game).
"I would like to see him go off," Calhoun said.
Dyson has been bothered by a myriad of injuries so far this season, including a bothersome left groin, a bothersome right groin and a hip pointer. Calhoun said a few weeks ago he also had a hamstring problem, but he may have just mixed that up with Dyson's groin issues. Fortunately, the Huskies have had time to rest with the Thanksgiving break. Tonight' game is their first since last Tuesday and they won't play again until Saturday against No. 19 Gonzaga in Boston.
"My body is still not right, (but) I’m starting to heal up," Dyson said. "I still have the hip pointer a little bit but other than that, I’m pretty much OK."
As for his perceived dip in production, which according to the stats as been slight at best (13.8 average a year ago to 13.2 now), Dyson said, "I think just defenses are starting to catch on. I just have to do a better job of staying in the game. My numbers will go up I guess if I’m staying in the game so that’s something I need to work on."
Hashing it out
Calhoun said he wants more blocks out of Hasheem Thabeet, adding that he believes the sophomore center is concerning himself more with offense than defense. But he isn't the first player to do so.
"He said guys aren’t shooting the ball as much," Calhoun said. "My opinion is it’s a combination of a lot different things. But as much as any single one thing, I think that he’s really interested in scoring points. And everybody asks him all the time about scoring points so I think he’s trying to score points.
"Just like his foul shooting, he’s made a remarkable improvement in an awful lot of areas," he later added. "It seems to be once they start scoring, they really like it. (Dikembe) Mutumbo made an incredible career out of blocking shots and getting rebounds, and I still think that’s what he (Thabeet) needs to do."
Thabeet's improved foul shooting (76 percent this year) has been written about before, but he added Sunday, "Last year, I struggled so bad (at the foul line), every time I would get the ball, they would know I couldn’t make free throws so they would foul me and put me on the line. This year, they foul me and put on the line, I’m confident I can go there and make those free throws.
"That’s what you saw," he continued. "Last game, they weren’t trying to foul me as much because every time they put me on the line, I was making shots."
Dyson said he could see marked improvement in Thabeet from the start of the season, which didn't surprise him.
"He has a soft touch and he has good form," Dyson said, "so the ball, it looks good when it’s going in."
Check back prior, during and following tonight's game for more on UConn's tilt with the Rattlers.
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
Walk(er) this way
UConn received a signed letter of intent Wednesday from Kemba Walker, a 6-foot-1, 175-pound point guard out of Rice High School in New York, to play for the Huskies, starting in the fall of 2008.
Walker, a Bronx native who verbally committed to the Huskies last spring and was on hand for the team's 82-57 win over Buffalo on Nov. 8 at Gampel Pavilion, is a top-50 recruit, according to Rivals.com. He hails from the same high school as UConn sophomore forward Curtis Kelly.
"He comes from such a great high school program led by legendary coach Mo Hicks, a program that has produced so many super players through the years," UConn coach Jim Calhoun said in a press release. "Kemba is a young man who knows about winning and performing at the highest scholastic level possible."
According to the same release, the letter of intent was the only one issued and received by UConn for the early signing period, which started last Wednesday and ends today. Nate Miles, a 6-foot-7 forward out the Patterson School (N.C.), is another UConn commit set to graduate this academic year.
Walker, a Bronx native who verbally committed to the Huskies last spring and was on hand for the team's 82-57 win over Buffalo on Nov. 8 at Gampel Pavilion, is a top-50 recruit, according to Rivals.com. He hails from the same high school as UConn sophomore forward Curtis Kelly.
"He comes from such a great high school program led by legendary coach Mo Hicks, a program that has produced so many super players through the years," UConn coach Jim Calhoun said in a press release. "Kemba is a young man who knows about winning and performing at the highest scholastic level possible."
According to the same release, the letter of intent was the only one issued and received by UConn for the early signing period, which started last Wednesday and ends today. Nate Miles, a 6-foot-7 forward out the Patterson School (N.C.), is another UConn commit set to graduate this academic year.
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
UPDATE: Huskies cruising at half
Hasheem Thabeet recorded a double-double with 12 points and 10 rebounds before halftime, Jeff Adrien added 11 points and the Huskies lead Gardner-Webb, 48-33, at halftime here at the Hartford Civic Center.
Gardner-Webb shot 7-of-23 from 3-point range (30.4 percent) but Nate Blank hit five of those, closing the half with a game-high 17 points.
Gardner-Webb shot 7-of-23 from 3-point range (30.4 percent) but Nate Blank hit five of those, closing the half with a game-high 17 points.
Civic (Center) duty
Greetings from the Hartford Civic Center. The tip-off for UConn and Gardner-Webb's second showdown is about 45 minutes away.
The game kick starts a homestand (of sorts) for the Huskies, who play five of their next six games in Connecticut (four at the Civic Center, including this one, and one at Gampel). The only road game between now and a Dec. 28 date at Central Florida is their match-up with Gonzaga in Boston next Saturday.
But whether the Huskies' homecourt advantage will play a factor or not remains to be seen. This is the same Gardner-Webb team that beat Kentucky in Rupp Arena two weeks back, and sorry but the Civic Center is no Rupp.
Some extra notes on Gardner-Webb, if you didn't know enough about it already: The Runnin' Bulldogs were picked to finish eighth in the Atlantic Sun by both league coaches and the media. If that's the case, I would love to see Eastern Tennessee State and Belmont (a close No. 1 and No. 2, respectively) in action.
Grayson Flittner, the Bulldogs' sharp-shooting guard, currently has more 3-pointers through six games this season (27) than he did in 27 games last season (25). That's pretty amazing.
NBA legend Artis Gilmore is an alum of Gardner-Webb, playing two years there when it was a junior college before transferring to Jacksonville.
As for the Huskies, here's some important info to know: Jerome Dyson is playing through a pulled hamstring, which may explain his slow starts in games these first few weeks. But he turned it on in the second half against Memphis, scoring 14 of his 17 points in the game. In games against the Tigers and Gardner-Webb last week at Madison Square Garden, he threw down a pair of windmill dunks, one of which was negated by a terrible charging call in the Gardner-Webb game, so at least we know his leaping skills aren't affected by the injury.
A.J. Price has led the team in scoring the last three games. Last season, UConn did not have a player lead the team in scoring in three straight until February.
We will probably see more of Gavin Edwards tonight, coach Jim Calhoun said. With a good performance, he may all but force Calhoun to give him regular minutes. He's been the most consistent forward off the bench so far this year, and that's including Curtis Kelly.
Check back here around 8:30 for a halftime update.
The game kick starts a homestand (of sorts) for the Huskies, who play five of their next six games in Connecticut (four at the Civic Center, including this one, and one at Gampel). The only road game between now and a Dec. 28 date at Central Florida is their match-up with Gonzaga in Boston next Saturday.
But whether the Huskies' homecourt advantage will play a factor or not remains to be seen. This is the same Gardner-Webb team that beat Kentucky in Rupp Arena two weeks back, and sorry but the Civic Center is no Rupp.
Some extra notes on Gardner-Webb, if you didn't know enough about it already: The Runnin' Bulldogs were picked to finish eighth in the Atlantic Sun by both league coaches and the media. If that's the case, I would love to see Eastern Tennessee State and Belmont (a close No. 1 and No. 2, respectively) in action.
Grayson Flittner, the Bulldogs' sharp-shooting guard, currently has more 3-pointers through six games this season (27) than he did in 27 games last season (25). That's pretty amazing.
NBA legend Artis Gilmore is an alum of Gardner-Webb, playing two years there when it was a junior college before transferring to Jacksonville.
As for the Huskies, here's some important info to know: Jerome Dyson is playing through a pulled hamstring, which may explain his slow starts in games these first few weeks. But he turned it on in the second half against Memphis, scoring 14 of his 17 points in the game. In games against the Tigers and Gardner-Webb last week at Madison Square Garden, he threw down a pair of windmill dunks, one of which was negated by a terrible charging call in the Gardner-Webb game, so at least we know his leaping skills aren't affected by the injury.
A.J. Price has led the team in scoring the last three games. Last season, UConn did not have a player lead the team in scoring in three straight until February.
We will probably see more of Gavin Edwards tonight, coach Jim Calhoun said. With a good performance, he may all but force Calhoun to give him regular minutes. He's been the most consistent forward off the bench so far this year, and that's including Curtis Kelly.
Check back here around 8:30 for a halftime update.
Polls news and more
The Huskies hardly moved in the latest media polls following their 81-70 loss to No. 3 Memphis on Friday.
UConn is unofficially ranked No. 33 in the AP Top 25 (receiving 30 votes) and No. 37 in the Coaches' poll (receiving 11 votes). It may not get a chance to crack the Top 25 until next Saturday when it plays Gonzaga (14/14) in The Hartford Hall of Fame Showcase at the TD BankNorth Garden in Boston.
In other Big East news, Louisville center David Padgett may miss the rest of the season — and perhaps see his career cut short — after he suffered a fractured right knee cap Sunday in the Cardinals' win over Jackson State. Here's the story on ESPN.com.
Check back here prior to the Huskies' 7:30 p.m. tip-off with Gardner Webb for an update on things to expect for tonight's showdown at the Hartford Civic Center.
UConn is unofficially ranked No. 33 in the AP Top 25 (receiving 30 votes) and No. 37 in the Coaches' poll (receiving 11 votes). It may not get a chance to crack the Top 25 until next Saturday when it plays Gonzaga (14/14) in The Hartford Hall of Fame Showcase at the TD BankNorth Garden in Boston.
In other Big East news, Louisville center David Padgett may miss the rest of the season — and perhaps see his career cut short — after he suffered a fractured right knee cap Sunday in the Cardinals' win over Jackson State. Here's the story on ESPN.com.
Check back here prior to the Huskies' 7:30 p.m. tip-off with Gardner Webb for an update on things to expect for tonight's showdown at the Hartford Civic Center.
Friday, November 16, 2007
Oklahoma wins consolation game; UConn up next
Oklahoma held off Gardner-Webb 69-55 in the consolation game. UConn and Memphis should tip-off close to 9 p.m. (they were originally scheduled for 8:30 p.m.). Check back here and on the front page of NorwichBulletin.com around 10 p.m. for a halftime update and later tonight for a final score.
A look ahead and a look back
After a technical error last night prevented the people at the Garden from producing a full boxscore, we finally have one. Here is the link (it's in a PDF format), and some key stats:
A.J. Price's night looked just as good on paper as it did in live action. In addition to a team-high 18 points, he finished with nine assists, eight rebounds and zero turnovers in 31 minutes. Hasheem Thabeet nearly had a double-double (10 rebounds, eight points) to go along with three blocks. As a team, UConn had 20 assists compared to just 13 turnovers.
Gardner-Webb's Thomas Sanders had 20 points but also added a game-high 13 rebounds.
Memphis preview
As detailed in today's notebook, tonight's UConn-Memphis match-up in the 2K Sports College Hoops Classic final marks the first time Jim Calhoun and John Calipari will coach against each other since the 1989-'90 season.
Calipari, for one, said he needed a quick refresher course on the Huskies before tonight's tip off (slated for approximately around 9 p.m.).
"I’m going to be honest with you, and this is not being disrespectful, I know three players on Connecticut’s team," Calipari said following his team's 63-53 win over Oklahoma on Thursday. "I swear to you I haven’t seen them play in five years. I watch the (teams) that I’m going to be coaching against and I may glance at them in a minute. They played somebody and I watched about four or five minutes of the game, and I don’t know who it was."
Those three players included Hasheem Thabeet ("I know they have a big guy in the middle that jams everything up"); A.J. Price ("They told me Price just played out of his mind tonight, he’s played great"); and Stanley Robinson, who Calipari recruited but called "Stanley Roberts" in his press conference.
"He’s also a pro," Calipari added. "And that’s the extent (of what I know about UConn)."
In the Tigers' win Thursday, the Sooners tried to slow it down and played primarily zone defense. Calipari said that's the type of approach Memphis will see all season, but don't expect the Huskies to play that way. Traditionally, Calhoun rarely goes to a half-court zone defense and likes the match-up with Memphis because, like UConn, it's an up-tempo team that will look to run.
"But I know they’re going to be well-coached, they’re going to be talented, they’re going to play hard and they’re going to be physical and get after you," Calipari said. "That’s just same of the trademarks of the Connecticut teams."
Edwards comes through
Gavin Edwards was solid off the bench in 17 minutes for UConn, finishing with eight points and seven rebounds. Calhoun has lauded Edwards, who has a knack for being in the right place and making the smart pass, but Thursday he also looked more aggressive at times.
"Coach tells me that a lot that I need to be more aggressive -- he pretty much tells me that on a daily basis," Edwards said. "So I just went out there today and tried to get all the rebounds, all the loose balls, try to get on the floor as much as I could.
"It would kind of build my confidence a little bit more and I can find my role on the team a little bit better," Edwards added when asked if he'll get more comfortable the more he plays. "It lets (Calhoun) know he can put me in for good minutes anytime we’re in foul trouble and hopefully he’ll just put me in on a regular basis."
A.J. Price's night looked just as good on paper as it did in live action. In addition to a team-high 18 points, he finished with nine assists, eight rebounds and zero turnovers in 31 minutes. Hasheem Thabeet nearly had a double-double (10 rebounds, eight points) to go along with three blocks. As a team, UConn had 20 assists compared to just 13 turnovers.
Gardner-Webb's Thomas Sanders had 20 points but also added a game-high 13 rebounds.
Memphis preview
As detailed in today's notebook, tonight's UConn-Memphis match-up in the 2K Sports College Hoops Classic final marks the first time Jim Calhoun and John Calipari will coach against each other since the 1989-'90 season.
Calipari, for one, said he needed a quick refresher course on the Huskies before tonight's tip off (slated for approximately around 9 p.m.).
"I’m going to be honest with you, and this is not being disrespectful, I know three players on Connecticut’s team," Calipari said following his team's 63-53 win over Oklahoma on Thursday. "I swear to you I haven’t seen them play in five years. I watch the (teams) that I’m going to be coaching against and I may glance at them in a minute. They played somebody and I watched about four or five minutes of the game, and I don’t know who it was."
Those three players included Hasheem Thabeet ("I know they have a big guy in the middle that jams everything up"); A.J. Price ("They told me Price just played out of his mind tonight, he’s played great"); and Stanley Robinson, who Calipari recruited but called "Stanley Roberts" in his press conference.
"He’s also a pro," Calipari added. "And that’s the extent (of what I know about UConn)."
In the Tigers' win Thursday, the Sooners tried to slow it down and played primarily zone defense. Calipari said that's the type of approach Memphis will see all season, but don't expect the Huskies to play that way. Traditionally, Calhoun rarely goes to a half-court zone defense and likes the match-up with Memphis because, like UConn, it's an up-tempo team that will look to run.
"But I know they’re going to be well-coached, they’re going to be talented, they’re going to play hard and they’re going to be physical and get after you," Calipari said. "That’s just same of the trademarks of the Connecticut teams."
Edwards comes through
Gavin Edwards was solid off the bench in 17 minutes for UConn, finishing with eight points and seven rebounds. Calhoun has lauded Edwards, who has a knack for being in the right place and making the smart pass, but Thursday he also looked more aggressive at times.
"Coach tells me that a lot that I need to be more aggressive -- he pretty much tells me that on a daily basis," Edwards said. "So I just went out there today and tried to get all the rebounds, all the loose balls, try to get on the floor as much as I could.
"It would kind of build my confidence a little bit more and I can find my role on the team a little bit better," Edwards added when asked if he'll get more comfortable the more he plays. "It lets (Calhoun) know he can put me in for good minutes anytime we’re in foul trouble and hopefully he’ll just put me in on a regular basis."
Thursday, November 15, 2007
UPDATE: UConn downs Gardner-Webb, 78-66
The Huskies put the game away with a 13-0 run midway through the half and basically slept through the final nine minutes, holding on for a 78-66 win in the 2K Sports College Hoops Classic at Madison Square Garden.
UPDATE: UConn up, 41-27, at half
UConn went on a 17-4 run late in the first half to help provide a 14-point , 41-27 cushion by the intermission in the 2K Sports College Hoops Classic semifinals at Madison Square Garden.
Welcome from the Garden
Greetings from New York, where in about two hours UConn takes the floor against Gardner-Webb in the semifinals of the 2K Sports College Hoops Classic benefitting Coaches vs. Cancer. Some quick notes for tonight's game:
(1) Hasheem Thabeet was late for a team shootaround Wednesday morning and will not start tonight. Curtis Kelly, a Bronx native, will start in his place. The Huskies practiced at Pace University Wednesday afternoon, but it is unclear if the shootaround was in Storrs or New York.
(2) The Gazelle Group, which is producing the 2K Sports Classic, announced it will host a new postseason college basketball tournament, fittingly called the College Basketball Invitational (CBI), to start this upcoming March. It will be a 16-team tournament, and combined with the NCAA tournament (65 teams) and the NIT (32), it will mean 113 Division-I teams will qualify for the postseason this winter.
Some other features of the tournament: It will be single-elimination until the championship round, which will be best two-out-of-three, and all games will be played at campus sites. The first round is set for March 18-19, the next for March 24, the semifinals for March 26 and the finals for March 31, April 2 and April 4, if necessary.
In the press release given to the media, it did not say whether this tournament had secured a TV deal.
(3) Just if it wasn't clear: UConn and Gardner-Webb tip-off at 7 p.m. and the Memphis-Oklahoma match-up will start soon afterward (right now, it's scheduled for 9 p.m.). Friday, the consolation game kicks off at 6:30 p.m. and the championship at 8:30.
(4) And if you're interested: Picked up a copy of Sports Illustrated, which included its College Basketball Preview, and it had UConn ranked as the No. 44 team in its Top 65. Here is the capsule that went with it: "The good news: Everybody's back. The bad news: Erratic team that finished 12th in conference play still has a way to go."
Being a Boston University alum, I was happy to see the Terriers clock in at No. 51. America East, watch out.
Check back around 8 p.m. for a halftime update of tonight's game.
(1) Hasheem Thabeet was late for a team shootaround Wednesday morning and will not start tonight. Curtis Kelly, a Bronx native, will start in his place. The Huskies practiced at Pace University Wednesday afternoon, but it is unclear if the shootaround was in Storrs or New York.
(2) The Gazelle Group, which is producing the 2K Sports Classic, announced it will host a new postseason college basketball tournament, fittingly called the College Basketball Invitational (CBI), to start this upcoming March. It will be a 16-team tournament, and combined with the NCAA tournament (65 teams) and the NIT (32), it will mean 113 Division-I teams will qualify for the postseason this winter.
Some other features of the tournament: It will be single-elimination until the championship round, which will be best two-out-of-three, and all games will be played at campus sites. The first round is set for March 18-19, the next for March 24, the semifinals for March 26 and the finals for March 31, April 2 and April 4, if necessary.
In the press release given to the media, it did not say whether this tournament had secured a TV deal.
(3) Just if it wasn't clear: UConn and Gardner-Webb tip-off at 7 p.m. and the Memphis-Oklahoma match-up will start soon afterward (right now, it's scheduled for 9 p.m.). Friday, the consolation game kicks off at 6:30 p.m. and the championship at 8:30.
(4) And if you're interested: Picked up a copy of Sports Illustrated, which included its College Basketball Preview, and it had UConn ranked as the No. 44 team in its Top 65. Here is the capsule that went with it: "The good news: Everybody's back. The bad news: Erratic team that finished 12th in conference play still has a way to go."
Being a Boston University alum, I was happy to see the Terriers clock in at No. 51. America East, watch out.
Check back around 8 p.m. for a halftime update of tonight's game.
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
Big East at a (very long) glance
Meant to get this up sooner but here is the Big East preview with a couple story lines to watch for this year. The story never made it into the paper because of space constraints.
But be warned: This will be the longest post I make all season, but I feel it's a nice taste of what the Big East will have to offer this year. Of course, with a 16-team league, there's much more I wish I could have put in, but even on the Internet, a story can only go for so long.
By MATT STOUT
Norwich Bulletin
Sixteen teams, 18 league games per school, nearly 300 players and coaches – as usual, there’s a lot going on in the Big East this season. Here are three story lines (with a littleextra) to watch for as the year unfolds:
(1) Georgetown vs. Louisville
Wondering how the Hoyas and Cardinals received exactly the same amount of points (217) and first-place votes (eight) to finish tied for first in the Big East preseason poll?
It’s simple: In a league known for its depth, these are two teams that may find a way to distant themselves. That is, if they didn’t have to play each other twice.
The conference sure knows how to set up an exciting night of television, pitting Georgetown and Louisville against each other in primetime (9 p.m., ESPN) in early February and then again on the final day of the regular season (March 8, Noon on CBS).
That date may decide the regular season crown, and perhaps represent a showcase for things to come.
“We have two, maybe three teams that can get to the Final Four,” said UConn coach Jim Calhoun. “And probably two teams that look like they can win it.”
Both Georgetown and Louisville are stacked entering the season, despite some key losses. The Hoyas return four starters, including Preseason Player of the Year Roy Hibbert, Jonathan Wallace, Jessie Sapp and DaJuan Summers, in addition to Patrick Ewing Jr.
Hibbert especially is intriguing, after he chose to forgo the NBA Draft and come back for his senior year with the hopes of improving upon more than last year’s average of 12.9 points per game.
“People talk about points, points, points, but I think about rebounds and I want to be on top of the charts in blocked shots,” he said. “That’s important to me.”
But two questions surround Georgetown: How will they replace Big East Player of the Year Jeff Green? And what could they possibly do for an encore to last season’s Final Four run?
Hoyas coach John Thompson III doesn’t want to either of them.
“I go into every year and it’s a new team so I’m not going into this year with the thought, ‘How are we going to replace Jeff Green?’ We have a whole new group, if everyone else from myself on down improves a little bit we’ll be OK,’” he said.
“We unveiled the Final Four banner at Midnight Madness and that closed the door on last year,” he later added. “And now we have a different team and the drive and the hunger is greater.”
Louisville, in its third year in the Big East, looks just as intimidating. Coach Rick Pitino has his top seven scorers back, losing his only starter in Brandon Jenkins to graduation, and Terrence Williams (12.4 points, 7.0 rebounds, 3.8 assists) is as versatile as any forward in the league.
Also, in the vein of the University of Florida’s “Oh-Fours” – the group of Joakim Noah, Al Horford, Taurean Green and Corey Brewer that entered college in 2004 and carried the Gators to the last two national titles – the Cardinals have the “Sixers” of Derrick Caracter, Earl Clark, Jerry Smith and Edgar Sosa, as they called themselves in the Courtier-Journal.
Now if they can get by everyone else …
“This is the strongest this conference has ever been,”’ Pitino said.
(2) Kickin’ Marquette
Two years in the Big East, two NCAA tournament appearances. Not a bad start for the Golden Eagles. But they want more and they’ve taken a different path to do it.
In preparing for the upcoming season, Marquette instituted two different approaches to the preseason in addition to its regular basketball routine.
First, the program became the first in the country to integrate a high-altitude training chamber into its weight room, a method that, in theory, cuts down on time training while improving stamina.
“I feel like I’m definitely in better shape, I got a little more air in my lungs,” said Dominic James, who, like his teammates, will peddle on a stationary bike inside the oxygen-reduced air a couple times a week. “It’s definitely something that’s going to make us better in the long run.”
Secondly, coach Tom Crean introduced Tae Kwon Do to the team with the hopes it would improve hand-eye coordination, balance and his players’ overall quickness. He has a sensei come in at least once a week to perform the classes.
“I can probably break two boards,” Crean jokingly said before turning to James and Jerel McNeal, who were seated next to him at Big East media day. “I got two boards, right? It’s all a matter of the mind.”
Both are two very different ways of doing things, but then again, Marquette is a different kind of team.
Blessed with perhaps the best backcourt in the country, the Golden Eagles rely on James (14.9 points, 4.9 assists a game last season), McNeal (the defending Big East Defensive Player of the Year) and Wesley Matthews (a 6-foot-5 guard who averaged 5.3 rebounds) for more than 30 minutes a game, nearly 60 percent of their scoring and that defensive toughness that gave the team the third-best turnover-margin (plus-2.5) in the league a year ago.
Picked to finish third in the conference, the Golden Eagles hope this is the year they finally break through in the league. They’d be the first former Conference USA team to win the Big East title if they did.
“Defensively, I’ll put these three guys up there with any other three,” Crean said of his guards. “They’re not going to take a back seat to anybody.”
(3) Huggins home again
Bob Huggins left behind a Kansas State team that went 23-12 with him at the helm a season ago, earned the No. 25 spot in the Associated Press preseason poll this year and boasts the Big 12’s -- and perhaps the country's -- best freshman in Michael Beasley.
But he won’t look back. He’s home again.
A West Virginia alum and a graduate assistant coach in the 1997-’78 season, Huggins returned to the Mountaineers this offseason after previous coach John Beilein left to fill the coaching vacancy at Michigan.
But the trek back to Morgantown wasn’t a smooth one. A DUI arrest ultimately led to his dismissal following the 2004-05 season from Cincinnati – a place he’d coached at for 16 years – and his decision to leave Kansas State after a single season reportedly didn’t sit well with Wildcat supporters.
But when asked about the controversy that surrounded his departure, Huggins countered, “There wasn’t any controversy.”
“I think people realized that I had an opportunity to go home,” Huggins said. “Just like if they had an opportunity to go home, they’d go home. … I know feelings initially were hurt but I had dinner a month ago with the (university) president. He’s a very dear friend. So there wasn’t any controversy. We’re all to this point very close. One of the associate athletic directors went fishing with me.”
Of course, how he’s perceived thousands of miles away doesn’t concern the 25-year veteran. He said it’s the lack of size and depth of his current club, which is coming off an NIT championship, that’s on his mind.
“But they’ve been terrific,” Huggins said of his players’ attitude.
The Mountaineers, picked by league coaches to finish 10th in the Big East, lost their leading scorer in Frank Young from a season ago, but have four players back who averaged 10 or more points a game last year. One of them, Da’Sean Butler, was a Big East All-Rookie team member last year and point guard Darris Nichols was first in the league in assist-to-turnovers ratio (plus-3.44).
“I don’t want to hear about West Virginia not being talented,” Calhoun said. “I told John Beilein last year right after the season before he went to Michigan that I thought it was his most talented team.”
And now they have an even more decorated coach.
“When you replace a John (Beilein) with a Bob Huggins,” Crean said. “That’s replacing one great coach with another.”
(4) The icing on a 16-layer cake
Some other players, trends and other tidbits to keep an eye on this season:
The other “Sixers”: Pittsburgh is the only team in the league to have played in the last six NCAA tournaments and win more than 20 games overall and 10 in conference play in that span. The Panthers were picked to finish fourth in the conference. UConn, on the other hand, has led the nation in blocked shots the last six years.
Freshman watch: In what’s becoming a trend in college basketball, a host of freshmen may be the top players to watch this season. You can blame that on the rule instituted in the NBA last season that essentially requires high school players to play at least one year in college before declaring for the draft. Keeping that in mind, the likes of Syracuse’s Jonny Flynn and Donte’ Green may be gone after a year or two. Other namses to remember are Villanova’s Corey Fisher, Georgetown’s Austin Freeman and Notre Dame’s Tim Abromaitis, a Connecticut product out of Unionville.
Beam me up: Scottie Reynolds, last year’s league Rookie of the Year, is poised to become the league’s Player of the Year, if not this season, soon enough. “We’re going to try to move him around, kind of like a good wide receiver or running back that you can use him and put him in a couple different spots. Like (former Villanova football star) Brian Westbrook,” said Villanova coach Jay Wright. “… We’re just going to put him wherever we can to use him and give people different looks at guarding him.”
Geoff the Great: Providence junior forward/guard Geoff McDermott scored a respectable 9.5 points per game last season, good for fifth on the Friars, but it’s the other things he does that made him a Preseason All-Big East selection, as in the 9.1 rebounds and team-high 159 assists he dished out. He was hampered by a partially torn meniscus he suffered midway through the year, and according to Providence coach Tim Welsh, following the injury (which he played through), “his stats went half – rebounds, assists, shooting percentage.” Now, he’s back at full strength and may be the Friar’s most important player. “And his team always seems to win in practice,” Welsh added, smiling.
But be warned: This will be the longest post I make all season, but I feel it's a nice taste of what the Big East will have to offer this year. Of course, with a 16-team league, there's much more I wish I could have put in, but even on the Internet, a story can only go for so long.
By MATT STOUT
Norwich Bulletin
Sixteen teams, 18 league games per school, nearly 300 players and coaches – as usual, there’s a lot going on in the Big East this season. Here are three story lines (with a littleextra) to watch for as the year unfolds:
(1) Georgetown vs. Louisville
Wondering how the Hoyas and Cardinals received exactly the same amount of points (217) and first-place votes (eight) to finish tied for first in the Big East preseason poll?
It’s simple: In a league known for its depth, these are two teams that may find a way to distant themselves. That is, if they didn’t have to play each other twice.
The conference sure knows how to set up an exciting night of television, pitting Georgetown and Louisville against each other in primetime (9 p.m., ESPN) in early February and then again on the final day of the regular season (March 8, Noon on CBS).
That date may decide the regular season crown, and perhaps represent a showcase for things to come.
“We have two, maybe three teams that can get to the Final Four,” said UConn coach Jim Calhoun. “And probably two teams that look like they can win it.”
Both Georgetown and Louisville are stacked entering the season, despite some key losses. The Hoyas return four starters, including Preseason Player of the Year Roy Hibbert, Jonathan Wallace, Jessie Sapp and DaJuan Summers, in addition to Patrick Ewing Jr.
Hibbert especially is intriguing, after he chose to forgo the NBA Draft and come back for his senior year with the hopes of improving upon more than last year’s average of 12.9 points per game.
“People talk about points, points, points, but I think about rebounds and I want to be on top of the charts in blocked shots,” he said. “That’s important to me.”
But two questions surround Georgetown: How will they replace Big East Player of the Year Jeff Green? And what could they possibly do for an encore to last season’s Final Four run?
Hoyas coach John Thompson III doesn’t want to either of them.
“I go into every year and it’s a new team so I’m not going into this year with the thought, ‘How are we going to replace Jeff Green?’ We have a whole new group, if everyone else from myself on down improves a little bit we’ll be OK,’” he said.
“We unveiled the Final Four banner at Midnight Madness and that closed the door on last year,” he later added. “And now we have a different team and the drive and the hunger is greater.”
Louisville, in its third year in the Big East, looks just as intimidating. Coach Rick Pitino has his top seven scorers back, losing his only starter in Brandon Jenkins to graduation, and Terrence Williams (12.4 points, 7.0 rebounds, 3.8 assists) is as versatile as any forward in the league.
Also, in the vein of the University of Florida’s “Oh-Fours” – the group of Joakim Noah, Al Horford, Taurean Green and Corey Brewer that entered college in 2004 and carried the Gators to the last two national titles – the Cardinals have the “Sixers” of Derrick Caracter, Earl Clark, Jerry Smith and Edgar Sosa, as they called themselves in the Courtier-Journal.
Now if they can get by everyone else …
“This is the strongest this conference has ever been,”’ Pitino said.
(2) Kickin’ Marquette
Two years in the Big East, two NCAA tournament appearances. Not a bad start for the Golden Eagles. But they want more and they’ve taken a different path to do it.
In preparing for the upcoming season, Marquette instituted two different approaches to the preseason in addition to its regular basketball routine.
First, the program became the first in the country to integrate a high-altitude training chamber into its weight room, a method that, in theory, cuts down on time training while improving stamina.
“I feel like I’m definitely in better shape, I got a little more air in my lungs,” said Dominic James, who, like his teammates, will peddle on a stationary bike inside the oxygen-reduced air a couple times a week. “It’s definitely something that’s going to make us better in the long run.”
Secondly, coach Tom Crean introduced Tae Kwon Do to the team with the hopes it would improve hand-eye coordination, balance and his players’ overall quickness. He has a sensei come in at least once a week to perform the classes.
“I can probably break two boards,” Crean jokingly said before turning to James and Jerel McNeal, who were seated next to him at Big East media day. “I got two boards, right? It’s all a matter of the mind.”
Both are two very different ways of doing things, but then again, Marquette is a different kind of team.
Blessed with perhaps the best backcourt in the country, the Golden Eagles rely on James (14.9 points, 4.9 assists a game last season), McNeal (the defending Big East Defensive Player of the Year) and Wesley Matthews (a 6-foot-5 guard who averaged 5.3 rebounds) for more than 30 minutes a game, nearly 60 percent of their scoring and that defensive toughness that gave the team the third-best turnover-margin (plus-2.5) in the league a year ago.
Picked to finish third in the conference, the Golden Eagles hope this is the year they finally break through in the league. They’d be the first former Conference USA team to win the Big East title if they did.
“Defensively, I’ll put these three guys up there with any other three,” Crean said of his guards. “They’re not going to take a back seat to anybody.”
(3) Huggins home again
Bob Huggins left behind a Kansas State team that went 23-12 with him at the helm a season ago, earned the No. 25 spot in the Associated Press preseason poll this year and boasts the Big 12’s -- and perhaps the country's -- best freshman in Michael Beasley.
But he won’t look back. He’s home again.
A West Virginia alum and a graduate assistant coach in the 1997-’78 season, Huggins returned to the Mountaineers this offseason after previous coach John Beilein left to fill the coaching vacancy at Michigan.
But the trek back to Morgantown wasn’t a smooth one. A DUI arrest ultimately led to his dismissal following the 2004-05 season from Cincinnati – a place he’d coached at for 16 years – and his decision to leave Kansas State after a single season reportedly didn’t sit well with Wildcat supporters.
But when asked about the controversy that surrounded his departure, Huggins countered, “There wasn’t any controversy.”
“I think people realized that I had an opportunity to go home,” Huggins said. “Just like if they had an opportunity to go home, they’d go home. … I know feelings initially were hurt but I had dinner a month ago with the (university) president. He’s a very dear friend. So there wasn’t any controversy. We’re all to this point very close. One of the associate athletic directors went fishing with me.”
Of course, how he’s perceived thousands of miles away doesn’t concern the 25-year veteran. He said it’s the lack of size and depth of his current club, which is coming off an NIT championship, that’s on his mind.
“But they’ve been terrific,” Huggins said of his players’ attitude.
The Mountaineers, picked by league coaches to finish 10th in the Big East, lost their leading scorer in Frank Young from a season ago, but have four players back who averaged 10 or more points a game last year. One of them, Da’Sean Butler, was a Big East All-Rookie team member last year and point guard Darris Nichols was first in the league in assist-to-turnovers ratio (plus-3.44).
“I don’t want to hear about West Virginia not being talented,” Calhoun said. “I told John Beilein last year right after the season before he went to Michigan that I thought it was his most talented team.”
And now they have an even more decorated coach.
“When you replace a John (Beilein) with a Bob Huggins,” Crean said. “That’s replacing one great coach with another.”
(4) The icing on a 16-layer cake
Some other players, trends and other tidbits to keep an eye on this season:
The other “Sixers”: Pittsburgh is the only team in the league to have played in the last six NCAA tournaments and win more than 20 games overall and 10 in conference play in that span. The Panthers were picked to finish fourth in the conference. UConn, on the other hand, has led the nation in blocked shots the last six years.
Freshman watch: In what’s becoming a trend in college basketball, a host of freshmen may be the top players to watch this season. You can blame that on the rule instituted in the NBA last season that essentially requires high school players to play at least one year in college before declaring for the draft. Keeping that in mind, the likes of Syracuse’s Jonny Flynn and Donte’ Green may be gone after a year or two. Other namses to remember are Villanova’s Corey Fisher, Georgetown’s Austin Freeman and Notre Dame’s Tim Abromaitis, a Connecticut product out of Unionville.
Beam me up: Scottie Reynolds, last year’s league Rookie of the Year, is poised to become the league’s Player of the Year, if not this season, soon enough. “We’re going to try to move him around, kind of like a good wide receiver or running back that you can use him and put him in a couple different spots. Like (former Villanova football star) Brian Westbrook,” said Villanova coach Jay Wright. “… We’re just going to put him wherever we can to use him and give people different looks at guarding him.”
Geoff the Great: Providence junior forward/guard Geoff McDermott scored a respectable 9.5 points per game last season, good for fifth on the Friars, but it’s the other things he does that made him a Preseason All-Big East selection, as in the 9.1 rebounds and team-high 159 assists he dished out. He was hampered by a partially torn meniscus he suffered midway through the year, and according to Providence coach Tim Welsh, following the injury (which he played through), “his stats went half – rebounds, assists, shooting percentage.” Now, he’s back at full strength and may be the Friar’s most important player. “And his team always seems to win in practice,” Welsh added, smiling.
Thursday, November 8, 2007
UPDATE: Big run propels Huskies
UConn went on a 24-6 run to end the half with a 43-30 lead over Buffalo. A.J. Price leads all scorers with 11 points and Stanley Robinson has six points, seven rebounds and three blocks.
Quick note from Storrs
With a win tonight, UConn faces Gardner-Webb next Thursday in the semifinals of the 2K Sports Classic at Madison Square Garden. But it may not be at the regularly scheduled time.
Originally slated at 9 p.m., the game was switched to "TBD" prior to tonight's game, meaning there's a good chance the matchup of Memphis and the Norman Regional winner (most likely Oklahoma) would get the "featued" slot on ESPN2 instead of the regular 7 p.m. start. That's of course if Oklahoma wins.
Obviously, the idea is to have the marquee showdown in the second game, which would have been Kentucky-UConn. Gardner-Webb had other plans, and that's not to say UConn is a lock tonight. Sure, it's the heavy favorite over Buffalo, but stranger things have happened.
Can you imagine the ratings for a Buffalo-Gardner Webb match-up? Even the mention of it probably makes an ESPN executive's ears bleed.
Check back here and on the frontpage of NorwichBulletin.com around 10 p.m. for a halftime update
Originally slated at 9 p.m., the game was switched to "TBD" prior to tonight's game, meaning there's a good chance the matchup of Memphis and the Norman Regional winner (most likely Oklahoma) would get the "featued" slot on ESPN2 instead of the regular 7 p.m. start. That's of course if Oklahoma wins.
Obviously, the idea is to have the marquee showdown in the second game, which would have been Kentucky-UConn. Gardner-Webb had other plans, and that's not to say UConn is a lock tonight. Sure, it's the heavy favorite over Buffalo, but stranger things have happened.
Can you imagine the ratings for a Buffalo-Gardner Webb match-up? Even the mention of it probably makes an ESPN executive's ears bleed.
Check back here and on the frontpage of NorwichBulletin.com around 10 p.m. for a halftime update
Morgan State post-game leftovers ... and a look ahead
One (somewhat lackluster) game into the season and there is already a lot to over with these Huskies. Also, sorry about the lack of posts during and following the game. There were some technical difficulties with the blog, but there were updates on the front page of NorwichBulletin.com. From now on, there will be quick hits in both places when it comes to in-game updates.
(1) Morgan State's comeback and the news of Gardner-Webb leading (and then upsetting) Kentucky the same night led UConn coach Jim Calhoun to touch about the parity in college basketball in his post-game comments.
"There’s not that much drastic difference it seems to me among teams," he said following his team's 69-65 win, a game in which Morgan State hit 11-of-22 3-pointers. "The 3-point shot is a great equalizer.
"I don’t know if there’s a special team out there," he lated added. "Maybe UNC is, maybe UCLA is, but our 2004 team … that was a special team that could do a lot different things."
Morgan State, in some ways, represented the kind of teams that pulls those kind of upsets. They have experience (three seniors and a junior transfer in former Pac-10 All-Rookie team member Marquise Kately who start) and can play both inside and out.
"That’s the George Mason Syndrome, when you get real experienced players who can really play people," Calhoun said, referring to the Cinderalla Patriots team of two years ago that beat UConn in the NCAA tournament en route to the Final Four.
"As Rick (Pitino) said, '(Larry) Bird, (Robert) Parish, those guys aren’t walking through the door,'" Calhoun said. "So Rudy (Gay) and Ray (Allen) aren’t walking through the door."
A side note on Gardner-Webb: If the Huskies win tonight, they would play the Runnin' Bulldgos (yes, I had to look that up) next Thursday in the semifinals of the 2K Sports Classic College Hoops Classic benefitting Coaches vs. Cancer. (Say that five times fast.) They then have them on the schedule five days later on Tuesday, Nov. 20, at the Hartford Civic Center.
That's a little more Gardner-Webb than anyone wanted. Calhoun put this schedule together to play good teams early. That's not to say the Bulldogs won't be a test (Kentucky was the No. 20 in the country and they beat them on their own floor), but it's safe to stay Kentucky was the challenge Calhoun was hoping for.
(2) Morgan State was able to make its comeback in the second half primarily on the strength of its 3-point shooting but the 20 offensive rebounds it grabbed also had a lot to do it. Twelve of them came in the second half and almost all of them were on long rebounds they were able to chase down.
"That became very irritating," Calhoun said.
And for the Huskies, it also may have been a little surprising.
"They were scrappy tonight," said Craig Austrie. "And that was one thing, we let them out-scrap us and it's not like us to let another team out-scrap us. It's one thing we have to fix."
(3) The disappearance of Hasheem Thabeet and Stanley Robinson (a combined 27 minutes, three points and seven turnovers) was somewhat baffling, considerng Calhoun said prior to the game that he felt the Huskies were bigger and stronger and could impose that will on the Bears.
Instead, only Jeff Adrien was a factor in the frontcourt, and on both ends, with a career-high seven blocks. Despite the contributions of Curtis Kelly, the Huskies won't be able to win without the 7-foot-3 Thabeet and the athletic Robinson contributing.
"I’m not at all discouraged about it, but we gotta get more out of Hasheem," Calhoun said. "We certainly have to get more out of Stanley because we had to play so small tonight (going to the three-guard set) and frankly, whatever minutes he got was probably three minutes more than he deserved. He just did not have a game where he was into the game."
Even if and when Robinson turns it around, expect UConn to go to the 3-guard set often. They were able to get on the break a lot last night, a point Morgan State coach Todd Bozeman touched upon afterward, and even with it neautralized last night, the Huskies' 2-2-1 press should make a comeback quickly.
Still, they need Thabeet playing well in the middle to make up for the lack of size they'll have with the three-guard combo.
"He has to be a dominating presence," Calhoun said of Thabeet. "He’s capable of so much more. He’s very, very much improved. We see it in practice but I haven’t seen it once, in the two exhibition games and this game (Wednesday night)."
(4) Despite shooting 3-for-15 from 3-point land, the Huskies feel they are a much better shooting team than they were last year. Austrie commented on it in today's article, and Calhoun emphasized it in his post-game comments.
"If you put Craig Austrie there, he can comfortably shoot 100 3s and make 74. A.J. (Price) has done 76.
"I’m putting it at high notes, but a bad day for them, George, would be what?" he added, asking assistant coach George Blaney, who had slipped into the press conference from a door in the back of the room. "Sixties," Calhoun echoed Blaney, "and you’re right, we’re bare naked (Wednesday) and we can’t make one.
"With fairness to Hasheem," he added, "they're going to crowd the post if they’re just going to let our guys shoot from the outside. So it’s a combination of everyone doing their job."
(5) Calhoun was asked about the bench decorum rule and how he felt about it after the first game.
"I liked it because they weren’t Big East officials," he said jokingly. "They weren't as much a pain in the ass."
(6) Tonight's opponent Buffalo plays out of the Mid-American conference and finished last season at 12-19 with a first-round loss to Central Michigan in the MAC tournament.
Wenesday, the Bulls beat D-II Ohio Valley, 89-82, despite losing 26 turnovers.
"We have a lot of work to do with that," said Buffalo coach Reggie Witherspoon. "We came out anxious, trying to score more than two or three points on one possesson. We forced not only passes but shots, too. We didn't shoot the ball real well. Last year, they (turnovers) were born more out of us not playing agressively. Either way it goes, it's still a turnover, and we probably had too many of them tonight."
"We'll face a good opponent," Calhoun said. "They'll have some size. ... I like teams pressing us because it gets us running. If they press us, it will be very interesting."
(1) Morgan State's comeback and the news of Gardner-Webb leading (and then upsetting) Kentucky the same night led UConn coach Jim Calhoun to touch about the parity in college basketball in his post-game comments.
"There’s not that much drastic difference it seems to me among teams," he said following his team's 69-65 win, a game in which Morgan State hit 11-of-22 3-pointers. "The 3-point shot is a great equalizer.
"I don’t know if there’s a special team out there," he lated added. "Maybe UNC is, maybe UCLA is, but our 2004 team … that was a special team that could do a lot different things."
Morgan State, in some ways, represented the kind of teams that pulls those kind of upsets. They have experience (three seniors and a junior transfer in former Pac-10 All-Rookie team member Marquise Kately who start) and can play both inside and out.
"That’s the George Mason Syndrome, when you get real experienced players who can really play people," Calhoun said, referring to the Cinderalla Patriots team of two years ago that beat UConn in the NCAA tournament en route to the Final Four.
"As Rick (Pitino) said, '(Larry) Bird, (Robert) Parish, those guys aren’t walking through the door,'" Calhoun said. "So Rudy (Gay) and Ray (Allen) aren’t walking through the door."
A side note on Gardner-Webb: If the Huskies win tonight, they would play the Runnin' Bulldgos (yes, I had to look that up) next Thursday in the semifinals of the 2K Sports Classic College Hoops Classic benefitting Coaches vs. Cancer. (Say that five times fast.) They then have them on the schedule five days later on Tuesday, Nov. 20, at the Hartford Civic Center.
That's a little more Gardner-Webb than anyone wanted. Calhoun put this schedule together to play good teams early. That's not to say the Bulldogs won't be a test (Kentucky was the No. 20 in the country and they beat them on their own floor), but it's safe to stay Kentucky was the challenge Calhoun was hoping for.
(2) Morgan State was able to make its comeback in the second half primarily on the strength of its 3-point shooting but the 20 offensive rebounds it grabbed also had a lot to do it. Twelve of them came in the second half and almost all of them were on long rebounds they were able to chase down.
"That became very irritating," Calhoun said.
And for the Huskies, it also may have been a little surprising.
"They were scrappy tonight," said Craig Austrie. "And that was one thing, we let them out-scrap us and it's not like us to let another team out-scrap us. It's one thing we have to fix."
(3) The disappearance of Hasheem Thabeet and Stanley Robinson (a combined 27 minutes, three points and seven turnovers) was somewhat baffling, considerng Calhoun said prior to the game that he felt the Huskies were bigger and stronger and could impose that will on the Bears.
Instead, only Jeff Adrien was a factor in the frontcourt, and on both ends, with a career-high seven blocks. Despite the contributions of Curtis Kelly, the Huskies won't be able to win without the 7-foot-3 Thabeet and the athletic Robinson contributing.
"I’m not at all discouraged about it, but we gotta get more out of Hasheem," Calhoun said. "We certainly have to get more out of Stanley because we had to play so small tonight (going to the three-guard set) and frankly, whatever minutes he got was probably three minutes more than he deserved. He just did not have a game where he was into the game."
Even if and when Robinson turns it around, expect UConn to go to the 3-guard set often. They were able to get on the break a lot last night, a point Morgan State coach Todd Bozeman touched upon afterward, and even with it neautralized last night, the Huskies' 2-2-1 press should make a comeback quickly.
Still, they need Thabeet playing well in the middle to make up for the lack of size they'll have with the three-guard combo.
"He has to be a dominating presence," Calhoun said of Thabeet. "He’s capable of so much more. He’s very, very much improved. We see it in practice but I haven’t seen it once, in the two exhibition games and this game (Wednesday night)."
(4) Despite shooting 3-for-15 from 3-point land, the Huskies feel they are a much better shooting team than they were last year. Austrie commented on it in today's article, and Calhoun emphasized it in his post-game comments.
"If you put Craig Austrie there, he can comfortably shoot 100 3s and make 74. A.J. (Price) has done 76.
"I’m putting it at high notes, but a bad day for them, George, would be what?" he added, asking assistant coach George Blaney, who had slipped into the press conference from a door in the back of the room. "Sixties," Calhoun echoed Blaney, "and you’re right, we’re bare naked (Wednesday) and we can’t make one.
"With fairness to Hasheem," he added, "they're going to crowd the post if they’re just going to let our guys shoot from the outside. So it’s a combination of everyone doing their job."
(5) Calhoun was asked about the bench decorum rule and how he felt about it after the first game.
"I liked it because they weren’t Big East officials," he said jokingly. "They weren't as much a pain in the ass."
(6) Tonight's opponent Buffalo plays out of the Mid-American conference and finished last season at 12-19 with a first-round loss to Central Michigan in the MAC tournament.
Wenesday, the Bulls beat D-II Ohio Valley, 89-82, despite losing 26 turnovers.
"We have a lot of work to do with that," said Buffalo coach Reggie Witherspoon. "We came out anxious, trying to score more than two or three points on one possesson. We forced not only passes but shots, too. We didn't shoot the ball real well. Last year, they (turnovers) were born more out of us not playing agressively. Either way it goes, it's still a turnover, and we probably had too many of them tonight."
"We'll face a good opponent," Calhoun said. "They'll have some size. ... I like teams pressing us because it gets us running. If they press us, it will be very interesting."
Wednesday, November 7, 2007
UPDATE: Buffalo prevails, 89-82
Buffalo held of Ohio Valley, 89-82, and will meet the winner of UConn/Morgan State tomorrow night at 9 p.m. in the 2K Sports Classic regional final game here at Gampel.
Greg Gamble scored 25 points and had four steals for the Bulls, whose win won't count toward their official D-I record because Ohio Valley is a D-II program. That's good news for the Huskies as well, who should win both games and now would have both victories count toward their record.
Andrew Atman added 16 points for Buffalo. It was a competitive game but also a sloppy one -- the teams combined for 57 turnovers, 31 from Ohio Valley. Yikes. Ohio Valley also got two technical fouls -- one before the tip for putting the wrong number next to a player's name on the scorebook and another in the second half when coach Bill McGee argued with an official.
By the way, Ohio Valley's nickname is the Fighting Scots -- that's a pretty solid mascot. And the school (enrollment: 582) isn't even in Ohio; it's in Vienna, West Virginia.
More to come at halftime from the UConn game. Tip-off, set for 7 p.m., is about a half-hour, and it looks like it will start on time.
Greg Gamble scored 25 points and had four steals for the Bulls, whose win won't count toward their official D-I record because Ohio Valley is a D-II program. That's good news for the Huskies as well, who should win both games and now would have both victories count toward their record.
Andrew Atman added 16 points for Buffalo. It was a competitive game but also a sloppy one -- the teams combined for 57 turnovers, 31 from Ohio Valley. Yikes. Ohio Valley also got two technical fouls -- one before the tip for putting the wrong number next to a player's name on the scorebook and another in the second half when coach Bill McGee argued with an official.
By the way, Ohio Valley's nickname is the Fighting Scots -- that's a pretty solid mascot. And the school (enrollment: 582) isn't even in Ohio; it's in Vienna, West Virginia.
More to come at halftime from the UConn game. Tip-off, set for 7 p.m., is about a half-hour, and it looks like it will start on time.
UConn set to open season at Gampel
Coming at you from Gampel Pavilion. UConn's tip-off against Morgan State is about an hour and a half away, but there are already about 150 people here watching a competitive OVU-Buffalo game (62-61 Buffalo with about 12 minutes to play in the second half).
Here's a quick run-down of things to watch tonight and notes from practice on Tuesday:
(1) UConn will most likely play out of a three-guard set most of the night -- it's what it's looked best in -- but the starters are A.J. Price (point guard), Jerome Dyson (shooting guard), Stanley Robinson (small forward), Jeff Adrien (power forward) and Hasheem Thabeet (center).
"They have pressed so I think both teams will probably like to do the same thing," UConn coach Jim Calhoun said. "We’re bigger and stronger so we would like to make a good effort to get the ball inside."
(2) Milwaukee Bucks Director of Player Personnel was at practice Tuesday at Gampel Pavilion and he had some observations about UConn, as told by Calhoun.
"He made a good point: ‘It looks like they’ll get better,’" Calhoun said. "He was here about three or four times last year and he said it looks like they’ve gotten a lot better now and it looks like they’ll get better. And that’s the key. Do we get better?"
(3) UConn is 17-4 in season openers under Calhoun and it has never lost its Gampel opener (dating back to 1990).
(4) The Huskies added another walk-on today in Alex Hornat, giving them six on the season in Kareem Ayodeji, Johnnie Bird, Kyle Fitzpatrick, Hornat, John Lindner and Jim Veronick. Ayodeji, Bird, Fitzpatrick and Hornat are all listed wearing No. 35 so only will dress from game to game.
Check back here prior, during and following the game for updates.
Here's a quick run-down of things to watch tonight and notes from practice on Tuesday:
(1) UConn will most likely play out of a three-guard set most of the night -- it's what it's looked best in -- but the starters are A.J. Price (point guard), Jerome Dyson (shooting guard), Stanley Robinson (small forward), Jeff Adrien (power forward) and Hasheem Thabeet (center).
"They have pressed so I think both teams will probably like to do the same thing," UConn coach Jim Calhoun said. "We’re bigger and stronger so we would like to make a good effort to get the ball inside."
(2) Milwaukee Bucks Director of Player Personnel was at practice Tuesday at Gampel Pavilion and he had some observations about UConn, as told by Calhoun.
"He made a good point: ‘It looks like they’ll get better,’" Calhoun said. "He was here about three or four times last year and he said it looks like they’ve gotten a lot better now and it looks like they’ll get better. And that’s the key. Do we get better?"
(3) UConn is 17-4 in season openers under Calhoun and it has never lost its Gampel opener (dating back to 1990).
(4) The Huskies added another walk-on today in Alex Hornat, giving them six on the season in Kareem Ayodeji, Johnnie Bird, Kyle Fitzpatrick, Hornat, John Lindner and Jim Veronick. Ayodeji, Bird, Fitzpatrick and Hornat are all listed wearing No. 35 so only will dress from game to game.
Check back here prior, during and following the game for updates.
Big East to expand championship field
The Big East will expand its championship field to include all 16 teams on both the men's and the women's side, it was announced this morning.
Currently the top 12 teams in the final regular-season standings made the championship, held in New York City at Madison Square Garden for the men and at the Hartford Civic Center for the women. Under the new format, teams seeded 9 through 16 meet on the first day of tournament, with No. 9 playing No. 16, No. 10 playing No. 15 and so on.
The winners of those four games then meet seeds 5 through 8 on the second day of play. The 9/16 winner advances to play the No. 8 seed, the 10/15 winner plays the No. 7 seed, the 11/14 winner meets the No. 6 seed, and the 12/13 winner plays the No. 5 seed. Those four winners then advance to play the top four seeds in the quarterfinal round. Thus, the top four seeded teams still do not play until the quarterfinals, as it was in the current 12-team format.
The move, which came after "a very thorough review of the tournament format," Big East commissioner Michael Tranghese said in a press release, was made by conference presidents at their annual meeting held Tuesday in Philadelphia.
UConn men's basketball coach Jim Calhoun, whose team opens its season tonight against Morgan State in the regional round of the 2K Sports College Hoops Classic at Gampel Pavilion, said he feels it was a good move.
"Since the league expanded to 16 teams, I have felt that the 12-team format for the tournament ostracized the programs, coaches and especially the players of the teams that were excluded from going to New York," he said in a press release. "The experience of playing in Madison Square Garden and all that is associated with the history of our tournament in New York City needed to be something that every team in our league could be a part of.
"For that reason," he continued, "I have lobbied very hard for this to happen. I congratulate the League Presidents and Athletic Directors for this move that benefits every basketball student-athlete in the BIG EAST."
UConn women's coach Geno Auriemma echoed Calhoun's sentiment.
"I am in complete agreement with the decision to expand the conference tournament to include all 16 teams in the BIG EAST," he said in a separate release. "The year-end tournament is the highlight of conference play and is something that every student-athlete should have an opportunity to experience"
Currently the top 12 teams in the final regular-season standings made the championship, held in New York City at Madison Square Garden for the men and at the Hartford Civic Center for the women. Under the new format, teams seeded 9 through 16 meet on the first day of tournament, with No. 9 playing No. 16, No. 10 playing No. 15 and so on.
The winners of those four games then meet seeds 5 through 8 on the second day of play. The 9/16 winner advances to play the No. 8 seed, the 10/15 winner plays the No. 7 seed, the 11/14 winner meets the No. 6 seed, and the 12/13 winner plays the No. 5 seed. Those four winners then advance to play the top four seeds in the quarterfinal round. Thus, the top four seeded teams still do not play until the quarterfinals, as it was in the current 12-team format.
The move, which came after "a very thorough review of the tournament format," Big East commissioner Michael Tranghese said in a press release, was made by conference presidents at their annual meeting held Tuesday in Philadelphia.
UConn men's basketball coach Jim Calhoun, whose team opens its season tonight against Morgan State in the regional round of the 2K Sports College Hoops Classic at Gampel Pavilion, said he feels it was a good move.
"Since the league expanded to 16 teams, I have felt that the 12-team format for the tournament ostracized the programs, coaches and especially the players of the teams that were excluded from going to New York," he said in a press release. "The experience of playing in Madison Square Garden and all that is associated with the history of our tournament in New York City needed to be something that every team in our league could be a part of.
"For that reason," he continued, "I have lobbied very hard for this to happen. I congratulate the League Presidents and Athletic Directors for this move that benefits every basketball student-athlete in the BIG EAST."
UConn women's coach Geno Auriemma echoed Calhoun's sentiment.
"I am in complete agreement with the decision to expand the conference tournament to include all 16 teams in the BIG EAST," he said in a separate release. "The year-end tournament is the highlight of conference play and is something that every student-athlete should have an opportunity to experience"
Monday, November 5, 2007
Marcus Johnson to transfer
Junior Marcus Johnson asked for a transfer from UConn, it was announced this afternoon. He will finish the academic semester at Storrs but the 6-foot-6, 195-pound forward is no longer on the team.
UConn coach Jim Calhoun said in a press release that Johnson, a Los Angeles native, had a desire to be closer to home.
"Marcus came to see me today and told me that he felt it was in his best interests to find another school to attend and to play basketball," Calhoun said in the press release. "I know he has a desire to maximize his playing time and also to get closer to home, so he felt this was the best decision for him at this time. I wish him nothing but the best as a person and as a basketball player."
Johnson sat out UConn's 100-65 exhibition win over Bryant on Sunday with an injured elbow and is scheduled to have an MRI later this week.
"I enjoyed my time here at UConn," Johnson said through a press release. "I appreciate everything that my teammates and coaches have done for me and hope they have plenty of success this season."
With the emergence of forwards Curtis Kelly and Stanley Robinson this preseason, it appeared Johnson, who started in 19 games last year, was going to have his playing time cut. Once a consensus top-50 recruit out of high school, he started in 24 of 51 games in his career for the Huskies, averaging 4.9 points per game.
Following UConn's 90-75 win over Assumption on Thursday, Calhoun also made remarks about Johnson, who went 1-for-5 from the free throw line and scored three points in six minutes.
"You're not going to play if you shoot 1-for-5 from the foul line," the coach said. "You better be doing something extra special."
UConn coach Jim Calhoun said in a press release that Johnson, a Los Angeles native, had a desire to be closer to home.
"Marcus came to see me today and told me that he felt it was in his best interests to find another school to attend and to play basketball," Calhoun said in the press release. "I know he has a desire to maximize his playing time and also to get closer to home, so he felt this was the best decision for him at this time. I wish him nothing but the best as a person and as a basketball player."
Johnson sat out UConn's 100-65 exhibition win over Bryant on Sunday with an injured elbow and is scheduled to have an MRI later this week.
"I enjoyed my time here at UConn," Johnson said through a press release. "I appreciate everything that my teammates and coaches have done for me and hope they have plenty of success this season."
With the emergence of forwards Curtis Kelly and Stanley Robinson this preseason, it appeared Johnson, who started in 19 games last year, was going to have his playing time cut. Once a consensus top-50 recruit out of high school, he started in 24 of 51 games in his career for the Huskies, averaging 4.9 points per game.
Following UConn's 90-75 win over Assumption on Thursday, Calhoun also made remarks about Johnson, who went 1-for-5 from the free throw line and scored three points in six minutes.
"You're not going to play if you shoot 1-for-5 from the foul line," the coach said. "You better be doing something extra special."
Sunday, November 4, 2007
Johnson to have MRI
Marcus Johnson, who sat out today's 100-65 exhibition win over Bryant, is scheduled to have an MRI on his injured elbow Monday. Check back here for more earlier this week.
UPDATE: UConn throttles Bryant, 100-65
UConn outscored Bryant 21-3 over a nine-minute stretch en route to its 35-point win. It was just an overall dominating performance, as most fans would hope out of this team. Jerome Dyson led all scorers with 27 points, Stanley Robinson added 13 and A.J. Price finished with 11 points and eight assists, exactly half of UConn's team total.
Some other quick stats: The Huskies converted 17 fastbreak points and outscored Bryant, 36-10 in the paint. They officialy had 18 points off turnovers but many of 23 second-chance points came on the same plays.
The Huskies also shot an amazing 46 free throws, but only made 31 (67.4 percent), which is about where they were on Thursday (22-of-34, 64 percent).
Some other quick stats: The Huskies converted 17 fastbreak points and outscored Bryant, 36-10 in the paint. They officialy had 18 points off turnovers but many of 23 second-chance points came on the same plays.
The Huskies also shot an amazing 46 free throws, but only made 31 (67.4 percent), which is about where they were on Thursday (22-of-34, 64 percent).
UConn, Bryant update
UConn leads D-II Bryant, 51-38, at the half here at the Hartford Civic Center. Doug Wiggins leads all Huskies with 12 points (4-of-5 shooting, 2-of-3 from 3-point) and Jeff Adrien is already close to a double-double with seven points and eight rebounds.
The Huskies looked 10 times better today than they did Thursday in their exhibition win over Assumption. They're running more, making better decisions and look very active in their 2-2-1 zone press that has helped create 12 first-half turnovers by Bryant.
Using guards Wiggins, A.J. Price and Craig Austrie liberally, UConn looks like the quick, athletic team that coach Jim Calhoun has touted them as during the preseason.
On the negative side, Hasheem Thabeet still looked somewhat invisible, scoring two points and grabbing two rebounds in seven minutes of action. Jerome Dyson also played the first five minutes of the game and didn't play the rest of the half, his minutes instead going to Donnell Beverly (12 minutes), Price (15) and Austrie (14).
Beverly hasn't cracked the score sheet (zero points, zero field-goal attempts) but he's made few if any mistakes with the ball.
Some other notes: Price, UConn's leading scorer on Thursday, started in place of Austrie, and Marcus Johnson did not dress. He's dealing with several injuries, including one to his elbow that kept him out of practice earlier in the preseason.
Calhoun also was hit with a technical a little more than two minutes into the game for arguing with an official.
The Huskies looked 10 times better today than they did Thursday in their exhibition win over Assumption. They're running more, making better decisions and look very active in their 2-2-1 zone press that has helped create 12 first-half turnovers by Bryant.
Using guards Wiggins, A.J. Price and Craig Austrie liberally, UConn looks like the quick, athletic team that coach Jim Calhoun has touted them as during the preseason.
On the negative side, Hasheem Thabeet still looked somewhat invisible, scoring two points and grabbing two rebounds in seven minutes of action. Jerome Dyson also played the first five minutes of the game and didn't play the rest of the half, his minutes instead going to Donnell Beverly (12 minutes), Price (15) and Austrie (14).
Beverly hasn't cracked the score sheet (zero points, zero field-goal attempts) but he's made few if any mistakes with the ball.
Some other notes: Price, UConn's leading scorer on Thursday, started in place of Austrie, and Marcus Johnson did not dress. He's dealing with several injuries, including one to his elbow that kept him out of practice earlier in the preseason.
Calhoun also was hit with a technical a little more than two minutes into the game for arguing with an official.
Friday, November 2, 2007
UConn receiving more votes
The Associated Press Top 25 preseason poll was released Friday and, as in the Coaches' Poll, UConn landed in the 'receiving votes' section, this time earning the No. 32 spot (50 points), behind Xavier (73) and tied with Davidson (also 50).
The Big East had four teams ranked in the Top 25 (No. 5 Georgetown, which also received a first-place vote; No. 6 Louisville; No. 11 Marquette; and No. 22 Pittsburgh). Two other conference teams were ranked ahead of the Huskies: Villanova (No. 26, 144 points) and Syracuse (No. 29, 103 points).
UNC, which returned three starters this season, was ranked the preseason No. 1 ahead of No.2 UCLA and No. 3 Memphis. The Pac-10 boasted the most schools in the Top 25 with six, including UCLA, No. 10 Washington State, No. 12 Oregon, No. 17 Arizona, No. 18 USC and No. 23 Stanford.
The Big East had four teams ranked in the Top 25 (No. 5 Georgetown, which also received a first-place vote; No. 6 Louisville; No. 11 Marquette; and No. 22 Pittsburgh). Two other conference teams were ranked ahead of the Huskies: Villanova (No. 26, 144 points) and Syracuse (No. 29, 103 points).
UNC, which returned three starters this season, was ranked the preseason No. 1 ahead of No.2 UCLA and No. 3 Memphis. The Pac-10 boasted the most schools in the Top 25 with six, including UCLA, No. 10 Washington State, No. 12 Oregon, No. 17 Arizona, No. 18 USC and No. 23 Stanford.
Thursday, November 1, 2007
EXHIBITION UPDATE: UConn leads, 43-34, at half
Well, the only good thing is it may not get any uglier than that. The Huskies lead the D-II Assumption College greyhounds by nine points at the half. UConn went the final six minutes with only two field goals -- a Jeff Adrien putback with 1:11 left and a Curtis Kelly tip-in with about two seconds to play -- and shot 16-of-24 from the free throw line (66.7 percent).
Sixteen of those foul shots came in the final six minutes as the Greyhounds, without a player above 6-feet, 7-inches, racked up 15 personal fouls to UConn's six. Assumption packed in down into a 3-2 zone, which helps explain the slow-down tempo of the game.
Craig Austrie leads the Huskies with 10 points on 2-of-6 shooting (4-of-5 from the line) while Corey Diethorn has 10 for Assumption. Really the only time UConn showed some definitive life on offense came midway through the half when Stanley Robinson (perhaps the Huskies' best player on the floor other than Austrie) threw down a dunk and came back 30 seconds later with an fast-break, alley-oop slam from Austrie to make it 19-11 UConn.
The game also marked the debut of the Huskies' new uniforms, which fit tight near the neck and haved a boxed design outlining the shoulders and sides of the uniforms. As a whole, they're pretty form-hitting and look uncomfortably tight, especially on players like Hasheem Thabeet and Adrien.
As for Jim Calhoun setting his rotation, that may have to wait until the second half at best. He subbed throughout the period, with 11 playes seeing time and only one player (Jerome Dyson, 17 minutes) playing more than three-quarters of the half. Adrien played 15 minutes, Austrie and Kelly each saw 12 minutes on the floor and Robinson played 11.
Sixteen of those foul shots came in the final six minutes as the Greyhounds, without a player above 6-feet, 7-inches, racked up 15 personal fouls to UConn's six. Assumption packed in down into a 3-2 zone, which helps explain the slow-down tempo of the game.
Craig Austrie leads the Huskies with 10 points on 2-of-6 shooting (4-of-5 from the line) while Corey Diethorn has 10 for Assumption. Really the only time UConn showed some definitive life on offense came midway through the half when Stanley Robinson (perhaps the Huskies' best player on the floor other than Austrie) threw down a dunk and came back 30 seconds later with an fast-break, alley-oop slam from Austrie to make it 19-11 UConn.
The game also marked the debut of the Huskies' new uniforms, which fit tight near the neck and haved a boxed design outlining the shoulders and sides of the uniforms. As a whole, they're pretty form-hitting and look uncomfortably tight, especially on players like Hasheem Thabeet and Adrien.
As for Jim Calhoun setting his rotation, that may have to wait until the second half at best. He subbed throughout the period, with 11 playes seeing time and only one player (Jerome Dyson, 17 minutes) playing more than three-quarters of the half. Adrien played 15 minutes, Austrie and Kelly each saw 12 minutes on the floor and Robinson played 11.
UConn to tip off with Assumption
The Huskies' preseason opener with D-II Assumption College is about 15 minutes away. Here are tonight's expected starters:
PG - Jerome Dyson
SG - Craig Austrie
SF - Stanley Robinson
PF - Jeff Adrien
C - Hasheem Thabeet
Dyson, Adrien and Thabeet are no surprise, but Austrie has played himself into the starting lineup over A.J. Price with a strong preseason. UConn coach Jim Calhoun has repeatedly said the junior has the potential to be the team's best shooter and aside from Dyson, Calhoun considers him the team's best defensive guard.
"I always like having two all-purpose guards," Calhoun said. "Actaully our point guard (Dyson) will have the potential to score more points (than our shooting guard), which is very atypical of us. But if you think about it, Khalid (El-Amin) had more potential to score points than Ricky (Moore) did, and yet they played wonderfully together (back in the 1999 national championship season)."
Calhoun went on to call Austrie, "probably, guard-wise, our total package."
"He's playing good basketball," the coach said. "He makes the team better and I think he likes passing out of the two (guard position) more than he likes running the team."
Robinson, who showed flashes of his potential last season, also gets the start over Curtis Kelly, another of the team's most improved players from a year ago. As detailed in today's story, Calhoun hopes to set his rotation earlier this season and seeing how Robinson fits in with the starting lineup certainly is a big part of that.
"It will be easier for us to find their role if their minutes are much more defined," Calhoun said. "Last year we had examples of Stanley getting 21 points, and then getting zero points. Was that the rotation? Not surely, but he had 30 minutes and 16 the next game because he was playing poorly. We may have to stick with him, using him as an example, and we may not. We may have to stick with him just to get him to be what he needs to be."
Check back around 8:30 for a halftime update of tonight's game. Assumption has no player over 6-foot-7 so expect Hasheem Thabeet and Jeff Adrien to especially make their mark.
PG - Jerome Dyson
SG - Craig Austrie
SF - Stanley Robinson
PF - Jeff Adrien
C - Hasheem Thabeet
Dyson, Adrien and Thabeet are no surprise, but Austrie has played himself into the starting lineup over A.J. Price with a strong preseason. UConn coach Jim Calhoun has repeatedly said the junior has the potential to be the team's best shooter and aside from Dyson, Calhoun considers him the team's best defensive guard.
"I always like having two all-purpose guards," Calhoun said. "Actaully our point guard (Dyson) will have the potential to score more points (than our shooting guard), which is very atypical of us. But if you think about it, Khalid (El-Amin) had more potential to score points than Ricky (Moore) did, and yet they played wonderfully together (back in the 1999 national championship season)."
Calhoun went on to call Austrie, "probably, guard-wise, our total package."
"He's playing good basketball," the coach said. "He makes the team better and I think he likes passing out of the two (guard position) more than he likes running the team."
Robinson, who showed flashes of his potential last season, also gets the start over Curtis Kelly, another of the team's most improved players from a year ago. As detailed in today's story, Calhoun hopes to set his rotation earlier this season and seeing how Robinson fits in with the starting lineup certainly is a big part of that.
"It will be easier for us to find their role if their minutes are much more defined," Calhoun said. "Last year we had examples of Stanley getting 21 points, and then getting zero points. Was that the rotation? Not surely, but he had 30 minutes and 16 the next game because he was playing poorly. We may have to stick with him, using him as an example, and we may not. We may have to stick with him just to get him to be what he needs to be."
Check back around 8:30 for a halftime update of tonight's game. Assumption has no player over 6-foot-7 so expect Hasheem Thabeet and Jeff Adrien to especially make their mark.
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