UCONN OVERCOMES SLUGGISH EFFORT, TOPS USF
February 21, 2009
By Zach Smart
HARTFORD--Jim Calhoun was angry. He was angry at his team for putting together a lackluster first half in which they shot the ball at a meager 14-for-37 clip. He was angry at his guards for not knocking down easy shots early. He was angry that they were letting the South Florida Bulls, who've won just three Big East games this season, run with them and match them on the glass.
He sent his first message to his starters in the first half, inserting seldom-used freshman Scottie Haralson for two minutes. If his message wasn't clear enough at halftime, Calhoun--never one to mask his frustration--made his voice heard in the second half.
After Augustus got free for a two-handed jam, Calhoun signaled for forward Gavin Edwards to get out of the game. He nearly walked on the court and pointed at Edwards, yelling at him to take a seat.
Read More...Click Below!
Moments, later, Calhoun's frustration compounded. A.J. Price threw up a high lob for Stanley "Sticks" Robinson. Robinson caught the ball away from the basket, but still tried to complete what would have been a rocking dunk. South Florida got the rebound and executed a fast break that resulted in a Dominique Jones dunk, slicing the Huskies' lead to 46-40 with 11:48 to play.
Calhoun called a timeout, nearly pulled his hair out, and unleashed a few choice words at his players.
Whatever it was Calhoun said, it lit a fire under the No.1 ranked team in the country. The Huskies rattled off a 9-0 run capped by a Hasheem Thabeet layup. Wedged in the run was A.J. Price's deep 3-pointer and a solid move in which Price shook a defender off the dribble, exploded to the basket and kissed one off the glass.
UConn's lead ballooned to 55-40 and the Huskies never looked back.
"It was a hard bounce back game," said Jim Calhoun, whose team improved to 13-2 in the Big East and resuscitated themselves following a tough-to-swallow loss against Pittsburgh on Monday.
"You want to get back into the fray and get going. All of a sudden they’re taking 25 seconds off the shot clock. That caused us not to play anywhere near the type of defense we need to play early or rebound."
Jeff Adrien, the senior strongman and boardsmith, was off his game offensively. Albeit he pulled down nine boards, Adrien shot just 4-for-14 and missed shots at point-blank range.
Center Hasheem Thabeet, who turned in a Houdini-like performance against Pitt, picked up the slack for his teammate. Thabeet, who loves to feast on smaller opponents, scored 21 points and snared nine rebounds. The 7-foot-3 mountain of a man blocked six shots and changed a laundry list of others.
"At first we went almost four minutes without scoring, and coach joked that it would be a 20 point half," said Thabeet. "We had to pick it up. We were successful when we did that. It’s always tough when we’re coming back from a loss like we had a week ago. Everybody was mad and we came back and everybody wanted to win."
In the first half, it looked like everybody wanted a day off.
Both teams came out of the gates Alaska-cold, until Robinson's putback on a Craig Austrie miss jump-started a 9-0 run. South Florida thwarted the run on a Chris Howard trey from the top of the key with 14:14 left to play in the half.
A coast-to-coast layup by Kemba Walker gave UConn a 23-14 bulge, and the Rice High product gave UConn a 31-20 halftime lead as he once again drove the ball to the rack for a buzzer-beating layup.
UConn was sluggish in the second half, until a 9-0 burst broke the game open with 7:46 to play.
The tempo of the game was the single most important thing," explained Calhoun. "We’re going to see that at times….We don’t know if we’re going to see a slow-down game, per se, but I think it was a difficult game to bounce back."
Bulls head coach Stan Heath lauded Thabeet, who's a surefire first round pick if he declares for the 2009 NBA draft.
"To see him up close, he’s so impressive," said Heath. "You can just see how much he’s improved from last year to this year, especially on the offensive end. He’s always been unbelievable on the defensive end, but offensively he’s much more comfortable making post moves, hit a 15, 12-foot shot. He always so tough on the offensive glass."
Next Stop: Milwaukee.
The Huskies will be put to the test against a Marquette team front-loaded with senior talent Wednesday night.
By Zach Smart
HARTFORD--Jim Calhoun was angry. He was angry at his team for putting together a lackluster first half in which they shot the ball at a meager 14-for-37 clip. He was angry at his guards for not knocking down easy shots early. He was angry that they were letting the South Florida Bulls, who've won just three Big East games this season, run with them and match them on the glass.
He sent his first message to his starters in the first half, inserting seldom-used freshman Scottie Haralson for two minutes. If his message wasn't clear enough at halftime, Calhoun--never one to mask his frustration--made his voice heard in the second half.
After Augustus got free for a two-handed jam, Calhoun signaled for forward Gavin Edwards to get out of the game. He nearly walked on the court and pointed at Edwards, yelling at him to take a seat.
Read More...Click Below!
Moments, later, Calhoun's frustration compounded. A.J. Price threw up a high lob for Stanley "Sticks" Robinson. Robinson caught the ball away from the basket, but still tried to complete what would have been a rocking dunk. South Florida got the rebound and executed a fast break that resulted in a Dominique Jones dunk, slicing the Huskies' lead to 46-40 with 11:48 to play.
Calhoun called a timeout, nearly pulled his hair out, and unleashed a few choice words at his players.
Whatever it was Calhoun said, it lit a fire under the No.1 ranked team in the country. The Huskies rattled off a 9-0 run capped by a Hasheem Thabeet layup. Wedged in the run was A.J. Price's deep 3-pointer and a solid move in which Price shook a defender off the dribble, exploded to the basket and kissed one off the glass.
UConn's lead ballooned to 55-40 and the Huskies never looked back.
"It was a hard bounce back game," said Jim Calhoun, whose team improved to 13-2 in the Big East and resuscitated themselves following a tough-to-swallow loss against Pittsburgh on Monday.
"You want to get back into the fray and get going. All of a sudden they’re taking 25 seconds off the shot clock. That caused us not to play anywhere near the type of defense we need to play early or rebound."
Jeff Adrien, the senior strongman and boardsmith, was off his game offensively. Albeit he pulled down nine boards, Adrien shot just 4-for-14 and missed shots at point-blank range.
Center Hasheem Thabeet, who turned in a Houdini-like performance against Pitt, picked up the slack for his teammate. Thabeet, who loves to feast on smaller opponents, scored 21 points and snared nine rebounds. The 7-foot-3 mountain of a man blocked six shots and changed a laundry list of others.
"At first we went almost four minutes without scoring, and coach joked that it would be a 20 point half," said Thabeet. "We had to pick it up. We were successful when we did that. It’s always tough when we’re coming back from a loss like we had a week ago. Everybody was mad and we came back and everybody wanted to win."
In the first half, it looked like everybody wanted a day off.
Both teams came out of the gates Alaska-cold, until Robinson's putback on a Craig Austrie miss jump-started a 9-0 run. South Florida thwarted the run on a Chris Howard trey from the top of the key with 14:14 left to play in the half.
A coast-to-coast layup by Kemba Walker gave UConn a 23-14 bulge, and the Rice High product gave UConn a 31-20 halftime lead as he once again drove the ball to the rack for a buzzer-beating layup.
UConn was sluggish in the second half, until a 9-0 burst broke the game open with 7:46 to play.
The tempo of the game was the single most important thing," explained Calhoun. "We’re going to see that at times….We don’t know if we’re going to see a slow-down game, per se, but I think it was a difficult game to bounce back."
Bulls head coach Stan Heath lauded Thabeet, who's a surefire first round pick if he declares for the 2009 NBA draft.
"To see him up close, he’s so impressive," said Heath. "You can just see how much he’s improved from last year to this year, especially on the offensive end. He’s always been unbelievable on the defensive end, but offensively he’s much more comfortable making post moves, hit a 15, 12-foot shot. He always so tough on the offensive glass."
Next Stop: Milwaukee.
The Huskies will be put to the test against a Marquette team front-loaded with senior talent Wednesday night.
Labels: Connecticut news
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