Recap: Connecticut
Feb. 26, 2009
Who'd have thought, when all was said and done on Wednesday night, it would have been A.J. Price and Stanley Robinson who'd done the Marquette Golden Eagles in?
Not to say that either are bad players; far from it.
But with the way 7-foot-3 Hasheem Thabeet and 6-7 running mate Jeff Adrien have been playing this year, you would have figured both would have had a field day against size-challenged MU.
As it turned out, Thabeet was pretty darned good with 14 points and 15 rebounds. He also proved to be a huge presence underneath -- no surprise there -- by blocking five shots and altering at least that many more. He also forced the Golden Eagles into stretches of offensive ineffectiveness because they were skittish near the rim.
Still, MU managed Thabeet well for the most part.
Adrien, meanwhile, was a total non-factor. Entering the game averaging a double-double like Thabeet, he instead turned in what coach Jim Calhoun called his worst game of the season with just two points and four rebounds in 29 minutes.
If you'd have recited both players' stats prior to the game, coach Buzz Williams probably would have projected a Golden Eagles victory.
Yet we all saw how things turned out.
Price was on fire from the start, but there's no telling whether he would have kept it up over the course of the game with Dominic James in his mug for 37 minutes. Without MU's best on-ball defender, Price wound up scorching it for a career-high 36 points and 8 three-pointers, many of which were of the dagger variety.
The 6-9 Robinson, meanwhile, proved to be the wild card.
Of the length and possessing the athleticism and game that's caused the Golden Eagles fits over the past few years, Robinson simply had his way en route to 19 points and 10 rebounds. He scored 10 of his points on dunks alone (UConn had eight altogether), and got on the trampoline time after time, either jumping over MU players to tip the ball back out, or to himself for another shot.
The 19 points were a season high, but the 10 boards were five off the total he pulled down against West Virginia.
All told, UConn out-rebounded MU, 46-26, with 16 of those coming on the offensive end. The Huskies also banged in 11 of 22 threes.
"I thought in the first half we made an A-plus," said Williams of his team's efforts against the Huskies' big men. "I thought in the second half , Thabeet was really good. Lazar, Wes and even a little of Jimmy, I thought did really good on Jeff Adrien. I think he's the heart and soul of their team.
"Hasheem was about the same both halves, and Stanley, I think, made his first three in conference play. I thought we changed up our defenses and did a good job with that. Obviously we had to change up what we were doing just because we were playing without Dominic, and I thought our guys did good with that.
"It wasn't our first-shot, field-goal percentage defense -- it never is. It's our second-shot, field-goal percentage defense. And in the second half they whipped us."
-- Thabeet was a huge factor a little past the midway point in the first half, blocking shots on three straight possessions as UConn rallied from a 28-22 deficit to take the lead at 38-28 with 3:52 left.
MU was cognizant of his presence early, throwing up some crazy shots, but started to make headway when Thabeet went to the bench for a long spell. He was much less of a factor in the second half, as the Golden Eagles shot a sizzling 53.6% from the field after shooting 33.3% in the first.
"I didn't think that we took any shots in the first half; we just didn't make shots," Williams said. "But I do think, if you were to look at paint touches comparing the halves, we had more paint touches in the second half."
-- Williams was asked if he thought that MU gave its best effort of the season, despite the outcome and considering the circumstances.
"That's a really good question, and I would hate to answer it completely because I'm not sure," he said. "I've been really proud of our guys from start to finish in a lot of games -- other than the 12 minutes at DePaul in the first half and the 20 minutes in the second half at Villanova.
"When you think about the last eight minutes we played at Georgetown on Saturday, I thought our character was revealed. And to be honest with you, I thought our character was revealed tonight. We lost -- to maybe the best team in the country -- but it wasn't because we weren't fighting.
"At the end of the day, I understand how it'll be judged. But at the end of the day, I also understand the importance of these guys learning to fight. I don't mean that in a negative way; I mean that in a positive way, and I thought they fought as hard as they possibly could."
-- Williams thought the game was decided in the last 6:52, and at the charity stripe.
"The last 6:52, we were up one and they finished the game on a 20-8 (run), and 11 of those points were from the free-throw line," he said. "In the first 33 minutes of the game they scored seven points from the free-throw line. Last 6:50 they scored 11, so that's a pretty good return on your money."
UConn wound up going 18 for 22 from the line compared to MU's 17-for-20 effort. In doing so, the Huskies became just the fourth team this season to shoot more free throws than the Golden Eagles.
They are 2-2 when that occurs.
-- It was great watching both Price and Jerel McNeal go at it in the second half.
Price got the better of McNeal with a shake-and-bake move in the second half that actually sent McNeal onto his butt (I didn't see a replay, so forgive me if I missed a slip or something) as he knocked home a floater. The move got every Huskies player up off the bench, hooting and hollering.
McNeal later knocked down one of his 3 threes, turned to the west sidelines and hollered 'This is MY house!!!'
The emotion from start to finish was great, and in the final analysis, all things considered, this was a game that managed to live up to all the hype. Just a great, great college basketball game until things got out of hand over the last few minutes.
-- Great performances off the bench by Jimmy Butler and Maurice Acker.
Butler set a career high with 12 points and went 6 for 6 from the free-throw line, showing no fear in attacking the basket with Thabeet in the lane. He even knocked down a layup by driving right at the big man, who backed away not wanting to pick up another foul.
Acker, meanwhile, knocked down both his threes while also dishing out four assists, grabbing three rebounds and notching a steal without a turnover in 33 minutes.
Hard to overstate how rock-solid that is considering he hadn't hit a shot since
Jan. 4, and hadn't played 33 minutes
total over his last five games.
Both will need to step up in a big-time way in the coming days and weeks to try and offset the loss of James.
-- Calhoun, who won his 800th game, was complimentary afterward of Williams and MU.
"Buzz has done a terrific job," he said. "One of the most difficult things is to be handed a really good team. It’s a really difficult situation. You’re much better off sometimes being handed a team that’s not quite that good. Tommy (Crean) is certainly one of the best coaches in the country, and Buzz has taken this team and made it into a terrific team.
"I’m really sorry. I guess they’re talking about a break with James, and that would be really unfortunate. He’s a terrific basketball player. But those things happen. They happened to us against Syracuse and we won the game, so you kind of have to look past that. I feel very bad for Dominic. He obviously is a terrific player.
"We got whipped here a couple years ago when Novak had 41 – not that I remember, but it was pretty bad. But it’s a great win for us, and we’re really proud of the kids. A.J. put on a performance that I’ve only seen by some of our great ones."
-- There were six ties and 16 lead changes in the game...MU's 82 points were the second-most scored all season against UConn...The Golden Eagles scored 25 points off 15 Huskies turnovers, registering nine steals in the process...UConn's media relations person opened Calhoun's news conference afterward by informing reporters the coach would only talk about game-related issues. Calhoun followed up with a more succinct bulletin. "If you have anything else to ask me, I'll be more than happy to not answer you outside." That, of course, was in reference to the much-ballyhooed exchange he had with a political activist following his team's victory over South Florida last Saturday.
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