Some praise for Crean from Connecticut

[Sir Lawrence]

Interesting article:  http://www.theday.com/re.aspx?re=a8d42596-d7ab-470a-8e50-724db012c419

[spiral97]

text of linked article is:

Things Will Get Better; They Always Do
By Mike DiMauro
Published on 1/11/2007

Storrs-- This is the day you're going to hear more overstatements than at any political convention you'd care to name.

Topic: What's wrong with the Huskies?

Answers: They can't do this, that, the other thing or anything else. No confidence. No leadership. Can't shoot. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

The best thing a UConn fan can do today, however, is shut up and listen. That would be shut up and listen to Tom Crean, the Marquette coach, the coach of the team that is almost as green as the Huskies. The coach of the team with mostly freshmen and sophomores that had spent the past week undergoing an epidemic of self-doubt. The coach of the team that was maybe even more desperate than UConn Wednesday night at Gampel Pavilion.

That's right. Much as we'd all like to be UConn-centric today, let's try to remember that there was actually an opponent Wednesday night in Storrs, an opponent that was 0-2 in the Big East with West Virginia, at Louisville and at Pittsburgh next on the schedule.

Tom Crean just spent a week feeling what UConn coach Jim Calhoun will be feeling, at least until Saturday's game at St. John's. Crean is happy to report that, despite losses to Providence and Syracuse, the sky never fell.

"It's been a tough few days," Crean said, after Marquette's 73-69 win. "The toughest thing is to get on them about things because you can be real fragile. (UConn) doesn't have a lot of successes to go back on, just as my guys don't. You have to work through it."

And that's what Crean's team did. Marquette outrebounded UConn 50-39. Until UConn's five assists in the last 3 minutes, 29 seconds, the Huskies had three assists and 21 turnovers.

"The last few days were a great awakening for us," Crean said. "We went back to what we are. When you're going badly, it's easy to see a million things wrong.

"Coaching with Tom Izzo and Ralph Willard, you can go one of two ways," Crean said of struggling teams. "You can back way off and hope they get it or turn the screws up and coach even harder. ... The great thing about this time of year is that there's no time for ups and downs. You just move forward."

Crean used the word "lethal" when describing UConn's defense. He called them "soooo athletic." And then he said, "Jim's had too much success making guys better."

Crean was right on all counts.

The Huskies are going to get better because that's all Calhoun's players have ever done here. If nothing else, though, Wednesday's loss proved just how much better the Huskies must get.

Big East games, sooner or later, become exercises in execution, a thought that's a little scary today. UConn has the market cornered on athletic players. But are there enough skilled basketball players here? Calhoun has done his best work with the Freemans and Butlers of the world, players who parlayed a mix of basketball skill and some athleticism, without having a preponderance of either.

It has been suggested by the great thinkers among us that your greatest strength is your greatest weakness. UConn's greatest strength: wicked quickness and athleticism. But wicked quickness and athleticism can't always mask the need for players with basketball skills (shoot, pass, screen), even if it means sacrificing athleticism at a few positions.

It's sort of like what's plagued the Yankees in recent years. High paid superstars at every position haven't been as effective as when they had a few pluggers and grinders sprinkled among the stars. Same thing here. UConn needs some basketball players sprinkled among the runners and jumpers.

Maybe those skills emerge with experience. Or maybe Calhoun needs to recruit a different brand of player.

"They don't have a lot of complementary parts," one scout said after Wednesday's game. "They have plenty of guys who can run, but it doesn't seem like they have guys who can shoot it consistently."

Sometimes, there's the feeling here that just because the uniform says "Connecticut" and that Calhoun is the coach, things will happen just because, well, they always have. It's a compliment to the program, not to mention an exceedingly high standard. But Calhoun can only get his players open shots. He can't make them.

And so the next game is Saturday at Madison Square Garden, a building the Huskies have owned in the last decade. The Huskies should walk into the world's most famous arena repeating what Marquette sophomore Dominic James said after Wednesday's game.

"Going 0-2 it's back against the wall and kind of an emergency," James said. "The one thing coach told us is don't panic and go back to the things we were doing when we were getting victories."