UConn sports

The NCAA Tournament is underway.

Without UCLA, Indiana, North Carolina and UConn, they still play the event!

Who knew?

Anyway, with no Bruins, Hoosiers, Tar Heels or Huskies to choose from, how’s your bracket doing so far?

After a few trepidatious moments this afternoon, mine’s doing just fine, thank you very much.

Neill’s chicken scratchings (NCAA bracket)

- Neill

We’re not sure exactly who questioned Jerome Dyson’s heart.

But UConn coach Jim Calhoun says that’s why his senior guard was so motivated Tuesday night against Northeastern.

Whatever the reason, Dyson eventually came up big for the Huskies (the ones in Storrs).

Dyson scored 11 of UConn’s last 13 points in a 59-57 win in the NIT’s first round. He assisted on the basket to account for the other two points.

Calhoun says it’s all about heart.

“If they question his technique, if they question how hard he works on his game or how skilled he is at this particular point, they probably have a right to say that. I’ve said it to him 1,000 times over,” Calhoun said. “But if anybody questioned his heart during the four-year career, you’re barking up the wrong tree. You really are.

“I question by the fact that he doesn’t get himself ready as he should all the time,” Calhoun continued. “I’m comparing him to Ben Gordon’s 500 jump shots every single night, that kind of guy. Emeka (Okafor), Caron (Butler), some of those kind of guys I’ve had. But I’ve never questioned his tick-tock.”

Dyson’s last game was a four-point, nine-turnover effort against St. John’s in the Big East tournament.

“I honestly thought he tried so hard during the St. John’s game he couldn’t play,” Calhoun said. “I’ve never seen him try harder than what he did in the St. John’s game. And everything he touched turned to lead, stone.”

The nine turnovers were obviously painful for Calhoun and Dyson.

“You never see him get picked three times in a row going to the hole. That doesn’t happen to him,” Calhoun said. “He’ll throw it away. Trust me, he’ll throw it away. He’ll turn it over. He could open a bakery, there’s no question about that.”

– Dyson said he just became more aggressive. He also admitted he looked up at the clock at one point when UConn was down five with five minutes to play and realized they might be the final five minutes of his collegiate career.

“It could have been,” Dyson said. “The way I was playing so far, I didn’t want to end like that.”

– It looks like UConn is going to play Virginia Tech (hoping Quinnipiac proves me wrong for purely selfish reasons) and it looks like the second round game is going to be Saturday.

No definite plans until after Va Tech and the Bobcats finish Wednesday night.

– Tuesday was nearly UConn’s first loss to Northeastern in nearly 25 years. The last time the Boston-based Huskies beat their counterparts from Connecticut was Dec. 27, 1985, when a coach named Jim Calhoun led NU to a 90-73 win over UConn at the Hartford Civic Center.

It’s doubtful the 5,571 fans in attendance Tuesday, even the 400 or so who sported red Northeastern attire, expected domination in the series to end.

Of the seven games between the teams since Calhoun switched sides, only the margin in the 2007 meeting was less than 10 points. In the other six UConn won by 18, 47, 52, 36, 37 and 28 points.

– The crowd was actually pretty big and pretty loud for an NIT game (based on previous NIT games at Gampel).

“I remember playing, I think there was 3,800 people here a few years ago when we played South Carolina,” Calhoun said. “Tonight we got 5,500 people and it helped us.”

– G Matt Janning had 17 points for Northeastern. But 11 of those came in the game’s first nine minutes.

“In the second half they really didn’t let him get much separation,” NU coach Bill Coen said.

Dyson guarded Janning for most of the second half and was on him in the final seconds was Northeastern was trying to get a shot to tie or win.

“He can’t catch the ball. Make someone else beat us,” Calhoun said of his instructions.

NU’s Baptiste Bataille narrowly missed an off-balance three at the buzzer after he was unable to get the ball to Janning.

- Neill

By Neill Ostrout

STAFF WRITER

STORRS _ The UConn basketball team wasn’t ready to call it a season just yet. And senior Jerome Dyson wasn’t about to call it a career, either.

Dyson scored 11 of UConn’s final 13 points to rally his team to a 59-57 win over Northeastern in the first round of the NIT Tuesday night in Gampel Pavilion.

UConn (18-15) scored the final seven points in the game.

UConn will play the winner of Wednesday’s Virginia Tech-Quinnipiac clash in the event’s second round. The date and time for that matchup have yet to be announced.

UConn survived despite the fact that Kemba Walker missed the front end of two 1-and-1’s in the final minute. And UConn snapped its four-game losing streak despite a scare at the buzzer.

Baptiste Bataille’s long 3-pointer that would have won the game for Northeastern came close to falling, but bounced off the back of the rim as the horn sounded.

UConn trailed by six points with less than six minutes to play in the game but rallied behind its once struggling senior guard.
Dyson finished with 18 points and Stanley Robinson 14.

Matt Janning led Northeastern (20-13) with 17 points.

Dyson, who missed seven of his first eight shots in the game, came around a screen and hit a jumper to get UConn within three with 3:42 to play. After Chaisson Allen scored for Northeastern, Dyson then calmly nailed a 3-pointer with 2:45 to play that cut the deficit to 57-55.

Following Dyson’s trey, Walker drew a charge on Allen to give his team the ball again. With Northeastern’s defense focusing on Dyson, he lobbed a pass to Robinson for a layup that tied the game at 57.

Two free throws by Dyson with 53.6 seconds to play gave UConn a 59-57 lead, a score that narrowly held up.

UConn 34, Northeastern 26 at the break in the first round of the NIT.

A predictably horrible start by the home Huskies (Northeastern led 10-2 after a pair of Matt Janning treys) was followed by a decent rally.

Alex Oriakhi has eight points and Stanley Robinson 10 to lead UConn.

Janning has 11 for Northeastern, all of which came in the game’s first nine minutes.

- Neill

We’re here at Gampel Pavilion waiting for UConn and Northeastern to tipoff in the NIT first round.

But we spent the afternoon with the football-playing Huskies as they started spring practice over in the Shenkman Center.

Before the hoops gets hot and heavy, here are a few highlights from the grid iron:

– It wasn’t the most electric day in the history of sports. And head coach Randy Edsall wasn’t about to offer any major statements or judgments.

“There’s not much you can tell with just having the helmets on,” Edsall said. “You’re not going to do any evaluating today, that’s for sure.”

– QB Zach Frazer got off to a seemingly good start.

“He’s worked hard to improve himself physically,” Edsall said. “Now we’ll see how much he’s improved mentally, how much sharper he is as we continue to practice.”

– Edsall on the potential backups to RB Jordan Todman:

“I’d be very comfortable with Meme (Wylie). I’d be very comfortable with Robbie Frey,” Edsall said. “We’ve seen those guys. They haven’t maybe played in the games that much.”

– RB Martin Hyppolite (mono) is out for a couple weeks.

– WR Mike Lang (hamstring) should return to practice Saturday.

– Kevin Friend and Adam Masters were your starting offensive tackles today.

Obviously Mike Ryan and Jimmy Bennett, when healthy, have the inside track still.

– Marcus Campbell and Trevardo Williams were the starting defensive ends.

It could be interesting if the pair of former 100-meter sprinters play opposite each other. (The currently injured Jesse Joseph could easily return to the starting lineup.)

Campbell spent a year away from the program as he worked on academics and worked his way back into the school.

“I just think it’s getting back to fundamentals and techniques,” Edsall said. “He’s stronger now than he was. He’s got his head on his shoulders better. Any time you have to go through what he did or what Dahna did, you come back a more focused person.”

– As expected, Marcus Aiken was the starting safety alongside Jerome Junior. Aiken looked OK, but FB Anthony Sherman may have been his responsibility when the senior caught a deep ball from Zach Frazer on one play.

– QB Leon Kinnard has a decent arm and could be more than just an “athlete” someday for the Huskies. But he may be generously listed at 5-foot-9. Not sure he’s 5-7.

- Neill

In the heat of the moment, UConn coach Jim Calhoun sounded like a man who was about to say “Thanks, but no thanks” to the NIT.

But Calhoun has come around, or realized that he never actually believed what he said. The Huskies (UConn) are in the NIT, getting ready to face some other Huskies (Northeastern).

“Rightly or wrongly _ many times wrongly _ there’s never been a fight I ran away from,” Calhoun said Monday. “There’s never been a time I haven’t tried to stand up and tried to go after it. If you’re a coach, it’s the only way you can maintain any kind of sanity, if that’s possible, that the next time it’s going to be better.”

– Calhoun says tonight’s game and the NIT itself isn’t about changing the past.

“We have a chance now not to erase anything, that’s not the idea. We’ve played some very good basketball this year. And we’ve played some not-so-good basketball this year,” Calhoun said. “This is a chance to get a fresh start and to play well.”

But for some of the Huskies the week is for redemption.

“This is kind of our redemption,” forward Gavin Edwards said. “We’re going to go out and try to win it.”

– The St. John’s game was obviously the low of lows for UConn.

“Absolutely,” Edwards said. “That was one of the worst games I’ve been a part of.”

Said Calhoun: “Do we have to play better? Without question. And if we don’t, my misery at least personally will last a longer time.”

– UConn G Jerome Dyson, as he realizes, has been pretty horrible lately. He’s had 18 points and 16 turnovers in his last three games.

So what does Dyson have to do Tuesday to bounce back?

“I just have to go out and play and stop worrying too much,” Dyson said.

Dyson said he hasn’t been stressing about basketball lately. He didn’t even watch the end of the Big East tournament after the Huskies were bounced.

“No, I haven’t,” Dyson said. “I’ve been playing video games since we got back.”

Apparently Call of Duty and “the new Mario for Wii” are Dyson’s games of choice lately.

Dyson’s statement produced the quote of the night from WTIC’s Joe D’Ambrosio in response.

“Don’t be confused,” he directed at one sportswriter who might not be up to date with pop culture. “Mario Forwee isn’t some French guy!”

– On the coaching contract front, there has been no movement since Calhoun’s announcement that he had decided to sign a new contract.

“My understanding, when I talked to some of you around Christmas, in principle it was done,” Calhoun said. “The reason we announced something that we already knew, was we were getting killed on recruiting trips.

“Nothing drastically has changed. I’m just waiting to get a copy back of a signed contract,”

“Negative” recruiting is sort of part of the business but Calhoun claims he isn’t fond of it.

“Some of the rumors you hear, is it cutthroat? Yeah,” Calhoun said. “But it’s a cutthroat business.”

“Do I like it? No,” Calhoun said. “Do we do it? I hope that no one on our staff has ever done that. That’s not how we recruit.”

– So did the Huskies watch the NCAA Tournament selection show?

“I personally couldn’t watch it,” Edwards said.

How about the NIT selection show?

“No. I just heard about it,” Edwards said.

– Calhoun believes the Huskies missed out on the NCAA’s by “this much.”

“We found out afterwards if we had 19 wins, we would have gone just on strength of schedule alone,” Calhoun said. “But we needed to get those 19 wins and we didn’t get them.”

The coach has no regrets about playing a difficult schedule, obviously.

“It was the right schedule for us to play, we just didn’t play it right,” Calhoun said. “We didn’t finish it off the way we should have.”

- Neill

Had the chance to spend a few minutes on the phone with Northeastern coach Bill Coen in advance of his team’s NIT meeting with UConn Tuesday night.

Here’s a quick sampling of his comments:

– UConn may have ended the season on a low note but Coen is wary of what the Nutmeg State’s Huskies can do.

“When they’re playing at the top of their game, they’re capable of beating the Villanovas of the worlds and the Texases,” Coen said. “When they’re playing at that level, there as good as any team in the country. I fully expect coach (Jim) Calhoun will have his team playing at that level.”

– The last time UConn and Northeastern met was in Gampel Pavilion on Dec. 6, 2007. UConn won 69-60 but the game was memorable for two reasons.

First, then-sophomore Matt Janning scored a game-high 29 points for Northeastern in what was a surprisingly competitive game.

Second, UConn coach Jim Calhoun received a pair of technical fouls and after the game referred to one of the officials as incompetent. The latter statement drew a reprimand from the Big East Conference.

Northeastern is obviously a veteran team. Four of the players who started that 2007 game in Storrs will also be in the starting lineup Tuesday in the return.

“We’ll probably have four starters returning from that team,” Coen said. “This is a team that’s kind of played in that environment before. Hopefully that experience will help us.”

– Coen, from his days as an assistant at Boston College to his early days as a head coach at Northeastern (he’s been there four years), is very familiar with UConn. Calhoun, who has kept tabs on his former employer over the years, knows Northeastern too.

“There’s familiarity that goes both ways. They’re familiar with our club, as we are with there’s,” Coen siad. “Of course even if you know what’s coming, you still have to stop it. Jim’s teams have been so great in transition and so great rebounding the ball. Those are hard things to stop.”

– If things had played out differently, Coen may have matched up in this event with his former colleague in Ed Cooley and Fairfield. But the Stags didn’t quite make the NIT field.

“I’m great friends with coach Cooley. He and I worked togther for 10-plus years,” said Coen, who worked with Cooley under Al Skinner at BC and Rhode Island. “I was rooting like crazy for them throughout the season.”

- Neill

UConn will face Northeastern in the first round of the NIT.

The Huskies and Huskies will meet Tuesday night in Gampel Pavilion at 7 p.m. (ESPN2).

Tickets for the game Tuesday are $10 each, $2 for UConn students.

“With a quick glance at the bracket, it looks like the field is remarkably tough,” said UConn head coach Jim Calhoun said in a statement. “There are plenty of teams that were in position to make the NCAA Tournament and I think that with all of the parity in the field, it will be very difficult to win and advance. Our goal is to continue to play and give it our best. Obviously, playing Northeastern has special meaning for me and for Andre (LaFleur). Northeastern is a place that gave me a chance to be a head coach and a place where I have a lot of great memories. Bill Coen is a really good guy and coach and they are an excellent team that our older guys are familiar with, having played them in 2006 and 2007 in Storrs.”

UConn Club members have first priority on available seats beginning Sunday evening until Monday at noon. Donors are receiving an email on Sunday evening providing priority to purchase tickets online. Donors can also phone the UConn Athletic Office at 1-877-AT-UCONN (288-2666) between 9 a.m. and noon on Monday.

All UConn fans may order tickets beginning at noon on Monday. Tickets are available at UConnHuskies.com.

Parking is $5 per vehicle and will be collected at the entrances to the North and South garages on game day.

- Neill