UConn beat St. John’s 81-65 Tuesday, not that head coach Jim Calhoun was around to see the finish.
For the 18th time in his illustrious career, Calhoun missed part of a Husky game. The UConn brass said the coach was dehydrated, stressed, tired and light-headed.
Usually when he exits stage left early, Calhoun likes to start his postgame press conferences with “I guess I shouldn’t have had the fish.”
It’s an old line, but I was looking forward to hearing it again. Alas, the assembled scribes and talking heads were not graced with Calhoun’s presence after the game. Associate head coach George Blaney filled in admirably and eloquently, however, and offered up a few thoughts.
The most impressive stat of the night was Jerome Dyson’s nine steals.
“One of the hardest things to do in basketball is to steal the basketball,” Blaney said. “That’s probably one thing you can’t teach. He’s remarkable at doing that.
“Nine is an incredible number. Three is a pretty big number,” Blaney said.
St. John’s coach Norm Roberts wasn’t as impressed with his team’s ball handling.
“Even though when you look at the stats they had 14 turnovers and we had 17, our turnovers led to points,” Roberts said.
It was the age, not the mileage that Roberts pointed to.
“We played really young tonight,” Roberts said. “We played like a young team.”
