UConn sports

UConn’s center does at least one thing very, very well.

This just in: Hasheem Thabeet can block shots. He’s third in the nation right now in blocks (4.4 per), and in Big East play he’s even better (5.1).

Thabeet will probably pass Donyell Marshall (245) Saturday and will be second in UConn in history in that category. Only Emeka Okafor (441) will have more.

“He’s a huge factor because he guards the rim so well,” West Virginia coach Bob Huggins said Friday while discussing his team’s matchup with UConn. “I think he’s blocking more than all but a couple of the teams in the Big East. He certainly fortifies their inside for them and makes it awful tough to get easy baskets.”

But the 7-foot-3 giant does have some problems guarding perimeter players. And that’s what West Virginia has plenty of.

John Beilein recruited most of these guys, which means even the 7-footers can shoot.

“They’re going to spread you and space you,” UConn coach Jim Calhoun said. “We’ve had varying degrees of success against that.”

Notre Dame’s Luke Harangody isn’t a perimeter star (at least, he wasn’t before turning into Jack Sikma Thursday night against Louisville) but he took Thabeet outside when they last met.

And everyone knows what Georgetown’s Roy Hibbert did to Hasheem (don’t tell me again how it wasn’t a fluke John Thompson III. If it’s not a fluke, why doesn’t Roy shoot out there all day. I mean if you have a 7-footer who can shoot….OK, OK, sorry about that rant. Back to the subject at hand).

Thabeet is generally taught to stay put in the paint when his man goes outside. He’s too valuable a defender to be pulled away and, besides, most big men can’t hit from out there.

But West Virginia will often play without a true center on the floor, and even if someone like 7-foot Jamie Smalligan is in the game, he’s a pretty good passer from the top of the key so you have to go out and play him a little.

So what does UConn tell Thabeet to do Saturday?

“Both,” Calhoun said. “We’re going to have him play the lane in certain situations, and then we’re going to have him come out and pressure the ball.”

A few notes from the RAC now that my wireless card is back working and the chants of R….U….R….U have faded:

– UConn Athletic Director Jeff Hathaway offered a few words about football coach Randy Edsall’s new contract Tuesday, while also briefly discussing a few other issues going on in his department.

On UConn’s proposed 11-game series with Notre Dame: “We never comment on any games that we don’t have a contract for,” Hathaway said.

Hathaway said he has no plans to make an announcement soon. “These conversations have gone on for a couple years,” Hathaway said. “But at this time we don’t have any contract with Notre Dame.”

Regarding the contracts of Jim Calhoun and Geno Auriemma, who may be a tad envious of football coach Randy Edsall’s new deal (Calhoun still makes more, for now): “I don’t think that’s all interconnected,” Hathaway said. “What we do is we look at the marketplace for each coach within their sport. That’s what we’ve done in the past and that’s what we’ll continue to do.”

When asked about the end of Jerome Dyson’s suspension and the goings on as a whole over the last month with the men’s basketball team: “I never comment on disciplinary cases,” Hathaway said. “Never have. Never will. … I think student-athletes and students as a whole are always entitled to privacy.”

– Calhoun took a few jabs at the Rutgers fan base, many of which didn’t show up Tuesday at the RAC.

“This is the smallest crowd I’ve ever coached against down here,” Calhoun said of the 5,833 fans.

Calhoun said it affected the game.

“They (Scarlet Knights) would have been a lot better if some of their fans had turned out for them.”

– Jeff Adrien hit seven of his eight free throws Tuesday, not bad for a player who entered the game shooting 60 percent from the line and who had been having difficulty there recently.

Adrien said after the game that he re-positioned himself to the left of center when shooting his free throws, which has helped his accuracy.

“I tend, like the game against Villanova, I tend to miss right,” Adrien said. “So I moved over to the left a little bit.

“I was on a good roll when I was more to the left. It started with the Georgetown game,” Adrien said. “Then I was talking to Donny Marshall and he said ‘No, I told you go back to the right.’ ”

Following the former UConn forward’s advice, Adrien moved back to the middle. It resulted in a few efforts from the line, so Adrien moved to the left again.

“I went back to the middle and I started missing a lot more,” Adrien said. “Then I went back to the left.

Jerome Dyson practiced with his teammates Monday for the second straight day in preparation for Tuesday’s game against Rutgers.

Teammate A.J. Price admitted it was kind of weird to have the sophomore guard back at practice.

“A little bit. Not having him out there for the past eight games or whatever it was, to get him back and adjust it did take a little longer in the first practice,” Price said. “But I don’t think we’ll have a problem (today).”

As for his ability to play, Price says that’s not much of an issue. Dyson is apparently in good shape.

“He looked good. It looked like he was in good shape,” Price said. “He didn’t get winded, really, and he was very aggressive. So that was good to see.”

Dyson was not allowed to talk to the media by UConn officials.

Coach Jim Calhoun has not says if Dyson will play tonight (expect him to, though) and says he definitely won’t start.

“He’s not being punished,” Calhoun said. “He was already punished by me for two games and the university, I guess, for the other period of time.”

UConn guard Jerome Dyson will return to practice with his teammates Sunday in Storrs.

Coach Jim Calhoun said after Saturday’s loss to Villanova that Dyson would practice, though the coach did not guarantee that the sophomore would play Tuesday against Rutgers.

Dyson has apparently passed his follow-up drug test.

Jim Calhoun is back to calling him “a player.”

One day after mentioning Jerome Dyson by name, the UConn coach on Tuesday discussed Dyson without actually naming him. That’s been his general rule since Dyson was suspended for violating the school’s drug policy a second time.

Calhoun was asked if Craig Austrie, who was again strong down the stretch for the Huskies Tuesday, had earned himself a starting job for the rest of the season.

“I don’t know what’s going to change that,” Calhoun said. “We’ve won 10 in a row. I’m not going to fool with that.
“If we go on a couple-game losing streak I might think about changing that, but otherwise there’s no sense to change.”

Dyson is expected to return in time for the Huskies’ Feb. 26 game against Rutgers, though Calhoun has not confirmed that timeline. Dyson must pass another drug test before returning.

Speaking about Austrie’s starting roll on Tuesday, Calhoun said: “We have a player coming back…who will have to earn his way into the rotation like everybody else.”

The coach then quickly changed the subject.

“That’s the least of my concerns,” Calhoun said. “My concern (Tuesday) was beating DePaul.”

The taboo question around the Huskies is “Are they better without Dyson in the lineup?”

The easy answer is yes but show me a coach (or a fan, for that matter) who would turn away the addition of a talented guard with obvious skills to a team that is clearly in need of a body or two.

The real question is “How do they incorporate Dyson back into what is essentially a different team than the one he left?”

DePaul coach Jerry Wainwright, whose team absorbed a rather painful 65-60 loss to the Huskies Tuesday night, says the Huskies are playing quite well right now whatever their lineup is.

“I don’t mean this with any disrespect to the youngster that was disciplined _ all kids make mistakes _ but sometimes there is addition through subtraction,” Wainwright said. “What’s happened is they’ve gotten into a really good rhythm.
“Kids like Doug Wiggins and Craig Austrie are very good players, but getting more minutes and having to play through mistakes early on during the streak has given them a lot of confidence.”

When you’ve won nine games in a row, it’s a funny joke. When you’re losing a lot, it’s a reason to run extra laps.

UConn forward Stanley Robinson tried show off his fastball during practice Monday. While directing a fast break Robinson fired a one-handed pass to center Hasheem Thabeet as the big man sprinted down the lane.

Needless to say the pass was ill advised for the situation, and it bounced hard off Thabeet’s hands and out of bounds.

“The Red Sox could use you,” Calhoun told Robinson with a snicker.

That’s a good indication the coach is having a good season. If it were last season and the Huskies were limping to the finish Calhoun might have said something like “Do I look like the (bleeping) baseball coach?!?!”

After the practice Calhoun continued to laugh off the exchange.

“I would appreciate if he wouldn’t do that,” Calhoun said. “I thought he was heading for Fort Myers or something. Maybe Winter Haven.”

…

For perhaps the first time sine he was suspended for a second violation of UConn’s drug policies, Calhoun mentioned Jerome Dyson by name on Monday.

It’s not that the coach has dodged questions about Dyson, but he’ll usually say things like “the guy who would give A.J. another player to pass to” or “we’re playing without a pretty good guy.”

When asked about the MVP of the Huskies current hot streak _ it’s clearly Price, obviously _ Calhoun hearkened back to the start of the streak and Dyson’s play.

“The Marquette game was probably Jerome Dyson as much as anybody else,” Calhoun said.

Perhaps sensing that a few of the assembled scribes were surprised to hear his name, Calhoun explained.

“I haven’t forgotten him, even though he’s not playing,” Calhoun said.

Jeff Adrien had visions of a basketball star in his mind Saturday. That wasn’t a good thing.

When the UConn forward and teammate Stanley Robinson combined on a strange and ill-timed turnover late in Saturday’s game against South Florida, all Adrien could think of was an infamous NCAA blunder.

“It was a Chris Webber play,” Adrien said.

Thankfully, UConn was able to win despite the boo-boo. Teammate Craig Austrie took everyone off the hook with his off the hook play (I know, terrible combo of jargon and slang).

Many watching courtside, including UConn coach Jim Calhoun, didn’t know what happened.

USF’s Jesus Verdejo had just hit a 3-pointer to tie the game with 6.0 seconds left in regulation. Robinson, seeing that many of the USF players were celebrating and maybe not ready to play defense, tried to in-bound the ball quickly and tossed it to Adrien.

Adrien caught the ball but wasn’t sure if was a legitimate pass and whether or not the clock had started. Adrien is UConn’s designated in-bounder, and thought maybe Robinson was just giving him the ball so that he could make an official in-bounds pass.

Adrien turned to the official and tried to get some kind of clarification but simply saw him counting. Adrien thought he was counting out the five seconds allotted for an in-bounds pass, but realized later he was counting out the 10 seconds needed to advance the ball past halfcourt.

“First, I don’t think Stanley was out of bounds,” Adrien said. “I’m looking at the ref and I’m going to step back out. Basically, I’m letting him know. And it looked like he was counting for out of bounds so I just went out.”

As ill-timed as Adrien’s miscue was _ USF got a chance to win the game in regulation, though it didn’t _ UConn center Hasheem Thabeet’s was nearly as bad.

With UConn trailing by four with just under three minutes to play in overtime, Thabeet threw an in-bounds pass that landed near USF coach Stan Heath. It was a painful turnover, but the Huskies also figured out how to overcome.

In the end, it was the ninth straight win for the UConn.

“This is definitely the most satisfying win of the streak right now,” point guard A.J. Price said. “Because of all the miscues we had.”

He may not have been part of what was essentially a seven-man rotation Wednesday night against Notre Dame, but UConn forward Curtis Kelly didn’t get too down on himself after the Huskies’ 84-78 win.

Kelly didn’t play at all Wednesday, the first time he’s been left out of a game entirely since the last time the Huskies faced Notre Dame (Jan. 5)

But there was Kelly long after the final buzzer, back on the court working on his game. The 6-foot-9 forward was shooting on the Gampel floor until nearly 11 p.m. Wednesday.

Although some of it is feel and how the game is going (Gavin Edwards certainly earned his minutes Wednesday), Jim Calhoun likes to use his players against teams he feels they match up well with. So don’t assume Kelly is out of the mix for the near future.

Perhaps Kelly will be back in business Saturday helping to defend South Florida and center Kentrell Gransberry.

Wednesday against the Irish, however, the bench was rather thin. Jonathan Mandeldove played one minute, and the other seven players took the rest of the minutes.

Stanley Robinson played only 17 minutes (his third-lowest amount of the season) while Doug Wiggins played 27 key minutes.

A.J. Price played 39 minutes, his fifth straight game with at least 36.