A couple of points after UConn’s 75-55 win over Fairfield Friday night:
– Ed Cooley is fun to deal with. Co-workers like Bill Paxton must enjoy covering the Fairfield coach.
He’s pretty honest, mostly funny and, seemingly a good coach.
On forward Warren Edney’s sore Achilles:
“Not having Warren Edney today really hurt us,” Cooley said. “He’s an elite level athlete.”
On UConn, after having faced Missouri, Memphis and Virginia Tech:
“They’re clearly the best team we’ve played this year,” Cooley said. “They’re head and shoulders above them right now.”
On the preparation the Huskies give his team:
“We’re going to face a team like that in the NCAA Tournament when we win the MAAC,” Cooley said.
Good stuff. Some bravado, some optimism. All welcome on this end.
Of course, Cooley will be glad to see some MAAC opponents soon.
“We’re excited to get to our next game,” Cooley said. “We need to see people that look like us.”
Not “seven-foot-five, 890 pounds” as Cooley playfully described Thabeet.
– UConn SF Stanley Robinson is playing OK but coach Jim Calhoun wants to see him fit in a little differently.
“He’s trying to fit in soft, quiet. Our job over the next two days is to get him a little bit noisier,” Calhoun said. “I don’t mean soft playing; he doesn’t play soft. He just doesn’t really want to make ripples. That would go along with his personality.”
– Calhoun now has 785 career wins (not counting a couple of Canadian wins at Northeastern, a couple of 1996 NCAA victories, etc.) and is closing in on seventh place on the all-time Division I list.
Next up is Lefty Driesell at 786.
- Neill
