Didn’t go for the easy Boyz II Men reference in the headline. Proud of myself.
OK, onto the basketball. Wait, I forgot, we have to keep talking about salaries, loud talking and political headline-seekers. (Is he referring to the freelance reporter or the state legislators as “headline-seekers?…you’ll never know).
– On the whole Ken Krayeske front, UConn coach Jim Calhoun was pretty funny.
One of the first questions the coach was asked was something like “What’s happened since Saturday?”
“We beat Marquette in a really good game and we’ve practiced,” Calhoun said. “And my wife has seen two very good movies. That’s what has happened.”
Zing!
Pressed a bit, the coach wouldn’t call out the state senator and congresswoman who asked that he be dicsiplined for the Krayeske thing.
“There’s been other difficult times, much more difficult than this. Trust me,” Calhoun said. “When someone tells you that you have a particular disease, that’s a tough thing.”
Calhoun, of course, has battled cancer three times.
Jeff Adrien had the line of the day about the press conference spat.
“That’s not yelling. He (Krayeske) got it easy,” Adrien said. “I wish I could get it like that.”
– Senior Day is Saturday with Adrien, A.J. Price, Craig Austrie, plus walk-ons Johnnie Bird, John Lidner and Jim Veronick all getting honored.
“It’s a big basketball game for us,” Calhoun said. “It’ll be a tough one for me, to some degree because this particular group has bounced back from their sophomore year to their senior year.”
– Price’s anle-breaking dribble that sent Marquett’e Jerel McNeal to the floor Wednesday night will be remembered for a long time. Price himself already has evidence of the play.
“I definitely got that one on TiVo,” Price said. “That’s one I’m keeping.”
– Adrien was sporting some fresh blood on his white practice jersey after Friday’s workout. Nothing knew there.
And no, it wasn’t HIS blood.
Asked what he’d miss about his days in Storrs, Adrien mentioned blood (though I don’t think he even knew he had some on him at the time.)
“Everything. Every second of it. The blood, the sweat, the tears,” Adrien said. “I don’t think I’ll cry but…”
– More than 20 tents were already set up around Gampel Pavilion Friday afternoon by students seeking front-row seats for Saturday’s game.
Big game, obviously.
– Three underclass basketball players from the Sagemont School in Weston, Fla., were on unofficial visits to Storrs Friday with their high school coach and watched UConn practice: Rod Days (6-6 sophomore forward), Fabricio Melo (7-0 junior center) and Richard Peters (6-10 sophomore center).
– I messed up. I didn’t do enough math.
Although I (and a lot of other people) wrote/reported that UConn clinched a double bye in the Big East tournament with its win over Marquette, the Huskies in fact did not. Big East officials even announced that the Huskies had.
But Phil Chardis of the Manchester J-I with a little help from a younger, better-looking, taller scribe from Bridgeport, figured out that there is a scenario in which UConn could still finish fifth in the standings and be forced to play on Wednesday in the tourney.
It involved UConn losing both of its games, Villanova winning all three of its games, Pittsburgh losing two of its three (but obviously beating UConn), Marquette winning all three of its games (beating Pitt) and Louisville winning two if its three.
In that situation Pittsburgh, UConn and Villanova would all finish with league records of 14-4. Marquette and Louisville would be ahead at 15-3. So the first tie-breaker between the Huskies, Panthers and Wildcats would be their record agains each other in a so-called “mini conference.”
UConn would be 1-2 against the pair (losing to Pitt twice in the scenario), Pitt would be 2-1 and Villanova would be 1-1. That would make Pittsburgh the third seed, Nova the fourth and UConn the fifth.
Now that we’ve spelled all that out, let’s point out that it’s really, really, really, really unlikely that all of that happens.
But if it does, try not to blame me for messing up. I usually rely on Phil to do my math homework and he was tardy in doing it for me.
- Neill
