A few notes from UConn basketball practice Wednesday:
– G Jerome Dyson practiced for most of the day Wednesday but got his right big toe (the one he tore the nail off of Sunday and had to have stitched back on) stepped on late in the workout.
“I was just going to the basket, I came down and Ater (Majok) just stepped on my toe,” Dyson said. “It’s real sensitive so any pressure and it just gives me pain.”
Dyson was wearing a sneaker one size too big (he went from a 13 to a 14) Wednesday to accommodate the extra padding. It seems he’ll be ready for Friday night’s opener against William & Mary.
“One way or another,” Dyson said.
“The gut feeling from the medical staff is they’ll probably have to numb it Friday night,” coach Jim Calhoun said.
– F Jamal Coombs-McDaniel is glad to be back in the fold. He was cleared by the NCAA Eligibility Center after missing the Huskies’ two exhibitions.
“I didn’t know it was going to happen this soon but I’m glad it did,” Coombs-McDaniel said.
What was the hold up?
“They said paperwork,” Coombs-McDaniel said. “They said they had to re-activate one of my summer classes and that took some time.”
Now that he’s back, Coombs-McDaniel has a new position. The Huskies are going to try playing him at power forward a little bit to try and create an ultra quick lineup.
“It doesn’t matter. My whole goal is just to be out there, whether it’s the five or the one,” Coombs-McDaniel said. “It doesn’t matter. I’m just going to play hard.”
– C Charles Okwandu had a little trouble with traveling in Wednesday’s practice.
“We keep telling Charles there is something new this year called a dribble,” Calhoun said.
– The coach is perhaps a bit nervous about Friday’s opener.
“Like any first game you just don’t know what’s going to happen,” Calhoun said. “You’re going to see scores out there _ I say this every year and I’m going to continue to say it _ You say ‘Whoops, how’d that happen?’ I don’t want us to be a how’d-that-happen team.”
– Calhoun was watching the Grizzlies play Tuesday night when Hasheem Thabeet broke his jaw. (The coach admitted he was watching the Ohio-Buffalo football game, too).
“I didn’t think he was that hurt. It didn’t look that violent,” Calhoun said.
– Former Husky Denham Brown worked out with the Huskies, as he’s done a few times recently.
Apparently there was a good battle the other day between teams Calhoun called Jamaica (Brown) and Antigua (Kemba Walker).
“Antigua won, by the way,” Calhoun said.
Brown is from Toronto but his family is from Jamaica. Walker is from the Bronx but his parents are from Antigua.
- Neill
