UConn sports

Wrapping things up from the XL Center with the wireless signal going fast. Have to make this quick.

– UConn beat Maine 71-54. Kind of a non-descript final score but the game was anything but.

Once again the Huskies played a horrid first half and had to rally in the second half.

“We continue to struggle offensively early in games,” UConn coach Jim Calhoun said. “We turn the ball over, we don’t make shots.”

– The Huskies got some boos from the home fans at the half of this one.

“I don’t like it,” Calhoun said. “But if you want to get the claps…everything is a double-edged sword.”

The players didn’t seem to notice it, it seems.

“We really didn’t think much of it,” Jerome Dyson said. “Me, I thought they were booing the other team.”

– Dyson tied his career high with 27 points, 22 of which came in the second half.

“Better shots,” Dyson said of the difference between the halves. “They gave me wide-open shots where I was able to knock them down.”

– Dyson (1,245 points) moved past Bill Corley and moved into 29th place on UConn’s all-time scoring list.

Next up is Tate George (1,247) and 28th place.

– I’m not quite sure but I think Maine may have already set an NCAA record this season for point differential in consecutive games.

On Dec. 5 the Black Bears lost to Syracuse 101-55.

In their next game four days later they blasted UMPI (that would be Maine-Presque Isle) 133-58.

So that would be a 46-point loss followed by a 75-point win.

A 121-point turnaround? Not too bad.

– Ater Majok was better. He had five points, four rebounds and two blocks, though he was in some foul trouble.

“Ater got a little more comfortable and he looked more like I thought he would in the first game,” Calhoun said. “He got himself in some foul trouble because of aggressiveness, but I will take that. I think he was a presence in there. He did a nice job on defense. Besides blocking shots, he just did a nice job.”

- Neill

UConn and Maine tied at 26 at halftime.

Yes, it’s that bad.

Ater Majok (5 points, 3 rebounds, 2 blocks) played better. Jamal Coombs-McDaniel (7 points) was pretty good.

But consider that this Maine team was down 60-12 at halftime to Syracuse. Comparing scores doesn’t always work (1 doesn’t always equal 1) but that gives you a ballpark of how the Huskies are playing.

- Neill

Getting ready for UConn-Maine and Ater Majok game number two.

The Aussie/Sudanese forward is in the starting lineup again, FYI.

Talk to you at the half.

- Neill

DALLAS _ The University of Connecticut football team has been named the winner of the 2009 FedEx Orange Bowl-FWAA Courage Award. The Huskies persevered throughout the 2009 season after the tragic death of starting cornerback Jasper Howard.

The award will be presented at Orange Bowl festivities, including the annual coaches’ luncheon Jan. 4 and at the game Jan. 5.

“The entire University of Connecticut football family is very honored to receive the FedEx Orange Bowl-FWAA Courage Award,” UConn coach Randy Edsall said in a statement. “Jasper Howard will always live in our thoughts and memories. I am very proud of my team and the way they responded to the tragedy of Jasper’s death. Their perseverance both on and off the playing field was incredibly strong and a tribute to the type of student-athlete we have here in our football program here at UConn.”

Howard, a 20-year-old junior, died in the early morning hours of Oct. 18, just hours after UConn’s homecoming win over Louisville, after he was stabbed after a campus-sponsored dance. The Huskies lost three emotional games following Howard’s death _ to West Virginia and Rutgers by identical scores of 28-24, after holding the lead late, and 47-45 at Cincinnati.

For the fourth straight year, the Football Writers Association of America and the FedEx Orange Bowl announced a weekly nominee each Wednesday during the season. A blue-ribbon panel determined the winner from all of the nominees.

The Courage Award was created by ESPN The Magazine’s senior writer Gene Wojciechowski, also a FWAA member. A select group of writers from the FWAA vote on the winner each year. The requirements for nomination include displaying courage on or off the field, including overcoming an injury or physical handicap, preventing a disaster or living through hardship.

Previous winners of the FWAA’s Courage Award are Tulsa’s Wilson Holloway (2008), Navy’s Zerbin Singleton (2007), Clemson’s Ray Ray McElrathbey (2006), the Tulane football team (2005), Memphis’ Haracio Colen (2004), San Jose State’s Neil Parry (2003) and Toledo’s William Bratton (2002).

- Neill

UConn football coach Randy Edsall and a few players met with the media Monday morning at the Burton Complex.

Here are some early highlights:

– QB Cody Endres is back from his shoulder injury, sort of. The Huskies’ one-time starter won’t likely play in the Papajohns.com Bowl, though.

“Cody Endres has been practicing but he’s not going to be cleared for the game,” Edsall said.

Johnny McEntee remains the backup to Zach Frazer. Endres will be the third stringer for now.

– DT Alex Polito (mono) is out now but should be back after Christmas and should play in the bowl game.

– CB Blidi Wreh-Wilson has been playing with a bad shoulder, Edsall said, and will have surgery after the season ends.

– Mathieu Olivier has apparently regained the starting job at left guard.

Olivier replaced Erik Kuraczea when Kuraczea got hurt (after Kuraczea displaced Olivier earlier in the season) and will be keeping the job until the bowl.

Kuraczea is still a little banged up but could see some action against USC, though.

– Edsall on South Carolina: “They’ve got a really fast and aggressive defense.”

– The coach knows his defense has to play better than it has recently if it expects to win.

“We want to play better,” Edsall said. “We’ve done a decent job against the run, we just haven’t been very good against the pass.”

– The Huskies will be able to go home for Christmas late Wednesday morning and are due back on campus Saturday. They’ll resume practice on Sunday.

The team leaves for Birmingham on Dec. 29.

– LB Lawrence Wilson may be All-Big East but the coaches want more from “Bama.”

“Inconsistent,” Edsall said when asked for a word to describe his junior. “He does some good things but he’s inconsistent.”

“He can be a good football player but has to be more physical,” Edsall continued.

– UConn won its final three games, as you know.

“It was like a playoff atmosphere,” Edsall said. “Because if they lose, maybe they don’t go.”

- Neill

Never a dull moment with the UConn basketball team.

The Huskies laid an egg in the first half, rallied nicely in the second half and beat Central Florida 60-51.

Here are few items from Sunday, including the crass ending to Ater Majok’s crash and burn.

– Stanley Robinson picked up his second foul with 9:09 left in the first half and sat on the bench until halftime. When he returned in the second half he caught fire.

Sticks scored 23 of his game-high 26 in the second half.

“When they needed to step up, Stanley Robinson and Jerome Dyson certainly stepped up at the offensive end,” UCF coach Kirk Speraw said. “And we didn’t have any answers.”

UCF led 25-20 at the half and scored the first two baskets in the second half to go up 29-20. But the Golden Knights were outscored 40-22 from there.

UConn coach Jim Calhoun, using one of his favorite words, called the Huskies logy. He was about right.

“It seems like around this time of year we have one of these games,” Calhoun said.

– As for Calhoun’s new five-year contract? Don’t believe everything you read on-line. It’s not a done deal, yet.

“It’s right on the horizon but I haven’t signed anything,” Calhoun said. “Maybe somebody else has. My wife signs all my checks, maybe she did.”

– Ater Majok did not play like wanted. And he certainly didn’t play the way Calhoun wanted.

The 6-foot-11 forward started Sunday and played 24 minutes. But he managed only one point (0-for-2 from the field, 1-for-2 from the line) and three rebounds in those minutes.

But the memorable moment for Ater (and everyone else within earshot) came with 2:10 left in the game when Calhoun walked onto the court, called timeout and got right in Majok’s face.

“Get the f— out!” Calhoun yelled.

Now, it happens more than you or I probably realize but this was different. Everyone in the house heard it. Everyone on TV and radio probably heard it.

And Majok certainly felt it.

“It’s not every day that you hear him say that,” Majok said of his public rebuke. “When you hear it there’s not much you can do about it. You just slip off the court, sit down and think about what you did.

“He’s doing it for the best of us. There’s nothing I can say,” Majok continued. “That’s his way of telling us that was wrong. That’s his way of saying that I’m wrong and I did a mistake. So be it.”

Gavin Edwards, a frequent target of Calhoun’s “motivational” comments, said he knows how Majok feels.

“I definitely know what that feels like,” Edwards said. “It’s going to happen. That’s just coach, that’s the way he coaches. He’s just trying to motivate you. It’s not really anything personal.”

– C Alex Oriakhi had a tough game, too. He had 0 points and two rebounds before fouling out.

The point total apparently didn’t surprise Calhoun.

“Alex doesn’t want the ball,” Calhoun said. “He made the decision a while ago that he’s a conscientious objector.”

On any other day that would be really funny.

- Neill

Central Florida 25, UConn 20 at the half.

And yes, it was that bad.

Ater Majok was a non-factor. Dyson and Robinson two early fouls didn’t help, but everyone in a UConn jersey is struggling.

- Neill

Ater Majok, making his UConn debut today, will be in the starting lineup.

- Neill