UConn sports

Just back from a meeting with UConn acting/associate head coach George Blaney and the Huskies at their Louisville hotel. Here’s the quick version of the news Sunday:

– UConn has lost five of last seven. Louisville has dropped four of five. Not what either team had in mind heading into the first of their two meetings this year.

“It’s kind of a little strange to have the two teams doing that, Louisville and Connecticut,” Blaney said. “You sort of don’t expect that. I think they thought they should have won two games in a row. Certainly we thought we should have won the game yesterday (Saturday). So both teams have a lot to prove tomorrow (Monday).”

– Still no Jim Calhoun for the Huskies. He and Blaney have kept in close contact, though.

“He’s been really great,” Blaney said. “He’s so analytical about his team. It’s almost amazing how he can still be involved and detached by the way he’s watching the game. It’s been interesting to me, I’ve never seen him do that before.”

And still no timetable for his return, though it would seem possible that Calhoun would return this week.

“I talked to him after the (Marquette) game. I talked to him before practice (Sunday) and after practice,” Blaney said. “I’ve talked to him three times since the game and we did not talk about that at all.”

– G Jerome Dyson got his ankle rolled on by teammate Stanley Robinson in Saturday’s game.

“It’s a little sore. More sore than it was (Saturday),” Dyson said. “I got through practice, though.”

Don’t expect Dyson to miss Monday’s game.

“It’s not too bad,” Dyson said. “Nothing that will keep me out of the game.”

– UConn’s defense still looks good on paper.

“The numbers still belie what’s happening to us,” Blaney said. “Thirty-eight percent the other night, killed them on the backboards, everything but the turnovers.

“That’s still the area we need to clean up and take care of,” Blaney said. “And not allow the other team so many more possessions because of our either poor passing or poor catching or whatever is causing the turnovers.”

– Don’t expect F Gavin Edwards to start, it seems, despite him being a de facto starter already.

“It’s the ability to bring him off the bench that is so valuable,” Blaney said. “We talked about it again and I just see no … the value is too great to change that.”

– Ater Majok is obviously making strides…but that hook shot from five feet late in Saturday’s game that was about five feet long?

“I liked Ater in the game _ seven points, seven rebounds, a lot of alters and again pretty aggressive,” Blaney said. “He had two suspect offensive plays that we could have done without.”

– UConn is looking for some road help. In addition to being winless on the road this season (0-4) the Huskies have lost four straight league road games dating back to last season.

It’s UConn’s longest losing streak on the road in Big East play since the 2000-01 team lost five in a row. Nine is the school record, set from the 1987-88 season through the 1988-89 campaign.

UConn is 107-67 all-time in Big East road games since the start of the 1989-90 (Dream) season. Syracuse is the only other Big East school over .500 in that stretch.

– F Stanley Robinson has scored in double figures for 27 straight games. That’s a pretty impressive streak for a player at UConn in recent years.

Ray Allen holds the record with 67 straight and Caron Butler went 49 straight according to UConn officials. But sixth on the list (at 30 straight) is Richard Hamilton.

– UConn leads the all-time series between the schools 5-2 and has won two of the three meetings here at Freedom Hall.

– Rick Pitino and George Blaney have coached against each other eight previous times with Pitino winning six of those.

Blaney won the first two games with Holy Cross beating Boston University. Pitino won the next six, four at BU and two more at Providence.

– Monday will be a matchup of former Holy Cross coaches (sort of). Blaney will be facing Pitino and his associate head coach Ralph Willard.

Blaney was the head coach at Cross from 1972-94 and Willard was head coach from 1999-09.

- Neill

We’re here in Louisville in advance of Monday’s UConn-Louisville basketball game.

Coach George Blaney (unless there’s a surprise return by Jim Calhoun) will be around soon to offer a few words about the upcoming game.

Until then, take a look at the future home of the Cardinals basketball teams. A $238 million new arena is being built in downtown Louisville and is set to open next season.

- Neill

Currently stuck in the lovely (adequate) Charlotte-Douglas International Airport but thought I’d share a small note on the ongoing investigation into George Blaney’s official record.

UConn’s crack staff of researchers (that would be SID Kyle Muncy) have discovered another discrepancy in the win-loss record of the Huskies’ acting/associate head coach.

Apparently the records kept by Stonehill College were slightly different than the ones at the NCAA. Therefore, Blaney’s record now goes back to 459-382.

It had been adjusted up (to 460 wins) last week due to a forfeit win by Seton Hall over Purdue.

So, in the category of information you didn’t know you needed until now, give Blaney 459 career wins.

And remember, he’s not accumulating wins and losses right now while filling in for Jim Calhoun. (Though there’s a chance that could change if Calhoun’s situation changes, too).

- Neill

Things aren’t going well for the UConn basketball team lately. Saturday it was Marquette’s turn to beat the Huskies, sending them to their fifth loss in seven games.

Jimmy Butler was the hero, knocking down a 12-foot fadeaway with 2.8 seconds left to give the Golden Eagles a 70-68 win.

Here are a few comments from the XL Center after the latest flop:

– After Jerome Dyson’s long three with 54 seconds to go, UConn seemed to be in control.

“It definitely did,” Dyson said.

Of course, then came Darius Johnson-Odom’s up-fake.

“And then I went and pissed it away letting the offensive player get me up in the air and drawing the foul,” Dyson said. “Most of that goes on me. It’s staying down on the defender; the coaches tell us that all day in practice. ‘Stay down. Don’t try to block shots.’ That’s something I have to hang on myself. I come down and make a big play, and make a bad one on the other end.”

DJO (that’s apparently what they call him in Milwaukee) made all three from the line with 41 seconds to go. He’s actually the “worst” of the Marquette regulars from the line (64 percent) and had an 0-for-2 trip earlier in the game but made those three when he had to.

– Butler’s shot was big but UConn had a chance to put itself ahead. The Huskies got the ball with 41 seconds left and didn’t call timeout.

Kemba Walker drove the lane and threw up an air ball. And that came with 21 seconds left in the game and 15 left on the shot clock.

“There was a little miscommunication between me and a coach,” said Walker, referring to assistant coach Andre LaFleur. “I thought he said to ‘Go’ but he actually said ‘No.’ ”

Why not call timeout?

“We had been having real good luck with the ‘down’ play. They were having a lot of trouble guarding it with both Jerome and Kemba,” acting head coach George Blaney said. Blaney also said (obviously) that he wanted Walker to wait longer before making his move.

– UConn’s final play, which was something of a desperation, ended when Gavin Edwards’ pass was deflected by Johnson-Odom.

“Everybody knew I wasn’t supposed to take the shot so they were denying the people that were supposed to get the shot,” Edwards said. “I wasn’t really fooling anybody catching the ball.”

– The Huskies believe they shouldn’t have even been in the situation they found themselves in (a close game and having to make a big play)

“This is why we lose all the time. Same reason,” Walker said. “We take too long as a team to get it going. That’s why we’ve lost all year, to tell you the truth.”

Blaney seemed to agree.

“It’s been a case of that all year with this team,” Blaney said. “They seem to play moments. They don’t seem to play full possessions. It’s the hardest thing to understand and it’s something that we have not had an answer for.”

– Louisville is up next Monday night.

“How to do you bounce back? It’s what you have to do,” Blaney said. “(Sunday) is a basketball day. And Monday is a big-time game against Louisville. If you’re not ready for that, you shouldn’t be playing. If you can’t bounce back from that, you shouldn’t be playing.”

– UConn didn’t exactly dominate the paint despite a huge height advantage.

“I was looking around at one time and their tallest person was 6-5, and the next person was 6-1,” Edwards said. “We definitely should have been able to take better advantage of the size difference. I really don’t think we did that.

“It should have been absolute domination down low.”

- Neill

By Neill Ostrout

STAFF WRITER

HARTFORD _ Jimmy Butler hit a running jumper with 2.8 seconds left in a tie game and give Marquette a dramatic 70-68 win over 19th-ranked UConn Saturday afternoon.

Butler was unable to pass to teammate Darius Johnson-Odom as the Golden Eagle’s final play was apparently designed, so he drove toward the basket himself and hit a 12-foot fadeaway over the outstretched arms of UConn’s Gavin Edwards.

Jerome Dyson led the Huskies (13-8, 3-5) with 18 points. Kemba Walker had 15 points and six assists.
Butler led Marquette (13-8, 4-5) with 21 points and Lazar Hayward added 20, though Hayward fouled out with 1:51 left in the game.

Guiding the Huskies for the fourth game in a row in place of Jim Calhoun, George Blaney is now 2-2 as UConn’s acting head coach.

Dyson hit a long, tie-breaking 3-pointer with 54.8 seconds left in the game. But Dyson also made a near fatal error on the ensuing Marquette possession, fouling Johnson-Odom while he was shooting a three of his own. Johnson-Odom made all three of the free throws he was given with 41 seconds to play to tie the game at 68.

Walker then air-balled a short runner while driving the basket with 21 seconds left in the game and some 15 seconds left on the shot clock.

Butler blocked Kemba Walker’s shot on his drive to the basket with one minute to play but the UConn point guard gathered the deflection and fed it out to Dyson. Dyson, after realizing the shot clock had not reset, calmly drilled a 25-foot shot to put UConn ahead 68-65.

Edwards had 14 rebounds for the Huskies, who had a 21-8 edge on the backboards in the second half.

It’s Marquette 34, UConn 29 at the break here in Hartford. It could have been worse for the home team.

UConn was down by as many as 13 points but behind Kemba Walker rallied to score the last eight points in the half.

The Huskies had a big size advantage and were starting (sort of) to make use of it. But big men Ater Majok and Alex Oriakhi eached picked up their second fouls in a one-minute span and were forced to sit.

– FYI, it’s Coaches vs. Cancer Suits and Sneakers day here and across the country. (Just in case you were watching on TV and thought there was a shoe thief in Hartford that hit the locker rooms hard).

- Neill

When I got out of the house and into the car this morning the temperature gauge read 1. ONE!

It got up to 7 by the time I got to Hartford but jeez!

We’ll see if the Huskies can somehow heat up this morning (afternoon) against Marquette at the XL Center. It can’t get much worse than their second-half effort against Providence Wednesday night.

– Marquette is perhaps the most unique team in the Big East. The Golden Eagles possess the shortest and tallest players in the league.

Guard Maurice Acker is listed at 5-foot-7 or 5-foot-8, depending on where you look. And backup center Youssoupha Mbao is 7-foot-2. (DePaul’s Kene Obi is 7-2 as well).

Mbao is hurt and won’t play today. Besides, it’s the biggest differential UConn has faced this season.

Central Florida featured the generously listed 5-foot-9 A.J. Rompza and the lumbering 7-foot-4 Jakub Kusmieruk.

OK, enough useless information. Let’s watch some basketball.

- Neill

No need for the Huskies to worry about being too full of themselves Saturday against Marquette. It’s time to see if they can bounce back from an awful finish in Providence.

We spent a few minutes with acting coach George Blaney and a few players before practice Friday afternoon at Gampel Pavilion. Here are the nuts and bolts:

– UConn tried to put the PC loss behind itself quickly, but it wasn’t exactly easy.

“Yeah, I think there were residual effects,” Blaney said. “We lost and we didn’t like it.”

Blaney followed the Jim Calhoun playbook and had the Huskies working on the basics Thursday and Friday.

“We got back in the gym and we did what Jim always does when we get in trouble,” Blaney said. “We went to rebounding and shell (defense).”

– Calhoun will miss his fourth game Saturday. He and Blaney remain in close contact, however.

“I think he’s going to come as soon as the doctors tell him he’s ready,” Blaney said. “Hopefully that will be sooner than later.”

The two men don’t talk much about Calhoun’s health.

“We’re really not talking about that,” Blaney said. “Every time I call him I ask him how he is and he says ‘fine.’ Then we talk basketball.”

That does change on occasion, however.

“And then yesterday (Thursday) he tried to get me to talk about golf because he thought I was uptight,” Blaney said.

– What can UConn do to string together some solid games?

“I think we just have to play hard consistently. That’s something we haven’t really done,” forward Gavin Edwards said. “As soon as we go up by a few points in the game, we just kind of let up a little bit. We let the other team back in the game, a lot of times when the other team shouldn’t really be in the game.”

– Marquette, sort of like Providence, Michigan and others, plays more of a four-out style with a small lineup.

“Quite honestly they present a size problem because they’re smaller,” Blaney said. “That’s almost a more difficult problem than a big problem.”

Marquette leads the nation in 3-point shooting percentage.

“We need to play five-man defense,” Blaney said. “We need to play the ball hard and keep it out of the paint. And when someone does get by us, we need rotation.”

– C Alex Oriakhi has a total of 15 points over his last five games. That’s 4, 4, 2, 2, 3.

After netting 12 against Seton Hall and 11 against Georgetown, the freshman hasn’t put the ball in the basket much.

“We’re trying to get him back to the 8-12 rebounds and get him some points. He’s really struggling with the points,” Blaney said. “And he’s struggling because he’s making the moves complicated. He thinks he has to make three or four moves and come underneath the rim. We’re trying to simplify that for him.”

Oriakhi says he just wants to rebound better on offense.

“The only thing I can think of is offensive rebounding,” Oriakhi said. “The guys that are going to take the shots, those are the guys we need to take the shots. The best thing I can do is clean up their misses.”

– The Huskies are focused on Marquette, but they’ll have a quick turnaround after and will play Louisville on Monday night at Freedom Hall.

Blaney is already thinking about his wardrobe.

“I don’t have a white suit yet,” said Blaney, referring to Louisville coach Rick Pitino’s occasional choice of attire. “I am working on it.”

“I haven’t been able to figure out what kind of tie goes with a white suit,” Blaney added.

- Neill