UConn sports

UConn leads St. John’s 31-28 at the half here in Hartford.

A pair of late 3-pointers by Jerome Dyson have given the Huskies the lead.

Coach George Blaney, as I’m sure you know, is running the show for the Huskies in Jim Calhoun’s place.

Charles Okwandu is auditioning for the role of of Marcus White (you have to be a true Husky fan to get that joke). Okwandu made consecutive baskets in dramatic fashion _ a dunk and a reverse in transition that brought the house down.

Surprise of the night? Official Wally Rutecki is in the house.

Calhoun famously called Rutecki “incompetent” after a game against Northeastern two years ago and was reprimanded by the Big East.

I swear (I may have to look it up) this if the first UConn game Rutecki has officiated since then.

Coincidence?

- Neill

UConn associate head coach George Blaney and athletic director Jeff Hathaway spent a few minutes before Wednesday’s game talking with the media about head coach Jim Calhoun’s medical leave of absence.

Here are some quick highlights:

– Blaney said Calhoun called him Tuesday morning and told him to take over.

“Jim just called me and said he had some difficulty and was going to take practice off (Tuesday) and probably the game,” Blaney said. “So I just went about my business from there.”

Calhoun’s doctor, Dr. Peter Schulman at the UConn Health Center in Farmington, apparently convinced Calhoun to take the leave.

“It sounded to me like he knew the doctor was serious,” Blaney said. “He knew that he had to listen. And he said ‘I’m listening this time.’ ”

– All indications are that Calhoun’s problem is stress-related, though no one is stating that publicly.

“I have no reason to think that it’s career-ending,” Hathaway said.

– There is no timetable for Calhoun’s return, it seems.

“He has tremendous trust in Peter Schulman as a physician,” Hathaway said. “When he and Dr. Schulman feel that they’re at the point of a complete recovery, Jim will come back. Until then, George will coach the team and we’ll put no artificial deadlines on anything.”

Joked Blaney: “Jim and I have always kidded that I’m on a day-to-day contract anyway.”

– Blaney said he and the rest of the coaching staff brought veterans Jerome Dyson, Gavin Edwards, Stanley Robinson and Kemba Walker into a room and informed them of the news first. Then they broke the news to the rest of the team.

“It’s his team. He has shown them how to deal with adversity,” Blaney said. “I think that’s what these kids will pick up right away. They’ll learn to deal with something that’s hard. That’s one of the lessons he teaches as well as anyone in the country.”

– So will Calhoun be watching tonight’s game on TV?

“I didn’t ask him that,” Blaney said. “I don’t know what he’ll do with that.”

– Blaney didn’t talk with Calhoun Wednesday, though Hathaway said he did. The AD was asked what Calhoun’s demeanor was.

“I would say his status is the same as any other coach who wants to be coaching his or her team,” Hathaway said, “but understands his health _ as we understand _ is the most important thing right now.”

– He may be on a leave but it’s not like Calhoun has been cut off completely from the program.

“This is coach Calhoun’s basketball team,” Hathaway said. “He and George, you know how close they are professionally and personally, I’m sure they’ll be in constant communication.”

– Director of basketball operations Beau Archibald will serve as an assistant coach for the time being, getting something of a battlefield promotion.

- Neill

UConn basketball coach Jim Calhoun will take a medical leave of absence, effective immediately, the school announced Tuesday afternoon.

Associate head coach George Blaney will take over for now.

“It is my recommendation that Coach Calhoun take a medical leave from his coaching position to address some temporary medical issues, none of which involve any previous medical conditions that he has dealt with,” Peter Schulman, Calhoun’s primary care physician and a doctor at the UConn Health Center, said in a statement.

A statement from UConn Director of Athletics Jeff Hathaway was also included in the school’s brief news release.

“Our primary concern is Coach Calhoun’s health and his complete recovery. We will do everything possible to support Coach during this time. Jim and I both know that the men’s basketball program is in very capable hands under the leadership of associate head coach George Blaney.”

- Neill

Lest you think the UConn basketball team can get healthy at the expense of St. John’s, we give you a Lee Corso ‘not-so-fast-my-friend’ moment. The Red Storm might be a decent basketball team capable of winning Wednesday night at in Hartford (7 p.m., Ch. 59 and SNY) against the Huskies.

Still, it’s likely UConn snaps its three-game losing streak against its old rival.

We spent some time Wednesday with the Huskies (well, two of them anyway) in Gampel Pavilion before practice.

Head coach Jim Calhoun wasn’t available but associate head coach George Blaney and point guard Kemba Walker offered a few words:

– The offense has been slow to come around this season, it seems, but that may not be too surprising.

“The hardest thing to teach in basketball is offense. It always takes the longest to do it, particularly the way we play. We play so fast,” Blaney said. “If you back through the years, most of Jim’s teams have gotten better from either mid-January or late January on. That’s when the teams really start clicking and really start moving. It seems to me it’s going to be the same this year.”

– Some of the Huskies’ struggles obviously have to with the schedule.

“We’re playing the No. 1 schedule in the country,” Blaney said. “And when you play that many tough teams … Two teams that were really, really good last year got caught and couldn’t get out of it _ Notre Dame and Georgetown. Right now we’re a little caught but we can get out of it, I think.”

– UConn may have lost three in a row but the players think they can still pick it up.

“It’s definitely a big week. Things could definitely change if we get these two big wins,” Walker said.

The Huskies host top-ranked Texas on Saturday in Storrs.

– Blaney on St. John’s, which is 12-5 overall and 2-3 in the league:

“I think St. John’s has improved a great deal,” Blaney said. “I think they have really good players. They’re playing exceptionally hard. They’ve always played good defense. Now they have some offensive answers.”

– UConn’s free throw shooting in its losses has been a problem. But what can be done to fix it.

“Free throw shooting seems to be somewhat contagious,” Blaney said. “When teams make them early, they generally make them throughout the game. Sometimes we don’t make them early and that seems to hurt us.”

“Shooters become better shooters by shooting more shots and by correctly shooting shots,” Blaney said. “We certainly put the time and effort into becoming better foul shooters.”

Some advice is more comical than others.

“I once asked Dean Smith ‘What do you do to have such a good foul shooting team?’ ” Blaney said. “He said ‘I get my good shooters fouled.’ ”

UConn’s problem is even its good shooters (Jerome Dyson, Gavin Edwards) are missing at key moments.

– Is UConn getting out-worked at times?

“Yes,” Walker said. “That’s what it is. At times, our team isn’t playing hard on a possession. That’s something we need to do in order for us to win.”

Walker then sort of quoted the UConn football team’s mantra.

“We try to play every possession like it’s our last, basically,” Walker said. “That’s what coach wants.”

– So is Walker surprised that teams are out-working the Huskies?

“No,” Walker said. “We’re UConn. A lot of people will probably play their hardest game against us. We have to realize that. We have to match other teams’ intensity.”

– The Huskies want to get F Stanley Robinson more involved in the offense.

“It’s a priority all the time,” Blaney said. “It does sound like an answer. It does sound like it’s easy. You have to remember that normally the best defender or the second-best defender is guarding him and they’re not usually allowing him to do as many things.”

- Neill

A look back at Sunday’s UConn-Michigan game:

Michigan 68, UConn 63

TURNING POINT _ The UConn men’s basketball team connected on exactly one 3-pointer in 11 attempts against Michigan. It was the second game in a row in which the Huskies made just one shot from that distance.

By contrast, Michigan made nine 3-pointers.

So despite making a higher percentage of its shots (41.8 percent to 37.3), getting more rebounds (41 to 35), attempting more and making more free throws, the Huskies couldn’t beat the Wolverines.

Michigan reserve Anthony Wright, who came in averaging less than two points per game, made three key 3-pointers that helped change the tide in the game. Starter Zach Novak’s only three of the game broke a 58-58 tie in the final moments, and may have been the difference.

UConn entered the game 330th out of 334 teams nationally in 3-point field goals made per game. The Huskies are averaging 3.59.

UConn coach Jim Calhoun isn’t overly concerned about his team’s outside shooting, however.

“Yeah we got good looks, we just didn’t hit them,” Calhoun said. “But I haven’t been built my career that way. Not when you have a team with so much size, like we have, and athleticism.”

UNSUNG HERO _ It seems that the second foul whistled on Jerome Dyson in the game’s opening minutes Sunday could have been avoided.

Calhoun apparently wasn’t paying attention when Dyson picked up his first, a charging call with 17:42 left in the half that turned the ball over. If the coach was aware, he said later, he would have removed Dyson from the game to protect his team’s leading scorer against being tagged with two early fouls.

Calhoun blamed his assistant coaches for not informing him of Dyson’s first foul.

“That’s my bad. I should have told myself,” Calhoun deadpanned.

Dyson was called for a second foul just 26 seconds after the first one, and sat on the UConn bench for the final 17 minutes and 16 seconds of the first half.

BEST/WORST ‘X’ AND/OR ‘O’ _ As is becoming the norm, UConn didn’t look very sharp running its halfcourt offense in crunch time. Key turnovers by the Huskies in the final minutes helped Michigan secure victory.

When the offense does break down _ or perhaps one of the reasons for the offense breaking down _ it’s usually Dyson or Kemba Walker who makes a hard charge to the basket. Unfortunately, many of those drives were ill timed or ill-conceived considering Michigan’s defensive alignment.

“That hasn’t worked for quite some time,” Calhoun said. “Because every team in the country knows that Kemba and Jerome can really penetrate.”

SIGHTS AND SOUNDS _ Apparently some media members in the Ann Arbor area don’t follow college basketball as closely as they could, including Detroit Free Press columnist Drew Sharp.

In addition to writing in Monday’s paper that in the Big East “they don’t defend at the nightly high intensity level you see in the Big Ten,” Sharp panned the UConn head coach for failing to “realize that (Manny) Harris can only go to his right.”

Of course, in doing the latter Sharp referred to “Huskies coach John Calhoun.”

John Calhoun? Good vice president, I suppose.

I don’t think he ever ran the 2-2-1 full court press, though.

LOOKING AHEAD _ The Huskies will be unranked when they face St. John’s Wednesday night.

UConn dropped out of the Associated Press’ top 25 poll Monday, though the Huskies somehow remain No. 21 in the ESPN/USA Today rankings.

The Huskies had been ranked for 36 straight weeks (36 straight polls during the college basketball season), the fourth-longest stretch in school history. The last time UConn was unranked was during the week of Jan. 28, 2008.

BY THE NUMBERS

258 _ The UConn team record for 3-point field goals made in a season, set by the 1995-96 team. Ray Allen made 115.

115 _ The number of 3-pointers UConn will make in total this season, if its average remains the same. That mark would be the third lowest in school history. The Huskies made 102 in the 2000-01 season and 50 in the 1986-87 season, the first year the shot was introduced in college basketball.

- Neill

The UConn football team lost its second assistant coach in a week Monday when Scott Lakatos was named defensive backs coach at the University of Georgia. Lakatos has held that same position with the Huskies for the last six years.

“I would like to thank the University of Connecticut for giving me the opportunity to work with a great group of coaches and players in our football program,” Lakatos said in a statement. “My family and I will be forever grateful for the great memories and wonderful friendships we now have.

“I am now very excited to begin our next journey with the University of Georgia. We are excited to become a part of a great university community as well as a nationally respected program and an SEC power.”

Last week UConn tight ends coach Dave McMichael left to take a similar position at West Virginia.

Lakatos came to Storrs in 2004 after spending the previous three seasons as the secondary coach at Rutgers.

“We’re very pleased that Scott has accepted the offer to join our defensive staff,” Georgia coach Mark Richt said in a statement. “He has an outstanding resume of success over the course of his career and will bring a great deal of experience and expertise to our coaching staff.”

The Huskies defeated South Carolina 20-7 in the Papajohns.com Bowl earlier this month, which represented the fifth bowl game in Lakatos’ career.

In 2008, the UConn secondary helped the Huskies achieve a national ranking of No. 9 in pass efficiency defense. Cornerback Darius Butler was selected in the second round of the 2009 NFL Draft by the New England Patriots while safety Dahna Deleston signed a free agent contract with the Chicago Bears.

Led by Oakland Raiders draftee Tyvon Branch, UConn was 10th nationally in passing efficiency defense in 2007 and 17th in passing defense en route to a share of the Big East championship.

Lakatos graduated from Western Connecticut State in 1988 after earning four varsity letters on the gridiron, three of them under the tutelage of former Syracuse head coach Paul Pasqualoni. The 1985 Colonial squad went 10-2 and advanced to the NCAA Division III playoffs. Immediately after earning his degree from WCSU, Lakatos began his coaching career at the Danbury school, working with the Colonials’ defensive backs during the 1988 and 1989 seasons.

- Neill

UConn coach Jim Calhoun begins most of his post game press conferences pretty much the same way.

Calhoun is sometimes gruff but he’s almost always complimentary to his team’s opponent when the Huskies lose.

After Sunday’s 68-63 loss to Michigan, Calhoun began by saying:

“Give all the credit to Michigan.”

He then thought to himself how often he’s uttered such a phrase recently.

“Unfortunately,” Calhoun said, “I keep saying that.”

It’s the third straight game in which Calhoun has done it. First it was “give credit to Georgetown” followed by “give credit to Pittsburgh” and now Michigan.

UConn hasn’t lost three straight games since the end of the 2006-07 season.

The players who experienced that season know it could get worse before it gets better.

“For me, I’ve been in this position before. It’s definitely not a good position,” guard Jerome Dyson said. “It’s getting to the point where if we don’t turn it around now, we’re not going to be able to.”

– Calhoun continues to applaud the Huskies’ effort, while also begging for more smart plays.

“There’s no question about their heart,” Calhoun said. “Right now our mind is not very good. But it hasn’t been very good in these tight games recently.”

– The problems cropped up in the usual areas.

UConn was 16-for-25 from the free throw line. Dyson and Gavin Edwards were each 2-of-5. Stanley Robinson shot an air ball in the final seconds.

The Huskies also made just one (in 11 attempts) 3-pointer. It’s the second game in a row they’ve connected only once.

Want another telling stat? Both teams had 15 offensive rebounds. But Michigan turned those missed into 20 points. UConn had only 15 second-chance points. The difference in the game? Maybe.

– Actually, Anthony Wright may have been the difference. The Michigan forward came into the game averaging 1.3 points per game and was shooting 2-for-18 from 3-point range.

But Wright made three big 3′s and scored a season-high 9 points.

“If (Manny) Harris and (DeShawn) Sims are going to be the only show in town, they’re much easier to play,” Calhoun said. “When other kids make big plays, as they did, that makes a big difference.”

– Calhoun wants Dyson and point guard Kemba Walker to use their speed and ability to get past people with the dribble. But he’d also like them to know when and where to drive, not just blast into the teeth of a defense that knows what’s coming.

Late in the game when UConn needed a score, that’s what often happened.

“That hasn’t worked for quite some time,” Calhoun said. “Because every team in the country knows that Kemba and Jerome can really penetrate.”

– Some individual stats:

Edwards had 14 points, 8 rebounds and a career-high 37 minutes.

Alex Oriakhi had 13 rebounds but wasn’t really at his best.

Ater Majok had 4 points, 3 rebounds, 1 block and 1 steal in 12 minutes. He continues to take small steps foward and played OK.

Jamal Coombs-McDaniel was pressed into service a bit with Dyson’s early foul trouble, but he couldn’t find his shooting touch. He missed all five of his shots from the floor, including three from long range.

- Neill

Halftime at Crisler Arena and the Wolverines are ahead 32-23.

UConn played nearly all of the first half without its leading scorer, guard Jerome Dyson, who picked up two early fouls.

A 17-2 run by Michigan midway through the half put the home team in control.

The Huskies have committed 11 turnovers already.

A bad sign? UConn’s last four halves of basketball: 29 points (second half Georgetown), 29 points (first half Pittsburgh), 28 points (second half Pittsburgh) and now 23 (first half today).

- Neill