UConn Avoids Frightening Upset
by Zach Smart
STORRS, Conn. – Adam Gonzalez embraced a wide smile-sporting Joe DeSantis and a horde of excited teammates. An increasingly irate Jim Calhoun gave his crop of highly-touted freshman an earful on the other side of the hardwood.
Gonzalez’s trey from the left corner with 2:33 remaining sliced the Huskies’ lead to two points as the scoreboard read 48-46. It was the closest the short-handed Bobcats, who came roaring back from a 19-point deficit to hush up a high-octane crowd of 10,167, had come all night. It was the lone field goal for Gonzalez, who came off the bench. He missed the pre-season due to a brief suspension issued by the University.
For the first time since Quinnipiac was elevated to the Division I ranks in 1998, the first time in the eight lopsided, slaughter-house games between the two very opposite ballclubs, the wild Husky fans went mute. There were stunned expressions on these faithful fans’ faces, some of which were sweaty, others which were covered with blue and white paint. The supreme underdogs from roughly 45 minutes down the road looked as if they might do the amazing and upset the No. 18 Huskies.
Close, but no blunt.
UConn combo guard Craig Austrie, a reserve who played just nine minutes, responded with a three-pointer for his only points of the game to give the Huskies a five-point edge they wouldn’t relinquish. Jeff Adrien and company sealed the basket and survived what would have been a nightmare of an upset.
It was more of a colossal wake up call than it was a win, in the eyes of UConn coach Jim Calhoun.
“I was very disappointed,” he explained. “On our level, or even at any level, you get yourself into that kind of game you’re going to lose. That’s not how we’re going to treat it (as a win). We were so inept on offense in the second half. We couldn’t make a foul shot, we couldn’t stand up to where we were supposed to stand up, and that’s disappointing.”
The Huskies shot an abysmal 15-for-34 from the charity stripe. They were outscored by a 30-18 ratio in the second half and committed 21 turnovers.
On the court, Calhoun’s all-freshman and sophomore program (the Huskies have just one junior and one senior on the roster, both of whom don’t play significant roles) tested his patience.
His agitation reached its peak as he shouted “What the (expletive) was that?” loud and hastily after a poor foul sent Quinnipiac junior Chris Wehye to the free throw line.
Wehye set the tone for the Bobcats, scoring a game-high 17 points and pulling down eight caroms. The smooth lefty combo forward scored on a fast break which trimmed the lead to four before Gonzalez’ three ignited the Bobcat bench like a firecracker.
“I love Chris Wehye because he can beat people off the dribble,” DeSantis said. “We know in a game like this he’s going to have an offensive mismatch because (UConn) is going to send out two monsters, and I think it’s hard for them to stop Chris off the dribble.”
The Huskies held QU to just 16 first half points. The fired up Bobcats re-wrote the script in the second half, allowing UConn 18 points total, their lowest output in a half in recent memory.
Jeff Adrien, the key returnee from last year’s dynamic team, scored 16 points and grabbed a game-high 16 boards. Freshman Jerome Dyson had 16 points and three early three-pointers. “Jerome got us going,” said Calhoun. “He helped us get off to that 19-point lead.
The Bobcats were paced by freshman point guard Casey Cosgrove, a 5-foot-8 speed demon. Cosgrove broke the UConn press and ran around players whose freakish athleticism the Bobcats “can’t simulate in practice,” according to DeSantis.
Hasheem Thabeet, who’s a prized recruit at 7-foot-3, showed just how raw he really is. The Tanzania native’s first shot, which ricocheted off the side of the backboard, was a strong indication of his status as a work in progress. Thabeet swatted eight shots, including one eye-popping one where he grabbed a DeMario Anderson shot out of the air with both hands. He grabbed 11 boards, but scored just five points (1-6 FG, 3-7 from the line).
Thabeet is a microcosm view of the 2006-2007 UConn’s men’s basketball team. They’re very young and mistake-prone. They’re still absorbing the game while playing on a colossal stage under high expectations and a coach with little tolerance for error. With a light schedule before Big East action approaches, the Huskies have a lot of work to do.
Bobcats Shorthanded
The Bobcats were without three key players in point guard Job Casimir and shooting guards Etienne Labrecque and James Feldeine. Casimir, projected as the starting point guard prior to the season, was academically ineligible. Labrecque suffered a foot injury during the last scrimmage and Feldeine was suspended for an undisclosed reason.
War Of Words? Not So Much
During the post-game press conference, Calhoun, who claims he “loves Joey DeSantis” slightly lambasted the Quinnipiac coach for incorporating a zone defense after telling reporters all week that he wasn’t going to change the way QU plays against the up-tempo Huskies (QU often uses a man-to-man defense).
“I just thought it was a (expletive) thing to do to be honest with you. You don’t do that,” Calhoun said. “That’s the only thing that irritated me a little bit. He made a big deal to tell all you guys that he was going to play the way he plays.”
Upon hearing this, DeSantis told New Haven Register reporter Dave Solomon “I have too much respect for him (to get in a war of words with Calhoun). I don’t take it as an insult.”
“If you do your homework and call the other coaches in our league, you’ll find out that we do use a 1-3-1 and 2-3 matchup. I thought they played great in the first half (defensively) and I thought we had to change up our defense (after trailing 35-16 at halftime). I thought we needed to play zone.”
The Price Is Wrong
A.J. Price, who Calhoun has claimed is one of the most talented guards he’s ever had the luxury of coaching, was unimpressive in his first game in a Husky uniform. He shot 2-for-11, 0-for-4 from three-point land, and had four assists to three turnovers.
“I played bad. I played terrible,” Price said. “I need to step it up personally as a player. I don’t think I pressed. I don’t think I really forced anything. I just think things weren’t bouncing my way.”
Austrie Confident
Craig Austrie, who hit the big shot to avoid an abysmal loss, isn’t worried about the Huskies’ future. He said that most of the irregular play was due to the fact that nobody has really played together up until this point. He feels that chemistry will come soon.
“It was an ugly win, but a win’s a win,” Austrie reflected. “Over time, once our team starts gelling and we started running the offense and stop turning the ball over, our team’s going to be in good shape.”
On pulling the big shot, Austrie said, “I had all the confidence in the world.”
Austrie, another key returnee from last year (Austrie started while Marcus Williams, now with the NBA’s New Jersey Nets, served a first-semester suspension for his role in the thefts of lab tops on campus), operated an NBA-talent laced lineup as Connecticut got off to an 11-0 start. His minutes have taken a backseat to those of a number of freshman guards – mainly Doug Wiggins and starting point guard Price.
