UConn Is Good If Price Is Right
by Zach Smart
STORRS, Conn. – University of Connecticut men’s basketball coach Jim Calhoun was quick to point out a palpable trend that has emerged in this young season.
When the Price is right, it all starts to come together for UConn.
Junior point guard A.J. Price, after a second-rate sophomore campaign, has come into his element this season, shouldering a leadership role while abruptly establishing himself as a dual-threat offensively.
Calhoun said there’s a direct correlation between UConn victories/marquee matchups and Price’s exceptional showings.
“Look it up in the notes,” said Calhoun, the loquacious, longtime Husky coach.
In every significant win this season, and in every game against top-notch competition, the 6-foot-2 guard from Long Island has stamped his imprint. Whether it was against Buffalo, early 2007 men’s basketball media darling Gardner-Webb (in the first of the two games), as well as Memphis, Gonzaga, and most recently during a clubbing of in-state foe Quinnipiac, Price has been the answer for UConn (7-2).
“That’s everything I could have dreamed of,” said Price, after being informed of the copious praise Calhoun threw at him while pegging his point guard as the driver’s key of the Huskies high-horsepower, well-oiled offensive machine. “It’s an honor.”
During last week’s drubbing of Quinnipiac, Price’s vocal leadership was particularly evident, due to the blizzard-like conditions. With just 3,500 loyal fans taking up some of the 16,294 seats at the Hartford Civic Center, Calhoun could hear the solid communication amongst his players on the hardwood. The communication seemed to resonate in their performance, as the Huskies rolled to an 82-49 wash-out in what was easily their best performance of the season.
But Price’s voice was the loudest and most effective in quarterbacking the Huskies’ up-tempo style.
“You could hear A.J. really running the team,” explained Calhoun. “In huddle sessions, he did a nice job.”
Price, one of UConn’s oldest players and one of three juniors on a team that’s devoid of seniors and greener than a dope field, said the leadership role comes with the territory this season. He realized this at the start of the year, when Calhoun selected him as one of the team’s two captains.
“He (Calhoun) has been trying to get me to do that (step into a leadership role) for a long time,” said Price. “Now, things are coming along. Sunday was the first day where we were clicking on all cylinders. I think (Sunday) was the beginning of something real special with this team.”
That, of course, is something easier said after blasting an opponent out of the water. When the Huskies are done eating up the cupcakes of their non-conference slate in Big Foot-size bites, their first Big East litmus test arrives on January 3. The Huskies will go head-to-head with Bobby Gonzalez and Seton Hall, and two days later the Huskies are headed to Indiana for a date with Notre Dame, which looked razor-sharp defeating Kansas State at the Jimmy V Classic earlier this month.
After free-falling to the near bottom of the Big East food chain last year, the Huskies will hope to make their mark following a brutal down year. UConn was one of the more callow teams in the country last season, boasting nine freshman and three sophomores. The Huskies roster possessed just one senior in Marty Gagne last season, but the walk-on was more recognized for his physical intensity in practice and proclivity for writing and producing rap songs. Needless to say, Gagne rarely touched the court and the young guns were lost in the transition and struggling mightily while searching for an identity.
With the same A.J. Price that Calhoun remembers recruiting at Amityville High in 2004 – where he emerged into one of most highly sought after guards in the nation – running the show, the Huskies will look to spring back into respectability. Calhoun sprinkled Price with unmatched praise, calling him not only a top New York guard but one of the best guards ever to sign with the program.
For Price, the road to success was about as smooth as a trip up I-95 in snow-blanketed roads. Price would be sidelined his first two years due to health and legal issues before streamlining his career in 2006.
In 2004, Price suffered a life-threatening condition. Instead of dishing out pin-point passes to then-Husky teammates Charlie Villanueva, Rudy Gay, and Josh Boone (all of whom now play in the NBA), Price was in a hospital bed having a thin cocktail of medications dished to him. What Price had was a brain hemorrhage, caused by an Arteriovenous Malformation (AVM), a birth defect in his brain.
For ten grueling days, the Amityville community and Husky fans were caught in a complete standstill. Price was in critical condition. Two weeks later, Price’s loved ones and supporters breathed a sigh of relief as he was released from the hospital. Price told reporters he was “happy to be alive” and was told by his doctor that he couldn’t do any strenuous activity. In other words, kiss basketball goodbye.
Radiation treatment was the next step on the road to recovery for Price, who was forced to spend hours walking on a treadmill just to get his leg mobility back.
In the fall of 2005, before a season that Price still wasn’t cleared to play in, the then-19-year-old was suspended and arrested for his role in the theft of laptops which he and then-teammate Marcus Williams attempted to sell. Two of the stolen computers were found hidden in Price’s dorm room and he was slapped with three counts of felony larceny and lying to the police, a misdemeanor. He was sanctioned by the University, suspended for the 2005-2006 academic year.
Instead of spending his first two years at UConn operating the high-octane offense, Price spent his first two years fading into obscurity and tarnishing the lasting legacy he left on the New York high school and AAU circuit, significantly.
The pundits and skeptics surfaced, collectively, all saying that A.J. Price was done. He was done not only at UConn but done for good. No legit program would take a gamble on him. He would probably walk into a YMCA gym somewhere, a parole beeper strapped around his ankle, forever squandering talent.
Most kids would have packed their bags and went home. But most kids aren’t A.J. Price.
Most kids can’t say they recovered from a life-threatening illness that derailed them to the point where walking became a challenge. Most kids can’t say they put together a storied stay like the one Price did at Amityville High, blitzing teams to the tune of 29 points per game his senior year, collecting two state championships and three Long Island championships in three years.
Price jumped into the fold last year, but was clearly slowed down by the two-year layoff. The Huskies floundered, and Price was rustier than a bad hardware store, averaging a meager 9.4 points in 23 starts.
He jumped into the 2007-2008 campaign a different player. Playing with a dish-before-swish mentality, Price handed out nine dimes in the first win of the season, a squeaker over a gritty Morgan State team in the opening round of the 2K Sports College Hoops Classic, benefitting Coaches vs. Cancer. Price dialed in from a different area code in the regional round against Buffalo, hitting two long-range treys that jump-started a 17-0 spurt. Price would finish with a game-high 24 points as the Huskies routed Buffalo, 82-57. Price was named MVP of the Storrs regional.
Later, in hotly-contested games against No. 2 Memphis and No. 20 Gonzaga, Price averaged 22.5 points and 3.5 assists.
The big challenge lies ahead, as Calhoun and company will need Price to play with the same swagger against conference foes like Georgetown, Marquette, and Pittsburgh.
“He expects greatness from me,” Price said of Calhoun. “If Coach Calhoun, a Hall of Fame coach expects it from me, it makes me work that much harder to prove him right.”
Price subscribes to these coaching maxims because he trusts Calhoun, who gave his high-profile recruit a second chance.
Calhoun compared Price, who has said time and time again he’s grown from his mistakes, to some of the finest point guards ever to play at UConn. That’s fitting, because when the exhaust clears, the engine that’s the UConn basketball dynasty will only go as far as Price takes them.
