The Connecticut Huskies men’s basketball team was ranked 18th prior to the season, but this honor comes without a current crop of players in their ranks who have achieved much in the college game. UConn doesn’t have a single letterman with more than one season worth of experience on its college basketball team, but it does have a highly respected, high eight-player, incoming freshman class. UConn basketball will be led by sophomores Jeff Adrian and A.J. Price, with Price still not set foot on the basketball court in an official capacity due to health-problems”>health and warned run -in with the law.But UConn may have the best net safety an inexperienced college basketball team could ask for, a three-foot center that will be anchored by a sparing defense.
Forced by recent hall of fame inductee Jim Calhoun, who is entering his 21st year as the Huskies’ basketball coach and 35 Overall, UConn is always a player in the national championship hunt. But this is perhaps Calhoun’s biggest challenge in his years at school in Storrs, as is his lack of basketball experience. result in certain pains. Most of Calhoun’s rotation will consist of rookies, and he’ll mix and match until the veteran coach finds one he likes. The backcourt may be a potential weakness, but if Price lives up to the billing when he arrived at UConn basketball two years ago, it may also be one of their strengths.
The perception in Connecticut basketball is that the closest team should have won it all, but in one game the biggest impact in the playoffs was upset by George Mason. So a lot of talent has either graduated or been hidden in the NBA, leaving UConn in terms of youth to develop and grow quickly if you want to compete in the Big East this year, never mind coming into the tournament in March. UConn was tipped by Big East coaches to finish fifth in the league for the 2006-2007 campaign, but Calhoun will expect and demand more than that.
Jeff Adrien was a member of the sixth year Big East All-Rookie, but still he only averaged 6.5 points and 5 rebounds per game. However, he saw a few minutes and was able to contribute as a defensive presence under the boards. Adrien had added twenty pounds of muscle over the long haul and now added nearly 240 pounds to go with his six-foot-seven frame; He is very athletic and quick, and will have to step up as a leader for his youth UConn basketball team.
AJ Price came to UConn as a highly touted point guard in high school, but his life and career were in danger when he suffered a brain hemorrhage in the 2004 pre-season. Price recovered from that scary experience, but he became involved in the theft of some laptops, which led to him being suspended and placed on probation in 2005. Price was finally getting a chance to play basketball, and Calhoun easily realized that Price was going to be a settlement. his most important thing, especially when he ventures into the great venues of the East, where he is assured that he will be nurtured. In high school in New York, Price won a pair of state championships and scored nearly 1,400 points; His UConn basketball debut is highly anticipated to see how good he can be.
Two sophomores with some collegiate familiarity are Craig Austrie and Rob Garrison, although the two did not impress Calhoun last season. Austrie played extensively in the non-conference portion of the schedule last year, when Mr. Williams stepped in to guard Mr. Williams, who was involved in part in the theft of a computer that Price was involved in. He’s only putting up 3.3 assists with 85 assists in the 34 games he’s played in, but he’ll need that ratchet if he’s going to see big minutes this year. The 6-foot-2 guard has played in a handful of Big East games and will have to compete for minutes with some of his freshman counterparts.
The last of the five sophomores on the UConn basketball team is six-foot-six swingman Marcus Johnson. One of UConn’s most athletically gifted players, he can shoot from the outside and handle the ball as well. Johnson averaged around four points a game last year, but the way has been cleared for him to play a lot this season with the departure of such stars as Rudy Gay, Hilton Armstrong, and Josh Boone. Calhoun counts big things from Mark, and they are UConn fans.
Ben Eaves is a six-foot-seven freshman from Worcester Academy in Massachusetts, where he averaged 12 points and seven rebounds a game last season. Drip is from England, and has played in international competitions for his country, distinguishing himself in the 2005 Under 18 European Championship. They can shoot the dribble and rebound, but where he plays is yet to be determined and how he meshes with other UConn players. Doug Wiggins was the last Gatorade Player of the Year year in Connecticut as a six-footer. He averaged 32 games a game for East Hartford High School. He is in line for some serious moments if his game translates into success”>success in college. The additions of Marty Gagne and Ben Spencer don’t look like much off the bench. leave, but in practice for UConn they will make valuable and invaluable contributions.
UConn basketball has produced some great shooters, names like Ray Allen and Richard Hamilton come to mind, and another one might be Jerome Dyson. A six-foot-three freshman from Proctor Academy in New Hampshire, Dyson is averaging 26 points per game with eight rebounds as a senior. The three star players are being touted as dead shooters and figure prominently in UConn basketball’s plans this year and into the future. Forward Curtis Kelly comes to UConn as the New York Post and Daily News High School Player of the Year, and the six-nine lefty, who averaged 21 points and 11 rebounds last year, should get Adrien back in the paint.
Stanley Robinson is a six-foot freshman forward who scored high school in Birmingham, Alabama. days Robinson earned a gold medal this summer on the FIBA U18 American men’s team, and it could be something special. Jonathan Mandledove is a lanky 6-11 center who may be a draft pick, but an honorable mention McDonald’s All-American under the basket could be a surprise, as could 6-nine center Gavin Edwards from Arizona.
Calhoun’s wild card player, and the player who allows UConn to survive mistakes that freshman are sure to commit, is the tallest man ever to wear a UConn basketball uniform, seven-foot-three Hasheem Thabeet. Hasheem is from Tanzania, and with questions about his eligibility now at rest, his business status can provide a low defense against terrorism. Thabeet has only been playing basketball for four years, but Calhoun feels he is one of the best basketball players in the nation. Unseen his game needs work, but he is already a solid defender and will get better with each game he plays.
The first schedule is full of cups, such as Fairfield, Sacred Heart, and Albany; UConn doesn’t venture outside the Nutmeg State until its twelfth game, in West Virginia. Calhoun knows there are plenty of teams in the Big East that will be deep in the hunt to protect UConn’s respectable RPI ranking, teams like Pitt, Georgetown, Marquette, Louisville, and Syracuse. The non-conference games are at LSU and Georgia Tech, with Indiana coming to Hartford in January. By the time the Big East Tourney rolls around, Jim Calhoun hopes his young team has learned its lessons well and can make yet another run at a national title for UConn basketball, which would be the third under the Hall of Famer. Calhoun saw the challenge first-hand when the Huskies were narrowly shut out by Quinnipiac on Nov. 10 at Gampel Pavillion in Storrs, no less. The young Huskie basketball team jumped out to a 35-16 advantage at halftime, but rallied from 12 in the second half to post a less than impressive 53-46 victory. Dyson led the way with 16, but made 5 undefended 12 free-throw shots; UConn went 15-for-34 on the charity stripe to celebrate that game. Thabeet had five points on 1-of-6 shooting, but destroyed 7 shots on the defensive end. But Jim Calhoun has all of December to figure out who’s what, and when he does, UConn can be on the road again.
