Tyler Olander and Niels Giffey on their respective UConn careers. Tomorrow night is their last home game.

Olander's story may be the most intriguing of all, going from a starting freshman on the national title team to a senior getting little playing time, with arrests, bad rapping and scattered playing time in between.

OLANDER:

"Just looking back on the four years, the ups and downs, good and bad, it's been so fun and enjoyable, so many life lessons from so many different people. It's just been an unbelievable ride. Tomorrow night will definitely be emotional."

(on being a leader to younger big men)

"They're playing well ... I know we have pieces where we can make a good run in March. I just thought, a while back, what can I do? How can I help this team win? I'm not getting a lot of playing time. It's just helping these guys be the best they can be, so when they're out there, we've got the best team we can out there. I took a leadership role like that, and it's been successful so far ... I think that's what UConn basketball is all about. We have guys come back all the time and shed their wisdom on us. It's only right to continue to do that."

(on the team bonding through tough times)

"We've been through it all together, we really love what this program is all about. We love this school, the people involved in the program, the bond that we've had is one that probably will carry on for probably a lifetime. Just to think about that alone, to share this night tomorrow with these guys, will be something I wouldn't want to do with any other group."

"We stuck with it, ups and downs, for the love of basketball and for the love of each other, this university, the UConn family. That makes it all worth it."

(on Shabazz)

"He's unbelievable. Day-in, day-out, the transformation of him as a person behind the scenes has been unbelievable. He's grown so much. It's hard to put it into words, the things that he's done on the court, and his growth off the court has been even more remarkable."

(highlights of his career)

"Scoring the first points of the Final Four and (national championship) game are things you can definitely hold onto. Getting that ring, the run that we had in the Big East tournament ... there are so many memorable moments, more just of the team than myself. When 'Bazz hit that shot this year (against Florida), all the things that Kemba did, the adversity that we faced last year, not playing for anything but each other -- things like that, the bonds that I've created with these people and the reasons why are what I'll hold most (over) on-court performances."



(on learning from mistakes)

"Realizing your goals and knowing things you can and can't do to reach them. When you play Division 1 athletics, you're not a regular college student. When you play UConn basketball, you're far from a regular college student. So, just learning lessons like that will help me, I think, in the future ... whatever that will hold."

NIELS GIFFEY:

(on Shabazz)

"I remember he had this little rat-tail, and he had glasses on. I had just met Tyler in the dorm room and Shabazz popped in, said hello, introduced himself."

"It was an amazing start. At that point, we didn't realize what great leaders we had on the team -- Kemba, Charles and Donnell. At this point, we're just trying to carry that over to this season. I'm just getting a little emotional about it."

"It's just a sign that we really wanted to be here, we wanted to be at UConn, we wanted to be nowhere else. It wasn't always about ourselves or about our situation, but sticking with the program that gave us a chance to do all this, to win a national championship. I hope people see that."

(on his future in basketball)

"I think there's always going to be a good spot for me back home, but maybe I can play somewhere else. I like it in the U.S."

The NBA Developmental League has set its opening day rosters for all 16 of its teams. The season begins on Friday when defending champion Iowa Energy (including Stanley Robinson) face the Canton Charge at 7:30 p.m. on NBA TV.

Besides Robinson, ex-UConn guard Jerome Dyson is back on the Tulsa 66ers roster. And Charles Okwandu, who was drafted last month by the Maine Red Claws, winds up with the Rio Grande Valley Vipers.

Here are the rosters, for those interested:

AUSTIN TOROS
Solomon Bozeman
Justin Dentmon
Carldell Johnson
Myles McKay
Omar Reed
Lance Thomas
Tristan Thompson
Dan Vandervieren
Terrance Woodbury
Luke Zeller

BAKERSFIELD JAM
Brian Butch
Osiris Eldridge
Mustapha Farrakhan
Justin Graham
Damian Johnson
Adam Koch
Renaldo Major
David Palmer
Juan Pattillo
Adrian Thomas

CANTON CHARGE
Tyrell Biggs
Jonathan Blake
TJ Campbell
Travis Franklin
Antonio Graves
Tyrone Kent
Keith McLeod
Anthony Newell
Jamine Peterson
Marcus Relphorde

DAKOTA WIZARDS
Mike Anderson
Maurice Baker
Marcus Dove
Shy Ely
Mickell Gladness
Anthony Goods
Joe Harden
Edwin Ubiles
Travis Walton
Curtis Withers

ERIE BAYHAWKS
Tirrell Baines
Chris Daniels
Kyle Goldcamp
Jeff Graves
Cory Higgins
Jamael Lynch
Chaz McCrommon
Donald Sloan
Kyle Spain
Mychel Thompson

FORT WAYNE MAD ANTS
Corey Allmond
Ron Howard
Tory Jackson
Cameron Jones
Darnell Lazare
Justin Neuhaus
Marvin Phillips
Sadiel Rojas
Walker Russell
Antonio Smith

IDAHO STAMPEDE
Mildon Ambres
Tony Bobbitt
Eric Devendorf
Jason Ellis
Will Foster
Cheyne Gadson
Kevin Galloway
Willie Jenkins
Reginald Larry
Seth Tarver

IOWA ENERGY
Jake Anderson
Thomas Baudinet
Andrew Drevo
Moses Ehambe
Brandon Ewing
Jarrid Famous
Nick Murphy
Stanley Robinson
Ben Strong
Michael Tveidt

LOS ANGELES D-FENDERS
Zach Andrews
Jordan Brady
Brandon Costner
Courtney Fortson
Otis George
Brian Hamilton
Eniel Polynice
Terrence Roberts
Franklin Session
Jamaal Tinsley

MAINE RED CLAWS
Jamar Abrams
Justin Brownlee
Darren Cooper
Kenny Hayes
Anthony Kent
J.R. Reynolds
Tyc Snow
Durrell Summers
Mike Tisdale
Chris Wright

RENO BIGHORNS
Blake Ahearn
Chris Ayer
Cedric Bozeman
Reuben Clayton
Nick Fazekas
Zach Graham
Chris Matthews
Taj McCullough
Donald Sims
Doug Thomas

RIO GRANDE VALLEY VIPERS
Stanley Asumnu
Marshall Brown
Sam Coleman
Terrel Harris
Lee Humphrey
Tyren Johnson
Kelvin Lewis
Charles Okwandu
Jay-R Strowbridge
Josh Tarver

SIOUX FALLS SKYFORCE
Dominique Coleman
Brian Evans
Charles Garcia
Anthony Mason Jr.
Casey Mitchell
Anthony Moody
Will Pratt
Gabe Pruitt
Dominique Scales
Greg Stiemsma

SPRINGFIELD ARMOR
David Akinyooye
Jamar Brown
Travis Cohn
JamesOn Curry
Dennis Horner
Lance Hurdle
Jerry Smith
Eugene Spates
Jonathan Thomas
L.D. Williams

TEXAS LEGENDS
Ron Allen
Vance Cooksey
Ramon Dyer
Lawrence Hill
Dominique Johnson
Matt Rogers
Jamal Sampson
Anthony Vereen
Derek Williams
Booker Woodfox

TULSA 66ERS
Xavier Alexander
Brian Barkdoll
Dwight Buycks
Benjamin Colon
Jerome Dyson
Marcus Lewis
Brady Morningstar
Ryan Reid
Billy Rush
Curtis Sumpter

NBA TV is scheduled to air 34 regular-season games during the 2011-12,
including four live telecasts featuring Iowa at Canton (Friday, Nov. 25),
the Los Angeles D-Fenders at the Sioux Falls Skyforce (Friday, Dec. 2),
Sioux Falls at Iowa (Friday, Dec. 9), and the Rio Grande Valley Vipers at
the Austin Toros (Friday, Dec. 16). Additionally, more than 80 NBA D-League
games will air across seven Comcast regional sports networks. Any games not
available on NBA TV will stream on NBA FUTURECAST at nbadleague.com.

Charles Okwandu is a Maine Red Claw.

Okwandu, the 7-foot center who graduated from UConn last spring, was taken by Maine with the third pick in the third round of Thursday's NBA Development League Draft. That means he'll be playing for ex-UConn assistant Dave Leitao, who coaches the Red Claws.

Here's the full list of D-League draftees:


1. Los Angeles D-Fenders Jamaal Tinsley, Iowa State
2. Texas Legends Alando Tucker,Wisconsin
3. Maine Red Claws Chris Wright,Dayton
4. Sioux Falls Skyforce Gabe Pruitt, Southern California
5. Texas Legends Jamal Sampson, California
6. Bakersfield Jam Edwin Ubiles, Siena
7. Erie BayHawks Cory Higgins, Colorado
8. Bakersfield Jam Nayal ‘”Mac” Koshwal, DePaul
9. Erie BayHawks Chris Daniels, Texas A&M-Corpus Christi
10. Fort Wayne Mad Ants Cameron Jones, Northern Arizona
11. Tulsa 66ers Curtis Sumpter, Villanova
12. Dakota Wizards Osiris Eldridge, Illinois State
13. Bakersfield Jam Mustapha Farrakhan, Virginia
14. Rio Grande Valley Vipers Tyren Johnson, Louisiana-Lafayette
15. Canton Charge Tyrell Biggs, Pittsburgh
16. Tulsa 66ers Gary Johnson, Texas

*SECOND ROUND
1. Springfield Armor #Jonathan Thomas, Marshall
2. Texas Legends Jake Kelley, Indiana State
3. Rio Grande Valley Vipers Ashton Mitchell, Sam Houston State
4. Reno Bighorns Cedric Bozeman, UCLA
5. Tulsa 66ers #Dwight Buycks, Marquette
6. Fort Wayne Mad Ants Anthony Johnson, Montana
7. Idaho Stampede Jason Ellis, Boise State
8. Maine Red Claws Durrell Summers, Michigan State
9. Idaho Stampede Kevin Galloway, Texas Southern
10. Iowa Energy Brandon Ewing, Wyoming
11. Iowa Energy Dominic Calegari, California-Davis
12. Erie BayHawks Taj McCullough, Winthrop
13. Maine Red Claws Mike Tisdale, Illinois
14. Austin Toros Tristan Thompson, North Texas
15. Los Angeles D-Fenders Anthony Gurley, Massachusetts

* The Second Round has 15 selections since the Dakota Wizards traded their
2011 second round pick to the Utah Flash which are on hiatus for 2011-12

THIRD ROUND
1. Los Angeles D-Fenders Eniel Polynice, Seton Hall
2. Tulsa 66ers Brady Morningstar, Kansas
3. Maine Red Claws Charles Okwandu, Connecticut
4. Sioux Falls Skyforce Casey Mitchell, West Virginia
5. Texas Legends Lawrence Hill, Stanford
6. Iowa Energy Jarrid Famous, South Florida
7. Erie BayHawks Mychel Thompson, Pepperdine
8. Bakersfield Jam Justin Graham, San Jose State
9. Idaho Stampede Kendall Dartez, Louisville
10. Bakersfield Jam Travis Walton,Michigan State
11. Tulsa 66ers Evan Fjeld, Vermont
12. Dakota Wizards Andrew Gonzalez, Houston Baptist
13. Idaho Stampede Cheyne Gadson, Oklahoma State
14. Rio Grande Valley Vipers Greg Washington, Hofstra
15. Dakota Wizards #Justin Johnson, Concordia
16. Springfield Armor #Dennis Horner,North Carolina State

FOURTH ROUND
1. Springfield Armor Chris Taft, Pittsburgh
2. Canton Charge TJ Campbell, Portland
3. Rio Grande Valley Vipers Pooh Williams, Utah State
4. Reno Bighorns Donald Sims, Appalachian State
5. Dakota Wizards Darion “Jake” Anderson, Iowa State
6. Tulsa 66ers #Larriques “Rico” Cunningham, Lee
7. Iowa Energy Nick Murphy, Jacksonville State
8. Idaho Stampede Eric Devendorf, Syracuse
9. Bakersfield Jam David Palmer, Northern Kentucky
10. Erie BayHawks Tirrell Baines, Marshall
11. Iowa Energy Michael Tveidt, North Dakota State
12. Texas Legends #Vance Cooksey,Pikeville
13. Sioux Falls Skyforce Billy McShepard, Valdosta State
14. Maine Red Claws Sadiel Rojas, Oklahoma Wesleyan
15. Austin Toros #Omar Reed, Bluefield
16. Los Angeles D-Fenders Brandon Rozzell, Virginia Commonwealth

FIFTH ROUND
1. Los Angeles D-Fenders Courtney Fortson, Arkansas
2. Austin Toros Soloman Bozeman, Arkansas-Little Rock
3. Maine Red Claws Darren Cooper, Portland
4. Sioux Falls Skyforce Anthony Moody, Mary
5. Texas Legends Josh Southern, Boston College
6. Iowa Energy Carlton Fay, Southern Illinois
7. Erie BayHawks Al Nolen, Minnesota
8. Bakersfield Jam Lawrence Westbrook, Minnesota
9. Idaho Stampede Courtney Pigram, East Tennessee State
10. Fort Wayne Mad Ants Justin Neuhaus, Colorado Christian
11. Tulsa 66ers Byron Eaton, Oklahoma State
12. Dakota Wizards Joe Harden, California-Davis
13. Reno Bighorns #Augustine Okosun, Northwood
14. Rio Grande Valley Vipers Willie Veasley, Butler
15. Canton Charge Tyrone Kent, Toledo
16. Springfield Armor Brandon Bush, Texas State-San Marcos

SIXTH ROUND
1. Springfield Armor #Marcus E. Hill,Minnesota State - Mankato
2. Canton Charge Travis Franklin, Colorado State
3. Rio Grande Valley Vipers #Joshua E. Jones, Husson
4. Reno Bighorns Roderick Flemings,Hawaii
5. Dakota Wizards Parrish West, Alaska-Fairbanks
6. Tulsa 66ers #Brian Barkdoll,Northwest Nazarene
7. Fort Wayne Mad Ants Jabril Banks,Northern Colorado
8. Idaho Stampede James Wright,Colorado
9. Bakersfield Jam Perry Stevenson,Kentucky
10. Erie BayHawks Adrian Bowie, Maryland
11. Iowa Energy Thomas Baudinet, St. Anselm
12. Texas Legends #Ryan Anderson, Nebraska
13. Sioux Falls Skyforce Will Pratt, Northwestern State
14. Texas Legends Anthony Vereen, Texas-Arlington
15. Austin Toros Myles McKay, Wisconsin-Whitewater
16. Los Angeles D-Fenders Franklin Session, California
State-Los Angeles


SEVENTH ROUND
1. Los Angeles D-Fenders Robert Diggs, George Washington
2. Austin Toros #Dan Vandervieren, Concordia
3. Reno Bighorns Calvin Haynes, Oregon State
4. Sioux Falls Skyforce Brian Evans, Texas A&M-Corpus Cristi
5. Texas Legends Derek Williams, Southern Methodist
6. Iowa Energy Jason Westrol, Bentley
7. Reno Bighorns Bobby Howard, Montana State
8. Bakersfield Jam Nick Covington,Oklahoma City
9. Idaho Stampede #Desmond Blue, Lee
10. Fort Wayne Mad Ants Brian Wanamaker, Texas Wesleyan
11. Tulsa 66ers Maze Stallworth. Morehead State
12. Dakota Wizards Jawan Bailey, Incarnate World
13. Reno Bighorns #Joseph Kennerly III, Central Oklahoma
14. Rio Grande Valley Vipers Tron Smith, St. Mary’s
15. Canton Charge #Harry Marshall, Indiana State
16. Springfield Armor Michael Sturns, Holy Family

EIGHTH ROUND
1. Springfield Armor Akeem Bennett,St. Francis
2. Canton Charge Jonathan Blake, Texas Wesleyan
3. Rio Grande Valley Vipers #Justin Tubbs, East Tennessee State
4. Reno Bighorns Reuben Clayton,Tennessee-Martin
5. Dakota Wizards Bruce Price,Tennessee State
6. Tulsa 66ers Xavier Alexander,Southern Nazarene
7. Fort Wayne Mad Ants Dauntae Williams, Central Oklahoma
8. Idaho Stampede #Dwain Williams, Hawaii
9. Bakersfield Jam Juma Kamara, Portland State
10. Erie BayHawks Jamael Lynch, Masschusetts-Lowell
11. Austin Toros James Lewis, Fresno Pacific
12. Texas Legends Collin Mangum, Southern Methodist
13. Sioux Falls Skyforce Brock Gillespie, Rice
14. Maine Red Claws Jonathan Dupre, Pepperdine
15. Austin Toros Jerel Hastings, Albany
16. Los Angeles D-Fenders Troy Payne, Santa Clara

Upon taking over as school president in June, Susan Herbst created a President’s Athletic Advisory Committee, comprised by some of the university’s most well-respected faculty members. The committee implemented a plan aimed to improve UConn’s APR in men’s basketball – and, indeed, for all sports – moving forward.

While it's obviously still very early to see the fruits of this plan, all signs point to UConn being on the right track. Nothing will be official until the spring, but we're told that the Huskies' APR for the 2010-11 team should be 975. Donnell Beverly and Charles Okwandu have both graduated, and while Kemba Walker hasn’t earned his degree yet, he left the program in good academic standing.

The only point UConn will likely loss will be for Jamal Coombs-McDaniel, who didn’t have a high enough grade-point average before transferring to Hofstra, according to a source.

(UConn in the clear for this season's NCAA tourney)

Even with this improved APR, however, it won’t be enough to lift the Huskies’ four-year rolling average above 900. Don't forget: while adding the 975 score, UConn will lose a decent 946 APR from the 2006-07 team.

Here are the five aims of UConn's APR plan, and what UConn has already done (or not done) to make strides on each point:

* Ensure that student-athletes who leave to pursue professionally opportunities are academically eligible as they depart the University. (Kemba Walker left in good academic standing)

* Actively encourage former student-athletes who have exhausted their eligibility to return to the Institution to complete their degree programs by utilizing the National Consortium for Academic and Sport Degree Completion program. (It doesn't appear any recent players have come back to complete their degree. That Scott Burrell finally earned his diploma a few years ago and Ray Allen has apparently talked about doing the same is something the university is happy about and wholeheartedly encourages -- and may even earn them some "bonus points" -- but doesn't have much if any effect on the APR)

* In order to make significant progress toward graduation, continuing student-athletes will be required to enroll in a minimum of nine credit hours during summer school.

* Provide enhanced academic support services (Study Skill techniques, Freshman Year Experience classes, etc.) in the summer prior to initial full-time enrollment and the fall semester of the student-athletes freshman year.

* Decrease the number of student-athletes who transfer from the institution with eligibility remaining. (Coombs-McDaniel still earned the program three out of four points)

If there’s one concern for Jim Calhoun this upcoming season – aside from losing arguably the most important player in program history – it’s the strength of the UConn men’s basketball team’s frontcourt players.

The Huskies will have plenty of talent on the wings and should be able to replace Kemba Walker as well as they could hope to with sophomore Shabazz Napier and freshman Ryan Boatright.

But it’s the size upfront, or lack thereof, that has Calhoun worried the most. Alex Oriakhi is a physical specimen, even if he doesn’t always mix it up as well as Calhoun would like. After that, however, there are certainly some questions about UConn’s frontcourt. So much so that Calhoun is quick to point to Charles Okwandu – the 7-footer who averaged just 2.9 points per game – as a key graduation loss.
“I’m worried about our muscle,” Calhoun said recently.

With that in mind, Tyler Olander has worked hard this offseason to bulk up and get stronger. He’s added about 15 pounds of muscle, checking in at about 240 pounds, and is ready to provide the Huskies with some more frontcourt strength.

“(Calhoun has) been telling me about that all summer: getting my body ready is the main thing,” Olander, a 6-foot-9 sophomore, said. “He’s been telling me to muscle up and work hard in the weight room.”

So Olander has done that, and he’s ready to help the Huskies up front.

“I definitely don’t mind going in and banging,” he said. “I feel I can do that, especially with the work I’ve put in this summer, just to get stronger and get my body ready.”

It’s been a whirlwind year for Olander, the Mansfield native who overcame a severe reduction in minutes and production late in the season and found himself in the starting lineup through most of the Huskies’ amazing run through March and April.

Olander’s contributions didn’t increase a whole lot during that span, though he did chip in with seven points and six rebounds in UConn’s win over Syracuse in the Big East tournament semifinals, and kicked off the Huskies’ scoring in both of their Final Four bouts.

When it was all said and done, Olander averaged 1.5 points and 1.8 rebounds in 9.6 minutes per game --- 0.7 points and 1.0 boards in Big East play – numbers Calhoun would like to see increase significantly next season.

“He wants me to produce more numbers so he can play me longer,” Olander said. “I was in there, and he said I was doing a lot of good things, but I had no numbers to show for it. So he just wants me to put numbers up.”

Olander and fellow sophomore Michael Bradley were slated to go on a tour of Italy to play with other Big East players at the end of this month, but those plans fell through. Instead, Olander has been working out in Storrs and also playing with Walker and Roscoe Smith on the Doc Hurley All-Stars in the Greater Hartford Pro-Am.

Although the Italian tour fell through, Olander said Bradley (who red-shirted this past season) will be a pleasant surprise to UConn fans.

“They didn’t’ see him last year, and he’s worked tremendously hard,” he said of Bradley. “I think everyone will surprise people in different ways. Everybody had a productive summer.”

Indeed, Olander figures the Huskies will be right back in the hunt for a national championship this winter.

“I was just talking with Alex, and we both think we’re going to be really good this year,” he said. “We have great players coming back. We’re a young team, but if we play with a lot of energy and determination, we could do a lot of good things this year again.”

It’s good to be Jim Calhoun these days.

As if being just a few months removed from your third national championship, then getting commitments from a pair of blue-chip recruits, wasn’t enough, Calhoun now has all six of his beloved grandchildren living nearby. His oldest son, James, just moved from California back East to Massachusetts. The whole family, in fact, is heading down to Jamaica for a vacation on Friday.

Before that, however, Calhoun is heading down to Augusta, Ga., tomorrow for the Peach Jam, where many of the nation’s top recruits will be playing (and where the Huskies first laid eyes on an under-the-radar recruit named Jeremy Lamb a couple of years ago).

When Calhoun returns from Jamaica, he’ll be heading to Orlando and Las Vegas for another pair of showcase events. The Huskies have already got one recruit (6-foot-6 – yes, 6-6, not 6-4, as has been commonly reported – Omar Calhoun) and are planning on bringing in two more. UConn hopes to get a scholarship back from APR if it shows it is taking steps towards improving its academic situation, and there’s a strong chance that Lamb (and maybe even Alex Oriakhi) could go pro after this season.

Anyway, here’s a little of what Calhoun had to say about the current state of his program:

On DeAndre Daniels:

“He and ‘Scoe (Roscoe Smith) can play very well together. DeAndre is not quite strong enough to play inside, now, but he’s gonna be a player.”

“He’s much more effective when he’s on the perimeter. He can put it down, pass it and really, really, really shoot it.”

On Lamb’s breakout performance at the U-19 World Championships:

“Couldn’t be prouder. The ball didn’t go in the hole (always). With him, as with other players over the years – particularly kemba – if he didn’t play well, Jeremy would go find a gym and shoot. We talked on the phone twice, and it was bothering him that Coach Hewitt didn’t want him to shoot, he wanted him to rest. If that’s Connecticut, he’d be shooting. But I’m really proud of what he did. They didn’t have a great team, but he had a great, great tournament.”

On how close Lamb came to going pro:

“His family talked about it. I told Rolando (Lamb’s father) it’s a real bad idea. Yes, he would have been a top-25 pick – the earliest I heard, definitely, was the Knicks – but most importantly, he was not ready mentally or physically. He has the chance to be a special player, whether it’s this year, next year, whenever it may be.”

On Niels Giffey:

“Niels played on the (German) 20-and-under team, and his coach Henrick Rodl just elevated him to the senior team. The last month (of summer) could be really great for him.”

On next year’s team:


“We should have a solid, 9-man rotation – maybe 10, maybe 8. We have a lot of good pieces. Roscoe can play the 3 and 4, Tyler can shoot the ball. We’ll probably play a lot the same, but in some ways be a lot different … We’ve got good pieces on the outside, good pieces on the wing, we can play multi-dimensional. I’m worried about our muscle. Tyler is 240 now, Niels or Michael – one of them’s got to emerge, get a little more muscle. I have great confidence in Shabazz, he’s getting more mature, and he’s going to have to carry that into the season. Jeremy can play at the 1, 2 or 3, he played at the 1 in 19-under. Without question, Ryan’s coming in with the ability to pass the ball. He’s quick, and he can certainly score the basketball. We can play Niels at the 2, DeAndre – against zones, in particular – as a 2.”

On another ‘key’ loss, besides Kemba – Charles Okwandu (yes, Charles Okwandu):

“He gave us 15 minutes per game, blocked a shot-and-a-half, he was 260 pounds, a 7-foot wide-body. We don’t want to lose sight of that right now. Alex can be good, and we hope Enosch or Michael does, because I don’t see anybody right now being able to do what Charles did for us.”

On filling the position of director of administration vacated by Glen Miller:

“We hope to have that done within the next week … It involves a former UConn player.”

Calhoun noted that the hope is to essentially bring in two new people, one to work with academics, alumni relations, etc., and the other to concentrate more on compliance and other aspects.

On Kemba Walker:

“He came to school a couple of days ago and hung out with us. Tomorrow, he’ll be honored at the Middlesex Chamber of Commerce in Cromwell. He’s staying here because this is home to him … To get a player that special again would be an awful lot to ask.”

San Diego State is coached by Steve Fisher, former ringmaster of the famed Michigan “Fab Five” of the early 1990s.

According to Shabazz Napier, the Aztecs apparently had some of Chris Webber, Jalen Rose & Co.’s brashness and cockiness in Thursday’s West regional semifinal bout.

“They thought they were the Fab Five out there,” Napier said. “We don’t talk much, we just go out there and play.”

The Aztecs’ chippiness hurt them, too. Just over four minutes into the game their best player, sophomore forward Kawhi Leonard, picked up a technical foul for jawing with UConn forward Alex Oriakhi. Leonard had just been called for a foul on Oriakhi away from the ball and continued jawing with him until referee Patrick Adams hit him with the ‘T.’

“I set a pick for Jeremy (Lamb), and he tried to run me over me,” Oriakhi explained. “I told him, ‘Calm down,’ and he just kept talking. He was able to get a technical, and that’s exactly what I wanted. I wanted to get into his head a little bit, have him get a technical.”



What did Leonard say to Oriakhi?

"It was personal," Leonard said.

With two quick fouls Leonard, who averaged a team-best 15.6 points per game and had four points and three rebounds in the first four minutes, went to the bench. He returned about four minutes later, and though the Aztecs still led when he came back, his foul trouble throughout the game limited Leonard to 29 minutes.

“He’s a good player,” said Oriakhi. “For us to have him on the bench with foul trouble, it helps us out.”

Later, Jamaal Franklin was hit with a ‘T’ after bumping into Kemba Walker and sending him to the ground as Walker made his way to the huddle during a timeout. Replays seemed to indicate Walker did a bit of flopping, but he disagreed.

“The contact was definitely enough to go down,” Walker said. “That’s why I was able to get the free throws.”

Walker’s freebies cut UConn’s deficit in half to two (53-51) with 9:19 to play.

Partisan Crowd
As expected, the crowd was hugely pro-San Diego State, which sits just 90 miles south of the Honda Center.

“It definitely helped them,” Napier said. “The beginning of the second half, I was like, ‘We’re going to beat them, they look dead.’ I just forgot they had the home-court advantage. As soon as they got that boost from their fans … that was a great advantage for him. But we have great players in Kemba and Jeremy, and they just took over at the end.”

If the overwhelmingly pro-San Diego State crowd wasn’t enough to fuel the UConn men’s basketball team’s “us-vs.-the-world” mentality Thursday night, a perceived lack of national respect may have done the trick.

In a Tweet a few hours before the Huskies’ West regional semifinal bout with the Aztecs, sophomore forward Alex Oriakhi noted: “ESPN claims UConn is ‘overachieving’ … sorry for winning.”

With apologies to Charlie Sheen, “winning” is all the Huskies seem to do these days.

Odds and Ends

*** Charles Okwandu left the game for a while and had to get two stitches to his lower lip. He returned later, but contributed no points or rebounds in nine minutes.

*** Walker's 36 were his most ever in an NCAA tourney game and his 11th 30-point or more effort of this season. He and Lamb combined for 81.1 percent of UConn's scoring.

Lamb's 24 matched his career high (Jan. 24 at Marquette).

A Jim Calhoun quote:

"No matter how this season ends up, it's going to end up as a wonderful season. I guarantee that, it will ... I've enjoyed being around these kids. It's been a fun year."

So when did Calhoun utter these words? Last week, after UConn's miracle run through the Big East tourney? Saturday night, after its win over Cincinnati that put the Huskies into the Sweet 16 later this week in Anaheim?

Neither. Calhoun made this statement back on Feb. 9, the day before UConn's game against St. John's and on the heels of two losses in its prior three games.

The Huskies would, of course, get blown out by the Red Storm at the Garden the following night, as well. But you really get the sense that Calhoun meant those words then just as much as he did on Saturday night when he said the following:

“This has been an incredible journey with these kids, and I would have said this had things turned the other way. We can’t wait to get out to California and keep playing and keep being with this group. This is such a special team for me, certainly.”

Really? Would Calhoun, one of sports’ most tenacious competitors, really still have felt this way if UConn had, say, lost to Georgetown in the second round of the Big East tournament, then been knocked out of the first weekend of the Big Dance?

Honestly, I believe so. Oh, he'd be a grump for a day or two, but upon reflection, he'd truly treasure everything this team has brought him.

Because this is an extremely close-knit bunch of kids who are likeable and fun to be around. They truly seem to enjoy each other’s company, none of the egos or petty jealousies that may have fueled last year’s bitterly disappointing season. As much publicity as Kemba Walker has rightfully earned, his teammates don’t appear to begrudge him at all and, in fact, speak of him in the glowing terms reserved for players they idolize – or even greater influences.

“We’re going to go as far as God lets us,” freshman guard Shabazz Napier said Saturday night.

“God and Kemba,” a reporter quipped.

Napier had to pause for a moment and smile before admitting, “There’s God … and Kemba’s nowhere near God.”

Tell that to a UConn fan. But we digress ...

It's clear that this group has helped Calhoun through another trying season. Last month, the program was punished by the NCAA for violations in the recruitment of Nate Miles. Calhoun was suspended for the first three Big East games of next season, a sanction he clearly disagreed with but eventually opted not to appeal. A few days later, Calhoun’s sister-in-law passed away. He missed a game while attending the funeral and talked about how there are “more important things in life” than basketball.

But watching this group enjoy each other’s company, as well as improve on the basketball court, seems to be therapeutic to Calhoun. There’s really not a bad story in the group: the emergence of Walker as perhaps the very best player in the nation and Jeremy Lamb as a star on the rise; the improved inside play and toughness of Alex Oriakhi, the boundless athleticism of Roscoe Smith and the enthusiasm and leadership-beyond-his years of Napier; the steady leadership of senior Donnell Beverly and the surprising recent contributions from a senior (Charles Okwandu) and a freshman (Tyler Olander).

And there don’t seem to be any malcontents in this bunch. Sure, Jamal Coombs-McDaniel may pout a bit after getting a tongue-lashing from Calhoun and riding the pine for a while. But a half hour later, he’s the first off the bench to mob walk-on Benjamin Stewart for scoring his first-ever basket, and the next night he’s in for Smith 14 seconds into the game and scoring 10 first-half points against the Bearcats.

Calhoun’s perspective on this season is enough to make one wonder whether he’s pondering retirement whenever this run ends. With most of the key players back next season, UConn could be strong again. But with Walker almost certainly heading to the NBA, and with blue-chip recruit Andre Drummond likely to opt for another year of prep school, the Huskies probably won't be national championship contenders.

Whether UConn’s season ends at the hands of San Diego State on Thursday in Anaheim, Calif., or two days later against – be still CBS’s beating hearts – Duke, or if the Huskies complete their miracle mission and reach Calhoun’s fourth Final Four or, somehow, capture his third national championship, would it all be enough on which to ride off into the sunset?

It certainly all bears watching. But one thing is certain: this team and this season was as special to Jim Calhoun back in the middling days of early February as it is right now.

Alex Oriakhi says the Huskies have a motto.

"'Maui in Manhattan,'" he said after Friday night's overtime win over Syracuse. "We're all having fun. It feels like Maui again."

Minus a few degrees on the thermometer, it certainly must. At the Maui Invitational back just before Thanksgiving, the Huskies won three games in three days to cop the title. They beat some good teams, too: Wichita State, Michigan State and Kentucky.

Now, UConn has one-upped that performance with four wins in four days at the Big East tournament. OK, DePaul stinks, but Georgetown, Pittsburgh and now the 'Cuse are all NCAA tourney teams.

So what is it about this team in game-a-day, tournament play? Heck if they know.

"I don't know," Kemba Walker shrugged. "I guess you could say, the bright lights are on, it's our time to shine. Everybody said we couldn't do this, and we're shocking the world."

"I don't know what's going on right now," Alex Oriakhi added, "but we're all just playing together. We all were unhappy with the way we played in the past, losing four out of five. But we're not looking back. Everybody's playing together and helping Kemba out."

There's no reason for the Huskies to stop and think why they play so well in this type of format, but here's my theory: they have a great player in Walker, who can (and has) put the team on his back while it gains momentum through a tournament, builds confidence with each win and gets other players to start believing in themselves.

Look no further than Tyler Olander tonight. Just about every player on UConn's roster has had a highlight game somewhere along the line this season: Jamal Coombs-McDaniel has had a few, Niels Giffey, Charles Okwandu, even Donnell Beverly. Not Olander ... until Friday night.

He scored seven points (matching his season-high), grabbed six rebounds and doled out a pair of assists in 27 minutes of action. He was aggressive, taking nine shots and really crashing the boards, and even managed to commit only one two fouls (a frequent bugaboo of his).

"This feels great, just because we've all been working hard all year, we've all had our struggles," Olander said. "To come into this game (and contribute), it's crazy."

The Mansfield resident admits he doubted himself at times this season when the minutes weren't there and, when they were, the production wasn't.

"A little bit, because at the beginning I struggled a lot, things weren't going right, I was missing easy shots. For this game to (come) on this night, it's pretty special."

His teammates were happy for him, too.

"I was so happy for him," said Oriakhi. "I know how he felt, not playing sometimes, not even playing good sometimes. I told him I know exactly what you're going through. But I told him, you never know when your number's called, and he performed tonight."

Added Walker: "I was extremely happy. He was confident, he came in, hit a big jump shot. He showed poise out there. It's good to see him gain some confidence, because he's a really good player and he doesn't know it."

*** Oh yeah, Walker: 33 points, 12 rebounds (!), six steals, five assists. He'll be the tourney MVP, even if UConn loses Saturday night. He's the national player of the year in my book, as I stated yesterday. What more can you say at this point?

*** A pair of apparent goaltending calls against both teams weren't called, essentially nullifying each other. Jamal Coombs-McDaniel appeared to swipe a Syracuse shot right off the rim with under three minutes left in regulation. It certainly appeared to be basket inteference.

"You think?" Jim Boeheim asked, rhetorically, afterwards.

"What do you think?" Boeheim was asked.

"Nothing. No comment."

WIth less than a minute left in OT, however, it appeared Jeremy Lamb's shot was goaltended by Syracuse's C.J. Fair. Again, no call.

Jim Calhoun describes Pitt's success over recent years this way: "Pitt doesn't do it by magic, they do it by tough, focused, hard-nosed discipline and they did that when they had one of their best players (Ashton Gibbs) out for some time."

But there is another secret to the Panther's success over the years: they are consistently a veteran, senior-laden group. They recruit players who may not be McDonald's All-Americans and may not having long NBA careers, but who'll stick with the program for four (sometimes five) years and develop as players.

Look no further than this year's roster. Pitt starts three seniors (one of them a fifth-year senior) and two juniors. Gilbert Brown is 23 years old, Gary McGhee 22, Nasir Robinson turns 22 next week and Brad Wanamaker and Ashton Gibbs are both 21.

Now look at the starting five UConn sent out against Georgetown on Wednesday: two freshmen, a sophomore, a junior and a senior. Jeremy Lamb is just 18, Roscoe Smith 19, Alex Oriakhi and Kemba Walker both 20. OK, 24-year-old Charles Okwandu throws it all out of whack, but he's hardly as integral a player as, say, Shabazz Napier (19) or even Jamal Coombs-McDaniel (21) off the bench.

UConn's youth was never more evident than back on Dec. 27, when six different freshmen were thrust into their Big East debuts at the rowdy Petersen Events Center. But that was 2 ½ months ago.

"The freshmen have seen the whole Big East, they know what it takes, they know how it is," Oriakhi said. "There are no excuses this time around."

"When we first played them, that was the most physical team we had played, (we played) five, six freshmen," added Coombs-McDaniel. "Throughout the year we've played better, we've matured, and we're definitely ready for Pitt right now."

Here's the game story of UConn's win over Georgetown: http://www.nhregister.com/articles/2011/03/09/sports/doc4d77d2b35589b068914975.txt?viewmode=fullstory

Is UConn jelling at just the right time? It certainly appears that way.

Maybe it's too much to say coming off wins over awful DePaul and a slumping Georgetown team that's now lost four straight without its second-best player. But there were some very positive signs for the Huskies in today's win over the Hoyas.

What stuck out the most to me was their ball movement and general cohesiveness on offense, particularly in the first half. Even when Georgetown went zone -- a frequent bane to the Huskies' existence -- UConn didn't resort to "windshield wiping" (passing the ball from one side to the other on the perimeter). Rather, they swung it to the open man, hit players at the high and low post and really looked like a solid unit offensively.

Kemba Walker was absolutely brilliant with 28 points on an array of drives to the hoops, scoop shots, even an acrobatic, windmill reverse layup. But there was more to the story. Jamal Coombs-McDaniel hit a couple of 3-pointers and followed Walker in the scoring column with 12, and Jeremy Lamb added 11.

Freshman guard Shabazz Napier had his usual array of nifty passes and layups, including a terrific 3-point play on a transition drive with 11:34 remaining. And 7-foot center Charles Okwandu chipped in with six points and a nifty, one-touch pass to Coombs-McDaniel for a layup late in the opening half.

"We just want to be a great team, that's it," said Walker. "Whoever scores, scores, it doesn't matter. We just want to play basketball and stay together."

Niels Giffey (five points) and Roscoe Smith (three) didn't do much offensively, but helped hold Georgetown star Austin Freeman (20 points on 7-for-20 shooting) relatively in check.

A few other tidbits:

*** UConn has won back-to-back games in the Big East tourney for the first time since 2004, when they won the championship.

*** The last three times the Huskies have faced Pitt in the Big East tourney have come in the finals in 2002, 2003 and 2004.

*** UConn is the first No. 9 seed to win its first two games of the tourney sinice it went to a 16-team format two years ago.

*** Seen in the MSG crowd during the game: Jeff Adrien, Craig Austrie, Miami Heat GM (future coach?) Pat Riley, John Thompson II and Lou Carnesecca (the latter two sat several rows apart, and didn't appear to exchange any ugly sweaters).

If there was any doubt that Kemba Walker appears certain to declare for this year's NBA draft, the fact that he'll be participating in Saturday's Senior Day festivities at Gampel Pavilion should erase that doubt.

Walker, a junior, along with seniors Charles Okwandu and Donnell Beverly and head manager Jordan Rich will participate. Walk-on Kyle Bailey is planning to return for another year, and can do so since he did not see any game action in 2007-08.

There's one play, in my mind, that best summarizes UConn's 75-57 romp over PC on Sunday night.

With 4:41 left the Friars still in it (trailing 63-55), Kemba Walker got the ball near the top of the key with the shot clock running down. He took a couple of dribbles and seemed primed to hurl up a 3-pointer.

Walker leapt in the air like he was taking a jumper, but instead fired a bullet down low to a wide-open Jamal Coombs-McDaniel, who it a reverse layup with about a second left on the shot clock. That kicked off a 12-0 Husky run that shut the door and gave them the victory.

It also represented everything that was right for the Huskies on Sunday. Walker, rather than forcing up a tough shot, distributed the ball beautifully. He did it all night, racking up seven assists while taking just 10 shots -- a season-low. He hit seven of them (including a trio of 3-pointers), to snap out of a seven-game shooting slump (during which he was 38-for-123, 31 percent overall).

And, of course, Coombs-McDaniel had by far his best night as a Husky, with career highs in points (25), rebounds (eight), minutes (31), praises from Jim Calhoun (who labeled his relationship with the player as "stormy") and postgame questions from the media.

"I'd love to ask him, 'Do you think, in the midst of playing six minutes, say, in Hawaii, did you really think you'd come here and score 25 in a game?'" Calhoun said. "He'd say yes, by the way. His ego would say. But I really wondered that. And yet, in the last couple of games, the one thing he does is comes in and plays hard."

Has Calhoun seen frustration from Coombs-McDaniel?

"I did last year. I don't think I saw frustration. The thing he is, he's probably 15, 20 pounds heavier, worked like crazy on weights. Roscoe (Smith) comes in, Niels (Giffey) was great, and then he kind of got stuck. When you win 11, 12 games in a row and you're 17-2, you're not going to make too many changes. But during his struggle, every time we put him in, he gives us a spark. He did that against Seton Hall, as a matter of fact."

Said Coombs: "It's definitely been tough, but I'm just trying to stick with it. Last year, I would sulk and stuff, and that's not doing me any good. I'm just trying to continue to play hard, get better and earn some minutes on the court."

Fittingly, that 12-0 UConn run was also capped by a pass from Walker out on the perimeter to Coombs-McDaniel, who buried a 3-pointer.

Charles Okwandu (six points, career-high 11 rebounds, four loud blocks) played terrific, and Donnell Beverly (five assists) was as steady as ever. But this game was all about Kemba Walker getting back to being Kemba Walker and Jamal Coombs-McDaniel (who'll be in the starting lineup Wednesday against Georgetown) having a breakout game.

We're told Niels Giffey and Charles Okwandu will be in the starting lineup tonight for UConn. Okwandu isn't really a surprise, but Giffey is, to a degree. He's barely sniffed the floor recently, although Giffey did play seven minutes against Syracuse on Wednesday and made a couple of nice contributions.

The coaching staff seems to like Giffey's defense, though I wouldn't bank on him guarding Jeremy Hazell tonight. That honor looks like it will fall on Jeremy Lamb, at least to start the game.

Kemba's tired.

And frustrated. And upset that he's not getting a consistent whistle. And perhaps simply not as great a shooter as he appeared in the first 15 or so games this season.

But as much as anything, he's tired -- physically and mentally. He's played too many minutes, too often with two or three defenders swarmed over him, preventing him from getting much of anything uncontested. Combine that with the mental fatigue of feeling he has to be "The Man" every night (which is ironic, since Jeremy Lamb has been "The Man" at least the last three games and others have stepped up in recent games, as well), and there's a legit reason why Walker is shooting 31 percent (27-for-88) from the floor in his last five games and 19 percent (4-for-26) from 3-point range in his last four.

In UConn's last five contests, Walker has played 39, 40, 39, 47 and 38 minutes. That's about a combined seven minutes of rest in five games. Couldn't Shabazz Napier be seeing a few more of those minutes? We'd say Donnell Beverly, too, but tonight's performance was about as bad as it gets for that usually steady senior.

In a way, it's hard to say this wasn't expected. Did anyone really think that Walker, all 6-foot-1 (yeah, right), 172 pounds of him, was going to continue to put up 30-point games through the rigors of the Big East schedule? I certainly didn't.

Will Walker -- who scored a season-low eight points on 3-for-14 shooting Wednesday night -- get his groove back? Most likely. But he needs to take some pressure off himself, and Jim Calhoun should try to find a few more minutes here and there for Walker to rest.

*** There was one positive from tonight's 66-58 loss to Syracuse: UConn freshman Niels Giffey saw his most playing time (seven minutes) in the last five games and made the most of it, hitting Charles Okwandu for the assist on a game-tying hoop in the latter half and draining a 3-pointer with 8:35 left to get UConn to within three (48-45). He soon followed with a bad turnover, however, and found himself on the bench the rest of the way.

Okwandu had a trick-or-treat game with eight points and also eight rebounds, but also three turnovers and some misses on easy inside baskets.

It's official: Nothing this team does surprises me anymore. Zero.

While I thought there was a chance UConn could be significantly better than the preseason prognosticators had prognoaticated, there's no way I (or anyone) could have figured the Huskies would be 16-2 at this point of the season. Truly remarkable.

If Jim Calhoun isn't the runaway favorite for (forget just Big East), national coach of the year right now, I don't know who is. It's really not even close right now.

Calhoun has mixed and matched this group marvelously, discerning his players'strengths and weaknesses and melding it into a winning product.

"Jim does a great job of putting guys in a position to be successful," Bruce Pearl said. "They do what they can do, and don't do what they can't do."

Kemba Walker is a virtual certainty each night, and there he was once again in the UConn men's basketball's 72-61 win over Tennessee at a sold-out XL Center Saturday afternoon. Despite his lowest scoring output of the season (16 points), Walker doled out seven assists and hit his usual array of big shots, including a long 3-pointer at the first-half buzzer that gave the eighth-ranked Huskies a halftime lead.

Alex Oriakhi was at it again, too, with a double-double (12 points, 10 rebounds) and three steals, including a nifty pokeaway that led to his own dunk with 4 ½ minutes to play.

But it was the performances of a pair of freshmen, Jeremy Lamb and Roscoe Smith, that made the difference in this one. Lamb matched a career best with 16 points, including a couple of big buckets over the final five minutes, and added five rebounds and a pair of steals.

Smith buried four 3-pointers to add 12 points, blocked three shots and helped hold Volunteer leading scorer Scotty Hopson to a subpar (5-for-13 shooting, five turnovers) game.

"Of the 18 games we've played, that's far and away the best team effort against a quality opponent," UConn coach Jim Calhoun proclaimed afterwards. "I don't think there's any question about it."

Throw in an effective (six points, five boards) game off the bench for Charles Okwandu, a couple of 3-pointers from Jamal Coombs-McDaniel and enough clutch passing (four assists) in an otherwise poor game from Shabazz Napier and it's hard to argue Calhoun's point.

"(Walker) can get 30 any night he wants," said Lamb. "Tonight, he got us involved. Roscoe was hot, I hit a couple of shots and Shabazz was in there handling it for him. We all contributed."

Added Oriakhi: "We feed off each others' energy, so when one guy's playing well, we all feed off it and it helps the team as a whole … Roscoe was hitting 3's, Jeremy stepped up and Chuck stepped up. And that's what we need, because Kemba can't do it alone."

*** It's always fun listening to Pearl talk, so here's a little of what he had to say afterwards:

"You have to play really well to beat UConn at UConn. We did some good things, but turning the ball over – some of that was UConn, some of that was us. Second-chance points were huge. A lot of that was UConn, some of that was us."

"If you told me we could hold (Oriakhi) and Walker down, that we could win the ballgame. But those other guys, Lamb and Smith, stepped it up ... UConn's playing better when those other guys are involved like this. It makes them a harder cover. It'll open up the lane a little bit more inside."

"It's hard for Tennessee to beat UConn at UConn when Scotty Hopson doesn't play well."

(on returing to the sidelines in the middle of an eight-game suspension from SEC play)

"It's a very serious penalty. Eight league games … one league game could be the difference between seedings and making the tournament. It's significant ... Believe it or not, it didn't feel that different … It's good to get back. It was fun to be in the game for a while."

*** Ex-UConn great Clifford Robinson watched the game from behind the bench.

***Tyler Olander started for UConn but went scoreless in six minutes. Niels Giffey played just three minutes and registered nary a point nor a rebound.

***The sellout was UConn's second of the season and first at the XL Center.

***Melvin Goins led the Vols with 15 points, Hopson had 13 and Tobias Harris (a former UConn recruiting target) had 10.

***That's it. I'm off to Disney World with the family. Should be particularly exciting for my 4 1/2-year-old daughter. She's pretty excited, and so am I.

Here's how Jay Wright summed up Monday's exciting game, a 61-59 UConn victory.

"Great game to be a part of. Great atmosphere. It was a great Big East basketball game. We just came up on the short side of it."

Juuuuust the way Jim Calhoun would have described it if it had been Corey Fisher, not Kemba Walker, hitting the game-winning shot with 2.5 seconds left, right?

Ummmmm ... no.

But Calhoun -- who to this day hasn't publicly acknowledged the classic nature of UCoonn's six-overtime loss to Syracuse two seasons ago -- was gracious in victory. Wright said Calhoun (or it might have been George Blaney) said to him after the game: "We both suck."

"We were very fortunate to win the basketball game," Calhoun said. "We also had Kemba Walker to win the game for us."

Ah yes, Kemba Walker. With all due respect to Jimmer Fredette and Jared Sullinger, Walker is starting to pull away as the national player of the year frontrunner. Forget all the 30-point games, etc., it was his ability to overcome a somewhat subpar (by his standards) game to still net the game-winner.

Walker shot just 6-for-18 and stunningly missed two key free throws with 31.3 seconds left that allowed Fisher to come down and hit a pair of freebies with 22 ticks left to tie the game. He also was whistled for a key traveling call with 2:08 remaining, and -- you guessed it -- Fisher responded with a reverse layup to tie the game.

(Walker scored UConn's final seven points of the game; Fisher scored Villanova's final 11).

But was there any doubt a.) who would get the ball with the clock ticking down for the game-winning shot and b.) whether Walker would make the shot?

Not in most observers' minds.

"When I saw it go up, I had a feeling it was going to go in," freshman guard Shabazz Napier said, "because he's Kemba Walker."

"We wanted to run some time down so we get the last shot," Walker said. "I got it, and I knew another guy was going to come. I just tried to go before he came and I was able to get my arm in and get a shot up."

Added Napier: "He's a veteran. He's been through these battles before … he did it against Texas. You've got to give him the ball. Everyone has a bad shooting night, but when the game's on the line, we all know who to give it to."

***While Walker was again the hero, Jeremy Lamb was a key understudy. The freshman had by far his biggest game in a UConn uniform with 14 points, eight rebounds and a host of big plays. Lamb had a steal and layup off a give-and-go with Walker with 6:35 left to get UConn to within a point.

"I knew he was coming up to screen, and he tried to fade it so I was able to get in the passing lane. I gave it to Kemba so he could make a play, and he realized he could get it back to me, so I just wanted to finish it. That was a key play of the game."

Lamb's dribble-drive scoop shot with 3:57 left gave the Huskies a 52-48 lead.

"That was a big-time play," Wright said. "(Maurice) Sutton was right there, and he shot it right over him."

"I noticed there was a mismatch. They were overplaying Kemba, and Shabazz was able to get the ball to me, and I was able to score."

Lamb also made a nifty alley-oop pass to Alex Oriakhi for a layup with 3:12 left.

"The crowd was great today," Lamb said. "I had energy, and I just took what they gave me and was able to knock down some shots."

Walker was asked if this was somewhat of a coming-out party for Lamb.

"You could say that. I always knew what he was capable of doing it for us. It's about time he did it, and he did it at the right time. We needed a boost from somebody, and he gave it to us."

And, as usual, so did Kemba Walker.

***Oriakhi finished with 14 points and 12 rebounds and Charles Okwandu grabbed seven boards. Walker nabbed six rebounds and doled out five assists.

"Kemba's great, they use him great," said Wright. "He doesn't just score, he makes people around him better, he draws fouls. He's just so difficult to guard."

Napier didn't do much (two points and one assist -- though that assist was a spectacular one, a no-look beauty to Jamal Coombs-McDaniel for a reverse layup that got UConn to within a point (36-35) with 13:52 left.

Fisher (10-for-22 shooting) was the only Wildcat in double figures. Corey Stokes, Villanova's leading scorer at 16.5 per game, was held without a field goal and to just three points with Roscoe Smith guarding him most of the contest.

After Tuesday night's misleading 67-53 win over Rutgers (it wasn't anywhere near even that close), Jim Calhoun planned to go to his Pomfret home, get the fireplace going and enjoy his first day off in over a week.

The Huskies won't practice Wednesday, enjoying a well-earned day off after a whirlwind prior couple of weeks that saw lots of travel, a marquee road win and Tuesday night's rather blase victory over the woeful Scarlet Knights.

Here's some notes and quotes coming off the Rutgers game:

***UConn (13-2, 2-2 Big East) blitzed out of halftime on a 12-0 run as Rutgers misfired on its first nine shots. Mike Poole ended the Scarlet Knights' drought with a driving layup with 14:45 left, but UConn countered with an 8-0 run and the rout was on.

"Coach really got on us," sophomore forward Alex Oriakhi said. "He said they're showing more energy than we are, they're playing full-speed and we're not. We told each other we've definitely got to pick it up in the second half, at least defensively. The offense is going to come."

Added Kemba Walker: "I thought we came out with a lot of intensity and we just played hard. We played with a lot of effort. That's all it was."

Rutgers (10-6, 1-3) missed 12 of its first 13 to start the latter half, wound up shooting just 35 percent from the floor (including just 3-for-17 on 3-pointers) and earned a verbal lashing from its first-year coach, Mike Rice.

"The mental softness of this team is unbelievable," Rice said, "so you can't expect it to be successful on the road. To do what they did in that six-minute stretch … we'll have to figure it out, that's for sure."

"You've got to fight back," Rice continued, "and, boy, we took a standing eight-count."

***Calhoun sported a Band-Aid on his left cheek during the game, but shrugged it off as a cut while shaving.

"If I could handle that Gillette, I'd be an awful lot better," he said.

*** Roscoe Smith turned his ankle while going in for a layup with 13:17 left in the first half. He made the shot and was fouled, but left the game favoring his ankle and Oriakhi took the free throw (and missed). Smith returned a little less than two minutes later.

***The crowd of 12,527 was fairly impressive, considering that Rutgers is hardly a big draw, and that blizzard-like conditions were in the forecast later in the night.

***Napier is such a sparkplug for this team, whether he's scoring (33 points in two games last week) or distributing (seven assists on Tuesday).

He's also the closest thing I've seen to John Linehan since the little guard was setting Big East steals records at Providence a decade ago. Now, Napier is no John Linehan -- not yet. But his pesky ability to poke away steals, without getting called for reach-ins, is quite Linehanesque.

(For the record, Napier said he's never heard of Linehan but promises to look him up on the Internet to see what I'm talking about).

***Mike Rice on Kemba Walker: "I thought he had it on cruise control all night. Once Oriakhi got it going, he just fed the big fella a little bit."

***Calhoun on:

Oriakhi: "Him touching the ball gives him a boost."

Charles Okwandu, Jamal Coombs-McDaniel, Napier and Donnell Beverly: "It doesn't show in the stats, but (Charles) is a factor in the middle. Jamal gave us a very good lift. Shabazz was very good again, Donnell Beverly was very good off the bench."

And, on the flip side, on Jeremy Lamb: "I still think Jeremy Lamb has a lot more to show us. He's a terrific offensive player, an incredible kid, he works so hard. He's going to have to work to overcome that he's probably the weakest kid on our team, and he can't keep getting banged on screens."

A little late here, I realize, but here's what Alex Oriakhi had to say about his disappointing, 8-point, 1-rebound night in Monday's loss at Pittsburgh:



And here's some of what Jim Calhoun had to say about the loss -- specifically the lack of an inside game from Oriakhi and Charles Okwandu.

Jim Calhoun, as only he could, set the stage to what promises to be another physical, memorable showdown between UConn and Pitt tomorrow night at the Petersen Events Center.

"When you play at Pitt, it's come to mean you're visiting the Steelers," Calhoun quipped. "At least the officials seem to think that."

And away we go ...

The Huskies made it out of Bradley on their charter early this afternoon, touched down in Pittsburgh at about 3:15 p.m. and were at the Petersen Events Center for practice by 4 p.m. Calhoun and Kemba Walker (as well as Pitt's Jamie Dixon and Gary McGhee) met with the media and talked about the idea of playing such a huge game with potentially big implications just two days after Christmas.

(A reminder to follow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/DaveBorges)

Calhoun doesn't like it -- a point he made as far back as on Big East media day in October.

"I don't like seeing (one) of our teams playing the team that is, right now, as good as anybody else in our league – maybe the best," he said. "Let's give us a chance to get through the holiday season and go."

He continued: "The day after Christmas, you're traveling to play the best team in the league. And I'm not just saying that about us, I'm talking about some of the other games in our league. I personally don't like it, (but) the league's not going to change because I don't like it.

"When it comes down to the end and people are looking for high seeds in the Big East tournament, I wouldn't want to see a game here, two days after Christmas, cost somebody. I think everybody should have that time period."

So why are the Huskies playing at Pitt on Monday (8:30 p.m. espn2)?

"We play Texas and Tennessee, that takes away two dates the Big East can use for us," Calhoun noted. "Conversely, I counter that by saying, we might be doing a little something for the league by playing those two schools. I think their power ratings might be among the top 15 in the country. I think our Maui games probably help."

Dixon isn't thrilled with the timing of the game, either.

"It is what it is. We don't make the schedule, the conference does," he said. "Obviously, over the years we've had incredibly close games with highly ranked teams coming together. Every game has been really a battle. Whatever date we've played it, it's lived up to its billing. I'm expecting the same this game."

Not everyone is against the timing of the game. McGhee, Pitt's 6-foot-11 senior center, welcomes it.

"I like coming right from Christmas into a big game like this," McGhee said. "I’m looking forward to it."

Calhoun could perhaps be swayed to that opinion, as well.

"If we're fortunate enough to be on the left-hand (winning) side of the column, I'll say what a great idea it was to play two days after Christmas," he joked. "I won't say that. I just think teams should have as much of a chance to get ready."

***Dixon isn't surprised by UConn's 10-0 start, even though it was picked to finish 10th in the conference by Big East coaches.

"I don't know how you can be surprised by anybody in our league that's had a history of success," he said. "You go through the league, you've got to pick somebody ninth and 10th that has won year after year and had success. Last year, we were picked in the same spot, ninth or 10th, and we finished second. It shouldn't be a surprise.

"Every year, I'd think Syracuse would be rebuilding, and I've finally given up. Same thing with Connecticut and certain teams in this conference."

***Expect a typically physical game. The Panthers are outrebounding opponents by 16.2 per game, easily tops in the conference. They're holding teams to 61.1 points per game – seventh in the league, just ahead of UConn (62.4). The Huskies' frontcourt of Alex Oriakhi, Charles Okwandu, Tyler Olander and (perhaps) Enosch Wolf will be key.

***It takes a village to stop Walker these days. That seems to be the mentality the Panthers will go in with tomorrow ight. Brad Wanamaker, Ashton Gibbs and Travon Woodall will all likely take turns guarding Walker, but in the end it's the entire Pitt team that must fill gaps and keep Walker from penetrating and getting out in the open floor, where he can either score on drives to the hoop or dish off to teammates.

"You can't guard him with just one guy," Dixon said. "All five guys on the floor have to be doing what they're supposed to do."

***Why is the game being played at 8:30 p.m.? Well, it follows the 5 p.m. Independence Bowl (Georgia Tech vs. Air Force) on espn2. Gee, there's a must-see game.

***Pitt and UConn, respectively, are the Big East's winningest programs of the 21st Century. Since the start of the 2001-02 season, the Panthers are 257-66 (.796) overall and 109-41 in league play. UConn is 235-79 (.748) and 103-47.

Over that span, Pitt has made nine NCAA tourney appearances, UConn seven. The schools have met in three of the last nine Big East championship finals. In the last nine years, both programs have appeared in five Sweet Sixteens.

Of course, UConn has a national title and a Final Four in that span (not to mention a national title just before that time period). Pitt has never reached the Final Four.

***Calhoun feels plenty of "love" from the fans at The Pete.

"It's good to get back to one of my favorite places, the Peterson Center," he quipped. "I know the fans here love me, so it's always nice to come back where you are loved."