With the contact period for recruits still a few weeks away (Sept. 9-Oct. 5), UConn is still mapping out which players may make visits to campus, and which players might be getting home visits.

Nothing's official yet -- not even close, in some instances -- but here's what players the UConn coaching staff might be getting closers looks at next month:

***Josiah Turner, as previously reported, is expected to visit Storrs the weekend of Sept. 10. There's an outside chance that Jabari Brown, the talented 6-foot-5 shooting guard out of Oakland, could visit that weekend, as well.

***Rashad "Ky" Madden, a 6-5 combo guard out of Arkansas, could make a visit to Storrs some time in late-September, early-October.

***The Huskies are in the process of scheduling in-home visits with a few different recruits. One could be Norvel Pelle, a 6-8 shotblocker out of Los Angeles who, for various reasons, has yet to play any high school basketball. Pelle hails from Antigua.

UConn may also try a home visit with Adonis Thomas, a 6-6 small forward out of Memphis who was on the Team USA Under-17 team with Andre Drummond.

***The Huskies could be getting an unofficial visit over the next couple of weeks from Myles Mack, a 5-9 point guard who plays for recently-minted Hall-of-Famer Bob Hurley at St. Antony's in Jersey City, N.J.

***A few other Class of 2011 names to keep in mind: Ryan Boatright, a 5-10 point guard out of Chicago; Michael Chandler, a 7-footer out of Indianapolis; Chane Behanan out of Bowling Green, KY; Desmond Hubert, a 6-9 center out of New Egypt, N.J.; Angelo Chol, a highly-touted 6-8 center out of San Diego; Trey McDonald, a 6-8 center out of Detroit; and Malcolm Gilbert, a 6-10 center out of Philly.

Oh, and of course Drummond, who may or not be a Class of 2011 player. Drummond has reportedly considered re-classifying from 2012 to '11, but nothing's certain yet.

Elsewhere: recent commit Enosch Wolf of Germany is still waiting to be cleared by the NCAA. It seems likely to happen, as there are no academic issues, just the fact that he's a foreign student who committed rather late in the game.

Oh, and though he'd like to pay his own way on the UConn team this year, I wouldn't hold your breath on the return of Jonathan Mandeldove.

A few things we've been hearing through the grapevine lately:

***UConn has one official visit left to offer, and it appears it will be getting one from a recruit from Germany in the near future. (Sorry, no name to offer).

***The Huskies expect two players to transfer out of the program. It's looking like Jamaal Trice and Darius Smith, though nothing's official. Jon Mandeldove? Still a question mark for next season, as well.

***Beau Archibald to BYU? Maybe.

***Looks like the Huskies will open next season against Steve Pikiell and his Stony Brook Sea Wolves.

More later ...

Tell us where you've heard this one before: Jim Calhoun says that signing a contract extension with UConn is just around the corner.

“It’s signaturable,” Calhoun said of the contract, while perhaps making up a new word along the way. “Right now, it’s up to the university. As soon as they say ‘go,’ as far as I’m concerned, it will be done.”

Of course, Calhoun said back in January that his extension was essentially done, and after a source with knowledge of the situation told me in mid-March that it would be a done deal in about a month, Calhoun said the same thing publicly.

A Wall Street Journal story on Wednesday noted that questions surrounding Calhoun’s unsigned contract, coupled with health issues that sidelined him for seven games this past season, had scared off potential recruits, including Josh Selby, the McDonald’s All-America guard who recently signed with Kansas University.

In fact, over the last couple of weeks, the Huskies have whiffed on some of the most sought-after recruits in the country. Selby, Brandon Knight (Kentucky), Doron Lamb (Kentucky), Corey Joseph (Texas) and C.J. Leslie (North Carolina State) all were heavily recruited by UConn but ultimately chose to go elsewhere.

Still, when reached on his cell phone this afternoon while he was on his way to a round of golf with his son and George Blaney, Calhoun said he is “thrilled” with the five members of the program’s incoming freshman class, which is ranked No. 17 in the nation by scout.com and includes Roscoe Smith, the scouting service’s No. 6-rated small forward.

“I like the kids we have here,” Calhoun said. “We didn’t get everybody we started out after, no. But we got more guys than we expected.”

Calhoun apparently is referring to the fact that two players – 6-foot-9 power forward Tyler Olander of Mansfield and 6-foot point guard Shabazz Napier of Cambridge, Mass – were originally slotted as Class of 2011 recruits. But Olander elected to graduate from E.O. Smith High this spring rather than return to prep school for a year. Napier has been awaiting word from his prep school, Lawrence Academy in Groton, Mass., on whether he’ll be able to re-classify from Class of 2011 to 2010. According to one source, Napier received word on Wednesday that he’s good to go for next season. However, sources around the program said it wasn't a done deal yet.

If Smith, Napier, Olander, 6-4 shooting guard Jeremy Lamb and 6-9 center Michael Bradley are all to suit up for the Huskies next season, something must be done to make room for them. UConn has nine returning players, which would give them 14 players for 13 scholarship spots.

Calhoun said he’s had discussions with freshman guard Jamaal Trice, who didn’t see a single second of action in Big East play this past season, about playing time next year and a possible transfer, though nothing has been determined.

Asked if senior center Jonathan Mandeldove, who effectively red-shirted last season after struggling with academics, is definitely in the mix for next year, Calhoun said: “Talk to me after finals.”

Read more on the potential NCAA investigation into UConn's alleged recruiting violations in tomorrow's Register.

So I pulled into a parking spot in the garage across the street from the XL Center today at about noon and who's stepping out of his car two spots over but Jon Mandeldove.

Apparently, big Jon isn't allowed to take the team bus from Storrs to Hartford during his "suspension". While the exact reason for Mandeldove's suspension has never been fully addressed, it apparently has to do with academics. Mandeldove promises, however, that he has straightened things out in that department and will be back in a UConn uniform come January. We'll see.

***Darius Smith was held up at Midway Airport in his hometown of Chicago for 2 1/2 hours on Saturday and missed UConn's practice. He wound up getting into Connecticut around 3 p.m., but not after a slippery landing for a connector in Baltimore that had him scared on an airplane for the first time in his life.

Roll up ... roll up for the ... OK, I'll stop.

The Majok-al Mystery Tour got off to the proverbial inauspicious debut this afternoon. One point, three rebounds, one turnover, two fouls and one "F" bomb from his coach in 16 minutes of action in Ater Majok's long-awaited UConn lid-lifter. Let the record show:

 "All You Need is Love": Majok started and was the first UConn player introduced. He earned a nice ovation from the crowd of 13,685 but didn't seem to know exactly where to go after his name was called. He jumped center and got beaten bad on the jump-ball.

 "Hello, Goodbye": He was pulled from a game for the first time at 17:29, replaced by Gavin Edwards.

 "Flying": His first rebound came with 7:47 left in the first half.

 "Penny Lane": Majok's first point came on a foul shot 5:08 before halftime, earning another ovation. He missed his ensuing freebie.

 Majok didn't start the latter half, Gavin Edwards did. His first official field goal attempt was a misfired 17-footer with 17:01 left to play.

 "Goo goo ga joob": His first official public undressing by Calhoun came 20 seconds later, when Calhoun called a timeout and shouted at Majok for a defensive lapse.

 His first foul came with 10:51 to play.

 "You've been a naughty boy ...": Majok's first official "F"-bomb from Calhoun came with 2:10 left. After Majok seemed a bit confused in an offensive set and was late setting a screen for Kemba Walker, Calhoun called a timeout and yelled "Get the (bleep) out!" at Majok. The crowd just happened to be rather silent at that point, so most people still in the building heard it.

Majok seemed a bit miffed about Calhoun's reaction, blankly staring into the distance while seated on the bench. He took the high road after the game.

"It's not every day that you hear him say that, but when you hear it, there's not much you can do about it," he said. "You just step out off the court, sit down and think about what you did. He's doing it for the best of us. That's his way of telling us, 'that was wrong.' That's his way of saying I'm wrong and I did a mistake."


As for his overall game: "It's good that the bad game is out of the way. It is what it is. It's a bad game, I realize I've got a lot to work on. All I can do is go back in the gym and work on it and get back here on Tuesday. But, a win is a win. Stanley showed up, Gavin showed up, they backed us up. There's not really much I can say.

"It's difficult coming in halfway through the year. I thought it was easier, but once I stepped on the court, it's a lot more difficult because the team has been going for a while without you. You can't just step in and take every shot you take. It's a little frustrating, but we'll get through it. We've got a lot more games to go. I'm happy, at the same time, because I got that game out of the way and it doesn't happen to me in the Big East. But I'm not happy that it's my first game and I had a bad performance."

Said Calhoun: "He certainly didn't have the kind of game I would expect. I didn't necessarily think it would be spectacular, but it certainly could have been better. Alex (Oriakhi) had his worst game since he's been here, energy-wise."

"I really, really think that if you've never been around a basketball team, it's difficult … He just didn't play very well, he didn't look like he was ready to play, he was very hesitant about everything he did. He didn't block shots, or rebound, he stood up a lot – along with Alex too, by the way … He didn't play well."

As for Oriakhi, he went scorleless in 24 minutes before fouling out. He had just two rebounds and attempted just one shot.

"Alex doesn't want the ball," said Calhoun. "He made the decision a while ago, he's a conscientious objector. He doesn't want to score … he was just lousy today.

"I could have used Ater or two or three other big guys – I don't think the names it would have made a difference. Only the names would have changed."

Not Jonathan Mandeldove. He wasn't in the building, apparently battling illness but also seemingly an academic casualty. Charles Okwandu was in the house – at least physically. He didn't play.

***"Baby You're a Rich Man": Calhoun addressed reports that he and the school have agreed on a contract extension.

"It's right on the horizon, but I haven't signed anything," said the 24th-year coach. "Maybe somebody else has. My wife signs all my checks, maybe she did."

A source told the Register that the deal is done.

***Though he's a squat 6-foot-3 left-hander with goggles who looks nothing like his famous father, Marcus Jordan is indeed the son of Michael, arguably the greatest player in basketball history. He shot 5-for-10 from the floor and led UCF with 13 points.

***UConn commit Maurice Harkless, a 6-foot-7 forward, and coveted Class of 2012 big man Andre Drummond of Middletown watched the game from behind the Huskies' bench.

***We got a "logy" today from Calhoun. The extremely archaic word (pronounced "low-jee") is one of Calhoun's favorites when describing his team's lackadaisical effort.

Some quick-hitters from today's practice, as UConn held its media availability a day earlier than normal for Sunday's 1 p.m. game vs. Harvard:

***Harvard is 6-1 and is coming off an 85-64 rout of Rice. The Crimson has also defeated two common opponents of the Huskies: William & Mary (87-85 in triple OT) and Boston University (78-70). Their lone loss came at Army, 56-53.

***Harvard, coached by ex-Duke star and Michigan and Seton Hall coach Tommy Amaker, isn't your typical Ivy League team. They're athletic (seems admissions has loosened its standards a bit to get some better athletes in), they like to get up and down the floor and play a lot of man-to-man.

"They're playing exceptionally well at Tommy," said Jim Calhoun. "Tommy's one of my favorite people. He's done a great job of getting a different kind of Ivy League team – better athletes, they can do a lot of things."

***Harvard is led by Jeremy Lin, who averages 16 points per game and is one of the few Asian-American players in college hoops.

"He's a little bit like (Duke's Jon) Scheyer in the sense that you don't think he's that quick, but he is," Calhoun said. "He's probably a better rebounder, actually. He shoots it pretty well, maybe not like Scheyer's distance, and he makes plays. He does it with very deceptive speed. He's crafty, and he knows how to play … Lin certainly could play for teams in the Big East."

***Same starting lineup on Sunday.

***Jerome Dyson was practicing and showing no ill effects of his injury Wednesday night (which, apparently, was more of a foot sprain than a groin issue). Jerome was back to being Jerome today. On at least two occasions, he went flying to the ground and seemed a bit shaken up both times, only to pop right back up after a few moments.

"I think if he woke up feeling no bumps and bruises, he'd call a doctor saying 'There's something wrong with me,'" Calhoun noted.

Sticks Robinson on Dyson: "Ever since he got here, he's been falling crazy. He doesn't know how to fall. I hope he doesn't kill himself, because we need him. I felt like if we had him last year, (we would have won) the championship."

***Good Sticks story. On Wednesday night, after a good second half following a subpar first half, Robinson told Calhoun on the sidelines: "See, I told you coach. Everything turned out alright."

Only problem was, according to Calhoun, Sticks never had actually told Calhoun that everything would turn out alright.


***Expecting to see Jonathan Mandeldove in uniform next semester? Don't hold your breath. Not that it really matters much.

***Sticks on if he's happy with the way he's played so far this year:

"Nah. I'm not satisfied yet. When I feel satisfied is when I'm scoring 30 points, 25 points … 10 rebounds."

Robinson is averaging 15 points and 6.3 boards.

***Looking ahead to Wednesday's showdown with Kentucky at Madison Square Garden, Robinson noted that UK freshman DeMarcus Cousins is from his hometown of Birmingham, Ala.

"Yeah, he's so cocky, man. Too cocky for his own good," Sticks said with a smile.

Bad blood between the two?

"No, he just jokes too much. I told him, just stop playing around so much. He jokes a lot, but he's a great dude overall."

It doesn't quite rank with some other infamous sports injuries, like the strained eyelid that once sidelined former San Francisco Giant third baseman Chris Brown. But if Jerome Dyson had missed his long-awaited return to the hardwood with a toenail injury -- well, let's just say his coach wouldn't have been too pleased.

Here's what happened: Walking through the players' entrance at Gampel Pavilion about two hours prior to UConn's exhibition bout with UMass Lowell, Dyson, who was wearing flip-flops, caught the big toe of his right foot on a piece of metal on the bottom of the door. It ripped the nail straight off his toe, causing profuse bleeding and pain.

"He stubbed his toe, as he has on many other occasions, but this was actually a physical stubbing of the toe," Calhoun explained after UConn's 88-50 dismantling of UMass Lowell in Sunday's exhibition game at Gampel. "Jonathan (Mandeldove), Charles (Okwandu), OK, but Jerome -- you wouldn't think that he would rip off a toenail. It was bleeding like crazy. They didn't know if he was going to play, I said 'He has to play.'"


So, UConn team doctor Jeff Anderson stitched the toenail back on and numbed the toe with a pain-killer. Dyson then went out and delivered a mind-numbing performance.

The senior guard poured in 32 points on 12-for-17 shooting (including all five 3-pointers) as UConn rolled to victory. At one point, he scored 12 straight points as the Huskies turned an 18-17 lead into 30-17. Dyson had six assists against no turnovers, along with four steals in a truly inspired performance – inferior competition or not.

It was enough to have Calhoun jokingly suggest maybe Dyson's other big toenail should get torn off for the Huskies' official season-opener later this week against William & Mary.

"We're going to do the same thing next Friday night … it seems to work, I guess," Calhoun noted. "He shot the hell out of the ball, took good shots. The kid played great."

Added Dyson: "They're starting to think that they're going to rip a toenail off every game."

In truth, just about everyone in a Husky uniform looked pretty good:

***Kemba Walker had 15 points, seven assists and three steals and ran the UConn fast break beautifully. When he wasn't doing so, freshman Darius Smith (nine points, six assists) was up to the task.

"He's more comfortable in the break," Calhoun said of Smith. "He's much more comfortable when he plays in a fast-paced game. Now we've got to get him to look good in the halfcourt game."

Said Smith of UConn's uptempo style: "I love it. Me and Kemba being so quick, when we're on the floor, you either step up on us and let 'Rome and Sticks do their thing, or let us score. It's a lose-lose situation (for opponents)."

***Frosh center Alex Oriakhi had nine points and 14 rebounds. That's 30 boards in his first two collegiate exhibition games -- both against Division II foes.


"Can he do that against Kentucky? Can he do that against (other good teams) – my impression is that he can. It may not be 16 and 14, it may be 10 and 11, but he still can rebound against most anyone."

Oriakhi easily got the better of his cousin, UMass Lowell senior Kingsley Onyechi (four points, two boards).

"He's a talented kid, strong and athletic," Onyechi said. "I've known him since he was young, so obviously he's made a lot of physical changes, but he's made serious leaps and bounds as a basketball player. It's good to see him playing at this level ... I used to push him around as a little kid, but now it's a little different. He's about 6-9, 250, so it's a little different now. He's really grown."

Oh, and he can shoot from the perimeter, too, according to Onyechi.

"Calhoun won't let him shoot, but he can shoot."

***Stanley Robinson and Gavin Edwards played steady, understated roles with nine points apiece. Freshman Jamaal Trice took a step back (one point, two turnovers), but played some solid "D".

***The Huskies outscored UMass Lowell 32-2 on fast-break points, and outrebounded them 48-22.

"UConn is very, very fast, very, very athletic," said River Hawks coach Greg Herenda, a former assistant to George Blaney at Seton Hall. "I was in the Big East back when Ray Allen, Travis Knight, Nadav (Henefeld), all those guys (played at UConn). This is as fast and as quick a team … maybe I'm blinded, but they're very fast, great in transition, and an excellent basketball team defensively. In transition, (they're) probably as good as I've seen in a long time – much better, I think, than they were last year."

Added Calhoun: "We ran well, obviously we rebounded well, and Jerome just had a terrific game. And when the game got open, Kemba and some of our other guys got the game spaced, which is how we're going to have to play the game. We play the game very well in space."

***As coaches do, however, Calhoun was able to find a negative. Okwandu, the neophyte junior center, contributed just four points, two rebounds and four fouls in 10 minutes – a slight improvement over Wednesday night's two-point, one-rebound clunker, but not much.


With 6-11 freshman Ater Majok not eligible until mid-December, and with some big-time foes (Kentucky, possibly Duke or LSU) on the Huskies' schedule before then, Calhoun is desperate to get more production out of the 7-foot Okwandu.

"I hope he can. Physically, I know he can," said the coach. "The biggest thing I'm worried about is the four/five right now. I like what we did defensively in both games. Overall, we're encouraged with what we've seen. The only discouraging note would be the fact that we've got another big man in the rotation."

Calhoun insists that Okwandu has shown flashes in practice.

"Trust me. Whether it ever turns out in a game, and I think it will, he's a better player than what he's showing," the coach said. "And he's certainly not showing very much."

***Calhoun said he "hopes" Jamal Coombs-McDaniel could be cleared early this week.

Oriakhi said of Coombs-McDaniel, his good buddy: "I don't even know his situation, but I'm pretty sure he told me that he'll be good to go come Friday against William & Mary."

The biggest – and most surprising – news of the night came about 45 minutes prior to the opening tap, when we got an e-mail from UConn stating that Jerome Dyson, Jamal Coombs-McDaniel and Donnell Beverly would not be playing "pending evaluation of recently submitted paperwork pertaining to their annual eligibility certification."

Dyson and Beverly were awaiting "routine educational document review for eligibility certification," and the school was anticipating a resolution as early as Thursday.

A source told the Waterbury Republican-American, however, that the NCAA has requested "documentation" from Dyson and Beverly regarding alleged recruiting violations in UConn's recruitment of Nate Miles. The source told the paper that Dyson and Beverly had yet to turn over that documentation.

Jim Calhoun strongly rebuked the report.

"You're so far off-base, it's unbelievable," he said afterwards, without naming any names. "If you feel like you need to speculate and throw dirt at us, that's fine … the university has already made a statement about what happened, and you need to understand that if you take that side, that's fine, but stay on that side, because you will not be coming back on my side … If you want to write anything to get it out there nationally, that's great – it really helps our recruiting and all aspects of our game when you speculate on something that you have no knowledge of, and quite frankly, couldn't be farther from the truth."

Okie dokie.

Asked if he believes the trio will be all set to play in Sunday's exhibition game with UMass Lowell, Calhoun responded: "I can't answer that, but right now, I do anticipate that. I'm speaking what I think, but that's not always the way it goes."

So, limited to just seven scholarship players – three of them freshmen, one of them Charles Okwandu – the Huskies went out and laid a 106-67 beatdown on outmanned AIC. UConn shot 68 percent (42-for-62) from the floor and outrebounded the vastly outsized Yellow Jackets, 47-19. Kemba Walker had 28 points and 12 assists, Stanley Robinson netted 25 on 12-for-16 shooting, Gavin Edwards had 17 and freshman Alex Oriakhi notched 16 points and 16 boards before an announced crowd of 10,770 that was more like 5,000 (presumably mostly Red Sox fans).

"I'll take that effort for the first time out," said Calhoun. "You need a starting point, and this is a starting point."

Added Robinson (as only Stanley can): "Overall, we played a great game. That team's the easiest team we're ever going to play in our life. We know the Big East play is going to be harder, 10 times more physical. It's going to be hard for us just to get shots off in the Big East. We can always just build off it and say we did play a good game."

In fact, Robinson wasn't overly impressed with his performance.

"I don't think I played very well. I wanted to score more points, I wanted to get more rebounds. I felt like there was so much more I could do, but I didn't know I had 25 points until I looked at the scoreboard."

***What prog rock band recorded the album 'Pictures at an Exhibition'?


*** It was the performance of the three freshmen that may have been most pleasing for Calhoun. Jamaal Trice, starting in place of Dyson, netted nine points, as did Darius Smith, who also contributed six rebounds and five assists off the bench.

But it was Oriakhi, the hulking 6-9, 240-pound center, who raised the most eyebrows.


"It was a nice initiation for people to see Alex," Calhoun said. "I understand with the World Series, not too many people saw him, but … it was a good way for him to start."

Oriakhi wasn't concerned that it was just an exhibition.

"I don't care what it was, I was excited like it was the first game," he said. "My thought was to just go out there and grab as many rebounds as I can. I'm happy, but never satisfied. Coach said it's only going to get harder from here, so I've got to work on things, go back to practice and get better."

About the only negative was the play of Okwandu, the junior center who had two points and one rebound (in the final 10 seconds) in 18 minutes of action.

"I thought Charles was good on defense," Calhoun insisted, "but he was just horrendous on offense He dropped the ball about six times. He didn't have a particularly good game."

Calhoun isn't about to give up on Okwandu, however – in part because Oriakhi is just a freshman.

"(Referee) John Cahill said to me, 'that big young kid (Oriakhi) understands how to play – which is nice to hear. But he still is going to get into foul trouble, because he's going to go against the (Luke) Harangodys and those kind of guys who can draw fouls better than a 6-4 kid can. If we don't have Charles, that means our fifth big guy becomes Stanley. I don't want that, he's too good on the wing. We need Charles to play a lot better. He's better than what he's shown."

***Le Moyne's shocking upset of Syracuse in an exhibition at the Carrier Dome the night before was on the Huskies' minds.

"We didn't want that to happen to us," said Robinson, "so we just had to come out and play as hard as we can play, and just leave it out on the court. I thought we did that."

Added Calhoun: ""Le Moyne's becoming a buzz word to everybody, I guess. Right now, Jimmy (Boeheim) is 0-0. He does have a point in practice to bring up for the kids."

***Senior center Jonathan Mandeldove also didn't play due to academic issues, according to a team spokesman.

***AIC didn't grab its first rebound until there were 9 minutes, 51 seconds left in the first half.

***Calhoun had the World Series on his mind. He closed out his postgame presser saying, "Let's hope that Pedro wins, for the Red Sox."

So much for that.

This from UConn:

University of Connecticut men's basketball student-athletes Jerome Dyson, Donnell Beverly and Jamal Coombs-McDaniel will not participate in tonight's exhibition contest against American International pending evaluation of recently submitted paperwork pertaining to their annual eligibility certification.

Senior Jerome Dyson and junior Donnell Beverly are not participating pending routine educational document review for eligibility certification. The University is anticipating resolution soon, as early as tomorrow.

Freshman Jamal Coombs-McDaniel is not participating pending initial-eligibility clearance from the NCAA eligibility center. In his case, academic records have been requested and a review of those records is currently underway.

Dyson and Beverly (and Ater Majok) can be on the bench tonight in street clothes. (Beverly, however, apparently has left the building due to the flu). Coombs-McDaniel can't be, however, because his initial eligibility is apparently still in question.

Oh, and Jonathan Mandeldove isn't playing tonight, either, for academic reasons.

Great start to the season, eh?

A couple more notes & quotes from today's Husky Run:

***UConn changed up its preseason conditioning routine this year, with 7 a.m. weight-training followed by 8 a.m. breakfast, then on to practice. Conditioning is a big focus for this year's team, which figures to run more so than last year.

"We have to be faster," said Jim Calhoun. "Last year, we'd be foolish to be too, too fast, when you had a 7-3 guy … it only made sense for us to wait for the two guys who scored a lot of points. This year, I think our scoring will come off the fast break. Last year it was 62 percent, we'd like to be up to 66."

***UConn has been ranked all over the place by preseason prognosticators, from top 5 to out of the top 25.

Calhoun: "I have a handle (on how good we are), but apparently other people don't, which is probably why we're all over the map, and probably rightfully so … I think we have more kids who can do things with the basketball. I have no idea how that translates. To have a better record would be really a stretch, but to have a really good record and be really good by February, that would not be a stretch."

***Calhoun on newcomers Alex Oriakhi, Jamal Coombs-McDaniel and Ater Majok, as well as Charles Okwandu:

"Alex is better than I thought he'd be at this stage, he just has to be more aggressive. He's a terrific kid, we've just got to get him to be a little less terrific on the court, as a person – a little meaner. Jamal Coombs is multi-dimensional, he'll give us a lot of different things. Ater has shown more ability to start moving his game inside, which he needs to do with a 7-foor-6 reach. Charles is going to become, I think, a major component of what happens."

***Without 7-3 Hasheem Thabeet in the middle, UConn's defensive approach will have to be different.

"Now, everybody has to play real defense," said Gavin Edwards. "Everybody has to stay in front of their man now.

***Kemba Walker, on a number of different subjects:



***Calhoun said that little-used 7-foot senior center Jonathan Mandeldove "tentatively" will not play the first semester. Mandeldove has had some academic issues.

***Asked to put a number on what he'd like to average scoring and rebounding, Stanley Robinson said: "16 or above, along with at least 7, 8 rebounds."

Checked out some pick-up games at Gampel today. Everyone was accounted for, as the players had their media guide pictures taken beforehand. Here are some observations:

***Ater Majok, now sporting corn rows, looked real good around the rim with some nifty putbacks, a few nice moves and some alley-oop jams. He could be the wild card for the Huskies this season once he's eligible in mid-December. But then, that's not exactly a news flash.

***Jerome Dyson looked good, knocking down some long-range jumpers. Didn't take it to the hole too much. He hurt his ankle early on and got some medical attention, but continued playing after that and seemed fine (though he did seem to be limping a bit when he was all done).

***Alex Oriakhi is a Man. Capital "M."

***I've been singing the praises all summer in this space of Darius Smith, and I'll continue to do so. He looked good, particularly defensively, made some nifty passes (and a few freshman mistakes). One thing is beyond doubt, however: Smith has got to put on some muscle. If he's more than 160 pounds right now, I'd be shocked.

***Kemba Walker knocked down a few outside jumpers, but missed badly on a few, too. If he can improve his outside shooting this season, that's a big plus.

***The games were pretty intense, particularly for pick-up games in early September. Lots of disputed foul calls, and some hard-nosed defense.

***Smith, Oriakhi and Jamaal Trice are rockin' the Mohawk look. Is it a freshman thing?

***Doug Wiggins played in the games. Looked good, for what that's worth.

***I'm not sold on Charles Okwandu as the starting center yet, but it was just a small sample. And no miracle improvement from Jonathan Mandeldove, either. Gavin Edwards didn't do much today. Again, a small sample.

***The Huskies' 2009-10 schedule will likely be released tomorrow (Thursday).

***Some interesting words from Stanley Robinson, on whether he ever intended on going to the NBA after last season: "I always wanted to come back, because I felt like I owed something to the program that I haven't shown them yet. I'm not in a rush, the NBA's going to be there. But Coach Calhoun, at the banquet (in May), he was saying, 'The scouts keep calling me, it's crazy, (saying) you're a top-15 prospect.' He was like, 'I'm glad I told you now, so you won't put your name in the NBA draft,' because the deadline had passed … But I was going to come back anyway."

Check out tomorrow's Register for a mini-feature on Stanley.