UConn faces Detroit on Thursday at Gampel (7 p.m.) in a 2K Sports Classic game. (Here's today's game preview, focusing on the spate of hand-checking fouls currently plaguing college basketball teams, including UConn). The Titans, of course, are the last non-conference team to win a game at Gampel, a 67-61 win over the Huskies in the second round of the 2001 NIT (the team was known as Detroit-Mercy back then).

UConn isn't likely to get as much of a challenge this time around. Detroit posted its second straight 20-win campaign last season but lost high-scoring Ray McCallum to the NBA draft (second round, Sacramento) and also lost sweet-shooting guard Jason Calliste to Oregon as a transfer.

The Titans are led by redshirt-junior forward Juwan Howard, Jr. Yes, son of the ex-Fab Fiver and longtime NBA journeyman. Seems the senior Howard and fellow journeyman Kevin Ollie never crossed paths in their respective long NBA careers, though the two have long been friends.

"We were the same class, so we played a lot of AAU tournaments together," Ollie recalled. "Back then, they had the Nike camps. We'd go to Princeton, we'd always stay there and hang out together. He's always been a good friend of mine since I was in the NBA."

The younger Howard's got some game, too, averaging 20 points per game over his first two contests for the 1-1 Titans.

"He's a real big, crafty player,"Ollie said of the 6-foot-6, 210-pound junior forward. "Not an explosive player, but he's got a lot of stuff to his game, a lot of pump-fakes. He's an integral part of their offense."

Ollie was a bit more descriptive during practice.

"He can come in here and put 25 on you!" Ollie shouted during a break. "They run everything for him!"

*** Most of the talk today focused on the NCAA's new crackdown on hand-checking, which has led to a slew of fouls all over the country.

Here's what Ollie, Niels Giffey and Ryan Boatright had to say about the situation:

Ollie: "They're calling a lot of fouls. We've been fouling a lot. A lot of teams are going zone. I'm pretty much a man-to-man coach, but we've got to have that zone in our back pocket. I do have it in my back pocket, I just haven't felt the need to use that yet."

"We've got to keep adjusting to the rules, I'm telling my guys that every opportunity I get."

"Moving your feet, just keep emphasizing ... You can't just say I'm not gonna play defense because I don't want to get in foul trouble. You've got to learn to play hard, pursue the basketball, but know a foul's a mistake."

"If you're not talking, you're not playing defense. Doc Rivers used to always tell me that. He's absolutely right. You've got to talk. Our communication breaks down sometimes."

Giffey: "It affected us in the way that we really had to change our mindset a little bit. We can't use our arm guard anymore that much. You really have to work on moving your body a little more than before. It's an adjustment you have to make."

"And one thing, right now I'm really not too worried about it because if I'm getting beat, I know Amida (Brimah) is going to block the shot."

Giffey was kidding. Or, half-kidding.

Boatright: "I knew it was going to make a dramatic change in the game. I feel like sometimes it slows the game down, because there's a free throw after every possession. But at the same time, it allows the games to be a lot more high-scoring."

"It's hard, it's definitely an adjustment. But it's gotta be done. The main way you get a lot of those fouls is if you're late on close-outs. If you're closing out late, your automatic instinct is to throw your forearm out there. That's where a lot of fouls are going to be called."

A few things to know about Washington:

*** The Huskies are 8-4 and have won four straight. Those wins have come against Seattle University, Jackson State, Cal-Poly and Northern Illinois, however, so keep that in mind. In fact, Washington’s only two decent wins this season came in an overtime win over Seton Hall in the Tip-Off Hall of Fame Tournament and over St. Louis (which isn’t as good as people originally thought). The Huskies have lost to such luminaries as Albany and Colorado State (as well as Nevada and then-No. 4 Ohio State).

*** Washington is led by 6-5 junior guard C.J. Wilcox, a potential future NBA player who averages 19.6 points per game and has scored over 20 in three straight games.

What impresses Kevin Ollie the most about Wilcox?

“Nineteen points (per game) impresses me," he said. "He’s a great 3-point shooter, he’s just active, knows how to get his shot. His energy feeds right into his shot. I always look at Ray Allen, moving without the basketball, constant moving … we’re going to have to play good, solid defense against him. We can’t be late against him … we can’t have him get going.”

*** The Huskies are big and experienced, with 7-foot Aziz N’Diaye in the middle and a pair of guards (Wilcox and Scott Suggs) who stand 6-5 and 6-6, respectively. They start three seniors, a junior and a sophomore.

*** Coming off the bench is Shawn Kemp, Jr., a 6-9 sophomore and son of the former six-time NBA all-star. He’s averaging 4 points and 2 rebounds per game after missing UW’s first seven contests with a torn patella tendon in his left knee.

*** UConn is 3-0 all-time against its West Coast Husky brethren, most recently a 98-92 overtime win on March 24, 2006 in an NCAA regional semifinal in D.C. Rashad Anderson’s long 3-pointer with 1.8 seconds let forced OT. UConn also beat UW on Dec. 1, 1998 in the Great Eight in Chicago, and on March 19, 1998 in an NCAA East Regional semifinal in Greensboro, N.C.

*** A good amount of NBA scouts are expected at Saturday's game.

*** This is Washington’s second-straight game against a Husky-mascoted team!

Roscoe Smith had 14 points and seven rebounds on Saturday, but perhaps his most important statistic didn’t show up on the postgame score sheet: one charge.

In fact, the charge Smith picked up on Pitt’s J.R. Moore with 1 minute, 33 seconds left appears to be the first taken by any UConn player this season. Seriously.

“First charge we’ve taken in six months, I think,” associate head coach George Blaney quipped after UConn's 74-65 win over Pitt. He wasn’t kidding.

“We’ve been trying to get a charge out of anybody this whole season,” added point guard Shabazz Napier. “We (would) tell each other, ‘First one to get a charge, I kid you not it’s going to be big.’ And he got that charge and I couldn’t help my emotions but to jump on him and grab him and tell him, ‘You did it! You got that first charge!’ That was a big moment, a big key because we needed that stop to prevail.”

Indeed, the Panthers – particularly Moore – had been driving to the hole incessantly throughout the second half, turning a 15-point deficit into, at one point, a one-point lead. UConn led 63-61 when Smith took the key charge on Moore.

“It felt good,” Smith said. “They normally hurt, but I didn’t feel any pain. Everybody was very happy. We were kind of competing to get the first one. It was right there for me, I just stepped right in there and took it.”

Napier hit a 3-pointer on UConn’s ensuing possession, and the Huskies never looked back en route to a 72-65 win.

“That’s what you have to do, if people are driving the ball that hard,” Blaney said of Smith’s charge. “They’ve got five or six guys that can put it on the deck and put it to the rim. That remains the most difficult thing to defend in the game, the dribble-drive. To be able to step in and take the charge is very important.”

Smith has now scored in double figures in three straight games as his playing time – and confidence – increases more and more.

“He got a lot of consistent minutes last year, but he was a freshman,” Blaney pointed out. “You expect more out of a sophomore. He still was making mistakes early in the year. He’s getting saner with the ball, not turning it over.”

Added Andre Drummond: “I’m proud of that kid, man. Seriously. He played really well today.”

*** The Huskies were energized by Jim Calhoun's return to the sidelines.

“To have him on the sideline,” Napier said, “words can’t explain what he means for this team.”

Said Jeremy Lamb: "He was fresh out of surgery and still he came to coach us and gave it his all. It meant a lot, so we wanted to play hard for him."

Added Blaney: “It’s why he’s in the Hall of Fame, it’s why he understands a team, how to motivate a team. They were practically crying in the locker room, because he told them he loved them, and that’s why he came back.”

Blaney handled postgame press conference responsibilities as Calhoun, just five days removed from lower back surgery, was simply too exhausted (and emotional) to do so.

While not as active on the sidelines as usual, Calhoun was certainly animated at times – yelling at officials several times, and his players at others. Drummond knew the 26th-year, Hall of Fame head man was truly back when he heard him scream his name after Drummond took an ill-advised baseline jumper midway through the latter half.

“Oh, there he is,” Drummond thought at the time.

Calhoun’s surgeon was at the game, and afterwards told him he was concerned “when you were running up and down the sidelines,” according to Blaney.

“He was clear-headed, emotional when he had to be,” Blaney said of Calhoun. “To me, the only thing he did different was we put a chair out for him to sit in during timeouts … He is exhausted right now. The game’s exhausting, anyway, but to be coming off of surgery, that really can get you.”

But Calhoun told his players on Friday that he’d do anything he could to be there for them, and he came through.

“Coach Calhoun brought a lot of motivation, a lot of energy,” said Smith. “We definitely could feel it out there. It was electrifying when he first walked into practice. He definitely gave us that extra push we needed.”

Added Drummond: “It was great seeing him on the sideline. It gave us that extra spark, knowing that he was out there. Just hearing his voice again, it makes you play that much harder.”

Drummond, of course, had predicted Calhoun's return the day before.

“Should’ve listened to me the first time," he quipped. "I never doubted it.”

*** Barring a possible NIT game, Saturday was the final game at Gampel in the careers of walk-ons Kyle Bailey, Ben Stewart and P.J. Cochrane. All three, along with four senior team managers, were honored in a pregame ceremony, with Jim Calhoun presenting them gifts at midcourt.

Calhoun walked out from the locker room for the ceremony about 15 minutes before the opening tap, to a large, standing ovation from the assembled crowd. It was his first public appearance as UConn’s head coach since a Feb. 1 loss at Georgetown, and his first appearance at a UConn home game since a Jan. 29 loss to Notre Dame in Hartford.

*** Among the visiting recruits at Gampel Saturday was Sam Cassell, Jr., a Class of 2012 guard out of Notre Dame Prep in Fitchburg, Mass., and the son of the longtime NBA star.

*** Napier led UConn with 23 points in what Blaney called “one of his best games of the year.” Lamb added 14 points, Alex Oriakhi had eight and Drummond seven to go with four blocks (all in the first half). Moore led Pitt with 16 of the bench.

*** As of right now, there's still a remote chance of UConn being the No. 9 seed for next week's Big East tourney and playing Tuesday at noon. DePaul would have to beat Seton Hall tonight at 6 for there to be any chance of that happening.

More likely, the Huskies will be the 10th seed and play Tuesday at 7. They can't finish as the eighth seed.

*** We'll have some video up around 6:30 p.m.