Hoops notes: Looking at the big picture

STORRS, Conn. — So much for that tired, old sports cliché that stresses playing them one game a time. Connecticut coach Jim Calhoun blew that one out of the water Sunday, revealing an approach he used with his players that can only be described as the exact opposite.

After a 77-65 home loss to Providence that featured one of the worst defensive performances by a Calhoun-coached UConn team, the Hall of Fame coach posted a couple of lists. On one side, Calhoun wrote the remainder of UConn’s schedule. On the other side, he featured the Big East standings.

The big-picture approach worked. UConn (12-5 overall) roughed up No. 13 Marquette Sunday at Gampel Pavilion, leading by as many as 29 points on the way to an 89-73 victory that essentially keeps the Huskies in the hunt for a return to the NCAA Tournament.

“This was on Friday,” Calhoun said. “So I had no idea Cincinnati was going to win against Pittsburgh or the other scores [from Saturday]. There are some mind-boggling things going on in our league. It makes it really, really difficult because anybody can beat you.

“I don’t know the difference between Notre Dame, Georgetown, Marquette, Seton Hall. It doesn’t seem that, on a given night, that there’s going to be a difference between an awful lot of us – like maybe 13 or 14 of us.”

Georgetown, which needed a late rally and a three-pointer by Roy Hibbert to beat UConn 72-69 on Jan. 12, went into Monday night’s game against Syracuse with a 4-1 Big East record. Behind the Hoyas, three teams were 4-2, five teams were 3-2, and Marquette, UConn and Syracuse were lumped together at 3-3.

UConn point guard A.J. Price admitted he pays no attention to the conference standings “unless Coach makes me.” But Calhoun’s simple demonstration served its purpose.

“With him showing us the whole thing, he instilled in our minds that there are no easy games in this league,” Price said. “So other teams will be going through the same thing we’re going through. If we focus and put together a win streak, he was just showing us we aren’t that far out.”

Price said the Huskies were very much aware that UConn hadn’t defeated a ranked team since the 2006 NCAA Tournament. That victory over then-No. 17 Washington in the regional semifinals came with a group of players who moved on to the NBA. This group of Huskies, who fell apart last season and missed postseason play for the first time since 1986-87, simply hadn’t made a significant statement until Sunday against Marquette. Earlier this season, UConn lost to Memphis, let an opportunity get away against Gonzaga, and watched that lead disappear in the end at Georgetown.

“I was a little frustrated [with UConn’s sloppy play Sunday] at the end, and it had nothing to do with the point total. I just wanted them to have a totally dominating experience,” Calhoun said. “We haven’t had that against a team of Marquette’s [stature].”

Said Marquette coach Tom Crean: “They had a good day. They were really clicking.”

Price, finally living up to his advance billing at point guard, led UConn with 17 points against a Marquette team that lost twice last week. Forward Jeff Adrien, with a streak of five solid games in a row, and center Hasheem Thabeet each scored 15. Thabeet, still searching for consistency in his game, had seven rebounds and six blocks. Jerome Dyson, who had a miserable outing against Providence, and Stanley Robinson also average in double figures scoring to give UConn a formidable starting five.

But the Huskies aren’t good enough to overcome the type of defensive lapse that surfaced against Providence. The Friars hit 14 of 24 three-pointers and many of those attempts were uncontested.

Rather than dwell on that embarrassing detail, Calhoun asked his players to wipe the Providence game from their memory bank. With games this week at Cincinnati and Indiana, and with Louisville, Pittsburgh, Syracuse, Georgia Tech and Notre Dame on the schedule between now and Feb. 13, Calhoun decided to lay it all out in front of his team.

But he didn’t share everything that was on his mind. Late January is too early to be desperate, but Calhoun said he could feel the season slipping away.

“I didn’t tell them this, but I thought we had our backs to the wall,” Calhoun said. “If we lost two straight home games, then we were in trouble.

“There’s no easy part to our schedule. But five of our last six games are games, at least on paper, that we should be OK. But if we don’t take care of some business [in this stretch], it doesn’t make any difference if we win those games or not. We’ve got to beat some teams of significance.”

PLAYER OF THE WEEK

James Gist played an enormous role in Maryland’s big upset of North Carolina Saturday. Gist finished with 22 points and 13 rebounds for the Terrapins, who held on for an 82-80 victory over the former No. 1 team in the rankings. Earlier in the week the senior forward had 10 points and eight rebounds in Maryland’s 71-64 victory over Wake Forest.

FRESHMAN OF THE WEEK

He had 24 points, eight rebounds, eight assists, and was 13-for-17 from the free throw line. That’s all Florida’s Nick Calathes contributed to Saturday’s 81-70 overtime victory against SEC rival Kentucky. The freshman swingman played 42 minutes in the impressive outing in Gainesville. The point total matched a career-high for Calathes. Earlier in the week, he scored 16 in a loss to Ole Miss.

GAMES OF THE WEEK

Monday, Jan. 21
Syracuse at Georgetown
Road teams have not fared well in the Big East and Syracuse is coming off a crushing loss to Villanova Saturday in the Carrier Dome.

Tuesday, Jan. 22
Michigan at Wisconsin
The Badgers have been one of the big surprises of the season, with just two losses overall and a 5-0 record in the Big Ten.

Tennessee at Kentucky
Kentucky is starting to play better under Billy Gillispie but the Vols clearly are the class of the SEC this season.

Wednesday, Jan. 23
Iowa State at Kansas
The Jayhawks and Memphis are the final two undefeated teams in the country but, more than that, Kansas has won 26 consecutive regular-season games dating back to last season.

Baylor at Texas A&M
The Aggies had a tough week, losing at Texas Tech and at Kansas State. Now A&M returns home to face the surprise team of the Big 12.

UMass at Saint Joseph’s
Round Two for these Atlantic 10 Conference teams. Saint Joseph’s won the first meeting 98-92 on Jan. 9.

Thursday, Jan. 24
Washington State at Arizona
The Cougars’ only loss came at UCLA. Now Washington State hits the road in the Pac-10 to play Arizona, followed by Arizona State on Saturday.

Dayton at Xavier
Who knows what to expect in the wild Atlantic 10 Conference? These two teams appear headed to the NCAA Tournament.

Saturday, Jan. 26
UConn at Indiana
UConn’s defense will be intensely tested by Eric Gordon and D.J. White in this non-conference battle.

Gonzaga at Memphis
This is one of two big non-conference games remaining for Memphis. Can the Tigers stay undefeated?

Georgetown at West Virginia
Can Bob Huggins and the Mountaineers devise a defense to stop Georgetown center Roy Hibbert?

Sunday, Jan. 27
Duke at Maryland
The Terps already have knocked off North Carolina. Will the Blue Devils be Maryland’s next victim?

Vanderbilt at Florida
The Gators are a factor in the SEC race again after their win over Kentucky.

THEY SAID IT:

“You folks being here, seats being full for a change, really made a difference tonight.” — Texas Tech coach Bob Knight, addressing the home crowd after his 900th career win, a 68-53 victory over Texas A&M

“There were a couple of possessions where I got really mad because I didn’t think we sprinted back. One time we had two guys giving the tired signal running back on defense, and that shouldn’t happen. If you’re going to be frickin’ tired, tell me on offense.” — North Carolina coach Roy Williams after Maryland defeated the Tar Heels 82-80 for the top-ranked team’s first loss of the season.

“My mom told me she had a dream – we won and I played well. I didn’t know the game was over ‘til the game was over. That’s how crazy this was.” — Southern California freshman Davon Jefferson, after he scored 25 points to help the Trojans beat rival UCLA 72-63 Saturday.

“I think Chism had more rebounds tonight than he did during the entire month of December.” — Tennessee coach Bruce Pearl after Wayne Chism of the Vols pulled down 18 rebounds in a win over Vanderbilt. Chism had 18 rebounds in December.

“I don’t know why we’ve played well [in Hartford]. I’ll take the win and run. It’s old Big East. It’s an hour-and-a-half bus ride. It’s not driving to Boston, flying to Milwaukee, or into Detroit and then down to Louisville. Those trips are tough on everybody.” — Providence coach Tim Welsh after the Friars defeated UConn 77-65 in the XL Center. Providence has won its last three games in the building.

NOTES:

Maryland’s big upset of North Carolina means there will be a new team at the top of the rankings this week. Will it be Memphis or Kansas? The Tigers and Jayhawks are the only undefeated teams remaining in Division I. Those who simply move teams up in their ballots will vote for No. 2 Memphis. The vote here is Kansas. The Jayhawks have the deepest, most experienced team and have played dominating basketball for the past month. Like the Tar Heels, Kansas will likely run into a speed bump in conference play. Memphis shouldn’t have trouble in Conference USA but the Tigers have big non-conference games remaining against Gonzaga and Tennessee. If either, or both teams, remain undefeated as March begins, the pressure will be great. The best news? College basketball has the right system for determining a champion.

Conference play can do funny things. Take Texas A&M, for example. The Aggies were rolling along, playing solid Top 10 basketball in Mark Turgeon’s first season as coach. They were building a case as a legitimate Final Four contender. Then they lose to Texas Tech and Kansas State, falling to 1-2 in Big 12 action. Both games were on the road. Texas Tech is a rival and there was a lot of emotion in the building as Bob Knight went for career victory No. 900. But a 75-54 blowout at K-State? Michael Beasley and Bill Walker may be future NBA stars but they shouldn’t tip the scale that much against a balanced and experienced team like A&M.

Count on Billy Donovan disciple Anthony Grant getting a lot of attention in association with the South Carolina job. Grant is the hot young coach at Virginia Commonwealth. You may remember Grant was mentioned as the leading candidate at Florida when Donovan flirted with the Orlando Magic. South Carolina’s Dave Odom announced his retirement Friday, effective at the end of the season. Odom is one of the nicest guys in the business and has a lot of friends in the coaching profession. He had taken some heat for not reaching the NCAA Tournament more often, but it’s a hard job running the Gamecocks’ program. There are some big obstacles and the job search should be interesting.

The coaching stories from the West Coast just keep getting stranger and this time Pepperdine is making headlines. Vance Walberg resigned as coach of the Waves suddenly Thursday. Walberg and athletic director John Watson cited personal and family reasons. But the Los Angeles Times reported questions about Walberg’s treatment of his players. One incident described suggested Walberg made a player suck his thumb for the remainder of a practice for acting like “a baby.”

Player to remember: Dwain Williams is a sophomore guard at Providence College who missed four games with an ankle injury. Since his return to action, Williams scored 16 points against South Florida and a career-high 23 points against UConn. The 6-foot gunner from San Diego doesn’t hesitate to shoot from 25 feet from the basket – and beyond. What can coach Tim Welsh say? Williams was 11-for-17 from three-point range in those two games.

Conference to watch: The Atlantic 10 caught the nation’s eye with some impressive non-conference wins. Heading into conference play, it seemed comfortable to say the conference would get four NCAA bids. Now that the A-10 teams are beating up on each other in conference play (UMass winning at Dayton, Temple beating Xavier, Saint Louis beating Rhode Island) it will be interesting to see how the NCAA selection committee handles the conference. Quite honestly, it deserves the same respect any BCS conference would get in the same situation.

Stat of the week: George Mason’s Dre Smith made 10 three-pointers without a miss and set the NCAA record in a 96-75 victory over James Madison Saturday. The old record was 9-for-9 and was shared by Mark Poag of Old Dominion, Markus Wilson of Evansville and Donnie McGrath of Providence.

A parting shot, to those Tar Heel fans who teared up on national television after the loss to Maryland Saturday: There’s no crying in the regular season. And there’s no such thing as a perfect season when you play in the ACC. Save those tears for the NCAA Tournament. That’s when losing hurts the most.

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