Lamb and Napier lead UCONN past Marquette, 76-68

In a game marked by huge lead changes, big runs and periods of wild play, UCONN prevailed over the Marquette Golden Eagles last night in Milwaukee, 76-68. The win was UCONN's sixth straight( third straight on the road) and moved them into third place in the Big East at 5-2. Some thought it was the Wisconsin air that made the vaunted Husky defense look like Swiss Cheese for the first 12 minutes of the second half but I attribute it to the fact that UCONN's cerebral and calm Associate Head Coach, George Blaney, did not make the trip(which I immediately noticed) with the team due to "personal reasons". Since Neither Justin Kutscher or Dickie Simpkins, the two fine SNY broadcasters nor anyone on the SNY half time crew( which includes two ex Big East Coaches, Tim Welsh and Norm Roberts)noticed that Blaney was missing, I had to put in a call to Husky Athletic Director Jeff Hathaway to get the explanation. I mention this (of course, not to toot my own horn) but because I believe that Blaney is a much better x's and o's guy than Calhoun and is often responsible for important in game adjustments.
The first half was a see saw-see affair as Marquette's Dennis Johnson-Odom, who has a beautiful shooting stroke, was draining shots from all over and the Golden Eagle defense was all over Kemba Walker. Jeremy Lamb (or J-Lamb, as Walker referred to him in the Hartford Courant) was on his way to his career best game and Roscoe Smith picked up the slack. The Huskies put on a nice run before the break, Walker dropped a couple of shots and UCONN went into the locker room ahead 38-31 in what looked like a convincing lead.
In the first 12 minutes of the second half UCONN looked as bad as they have all season as Marquette turned a 7 point deficit into a five point lead(a 12 point swing) with 8 minutes to go. The pace was fast and wild, the Huskies repeatedly threw the ball away or lost it off the dribble and the Golden Eagles had several coast to coast scores with Oriakhi on the bench for a good stretch with foul trouble. I believe that had Blaney been in his characteristic spot sitting next to Calhoun on the bench he would have been much faster than Calhoun at making the needed adjustment. Finally, with eight minutes left Calhoun called a time-out and had the Huskies slow down the game. They stopped running the court wildly, re-set their half court offense every time down the floor and immediately went on a 13-0 run led by outstanding point guard play and ball distribution by Shabazz Napier. Walker started getting better shots and scored 10 points in the second half to finish with 15, Lamb had a career high of 24, including 3 treys and 9-14 shooting from the field and Smith and Lamb added 11 points each to put four Huskies in double figures. With two minutes left to play the Huskies led 68-60 and closed it out at 76-68.
For the third game in a row Walker was guarded tenaciously, denied the ball or double and triple teamed once he had it in his hands resulting in a poor shooting game with few points in the first half. The Huskies have tried to free Walker by running him around single and double screens but I believe the problem is that he starts to get tight,his legs get tired, his shot selection deteriorates and he is taking many shots moving away from the hoop and off balance after coming off a screen. When UCONN started their 13-0 run late in the second half with Napier at the point, Shabazz put the ball in Walker's hands several times at the top of the key before running screens. Walker is a more effective scorer when he starts with the ball and is moving towards the hoop; he seems to find the seams hit short pull up jumpers or draw shooting fouls with pump fakes. While the better ball distribution has helped the all important progress of Lamb, Napier, and Smith, I think the Huskies would do well to make a small adjustment early in their games to stop the trend of Walker getting off so poorly in the first 10 minutes of the game. I would give the ball to Walker at the top of the key several times early in the game and let him do his thing, mixed in with him running screens. I think this might be an antidote to his poor starts.
While those of you who have faithfully followed my blog for three years know that I am modest man and eschew the spotlight or self promotion, so it is with some hesitancy and embarassment that I include the following. After my Editor-in-chief read this blog before I posted it he was so impressed that I was the only sports reporter who noticed and commented on Blaney's absence that he insisted that I include his comments in this post. " Steve", he said, " Once again it is clear that there is a very good reason that the tag line for your blog is
"You heard it here first"
Steve