In workman like fashion the UCONN Huskies knocked off the pesky Cincinatti Bearcats tonight 69-58 to advance to the Sweet Sixteen against San Diego State. Surprisingly, Bearcat coach Nick Cronin started and stayed in a man to man defense with no double teaming of Walker for 17 minutes of the first half. The Huskies looked a little tight for the first 10 minutes but then Walker started draining good shots and Lamb hit some clutch threes to give the Huskies a 36-28 half time lead. Three minutes before the break Cronin moved the Bearcats into a trapping zone and cut some points off the lead before the break.
Cincinatti stayed in the zone for most of the second half and it took the Huskies a good 9 minutes to solve it. During this time they turned the ball over several times and Cincy took the lead.UCONN finally solved the zone by finding JCM at the foul line where he made some nice dishes and hit a couple of 15 ft. jumpers. A good Husky run created a 8-10 point lead which they never relinquished. In the last four minutes of the game Cincinatti fouled UCONN every time up the court and Walker piled up points on a perect 14-14 from the foul line to finish with 33. Lamb was consistent and kept up this incredibly high shooing percentage- tonight he was 5-7 with two threes to finish with 13 points. JCM in a fine all around performace added 10.
I was concerned that Oriakhi did not score tonight and Smith had only 2 points after two break out performances. As the Huskies move on they will need points from their front line against the better teams.
There was a good crowd at the Steep Hill dome tonight as the Bucknell Bison himself, Mike Davis, showed up after having driven directly from the Verizon center in Washington D.C. to the Steep Hill Dome, stopping only to pick up his wife Suzanne. Alan And Marilyn Goldberg were there, with Marilyn looking a bit bleary eyed from having watched every game on today. What a Fan!
As most of you know by now I am a very modest man who eschews the spotlight. However, Alan Hopkins from the NSW awards committee insisted I include a quote from a blog I wrote two weeks before the regular season ended. "I would imagine that the Pittsburgh fans ( some of whom read this blog) have high hopes this year. Sadly, the Panthers will eat their annual Big Dance apple and it will get stuck in their throats. The choking sound will reverberate all the way to Weston, Ct."
"You Heard it Here First"
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3 comments:
Outstanding reporting by the blogmaster & a very accurate account of the game's details. I, who was there, could not have recounted those facts half as well. I guess all that psychological training pays off! Go Huskies.
Steve- Look forward to your scouting report of SDSU.
On the Cinci win... 2 things standout for me.
#1 - You are correct that Oriakhi didn't score and will need to if we are going to get another win (one game a time, not looking past a very athletic SDSU team that is used to winning). Oriakhi did however pull down 11 huge rebounds, provide a defensive presence (despite foul trouble) and early in the game when it looked like Cinci may run away and hide, he got to the line. I would like to know the scoring differential when he was in the game vs. his 9 minutes on the bench (I am sure you can put some of your staff on that - my google inquiries came up empty).
#2 - If Rashad Bishop (#22 lefty small forward for Cinci) doesn't get hot (especially from 3) and score 22 points (he averaged 8.5 pts on the season) the game probably isn't very close.
Good signs that a key player doesn't score but helps in different areas and we withstand an unexpected scoring night from an unlikely guy (Bishop).
One thought looking toward SDSU: Jimmy C. vs. Steve Fisher, they don't play the game but I'll take the great St. James on that one.
Dave, I am doing some research on SDSU, as I am totally unfamiliar with them. They do rely a lot on points in the paint and although the UCONN big men don't score much they do a very good job defensively in the paint. Although they are not leading the nation in blocks this year, they still block plenty of shots and don't give up many easy baskets down low.
Your point about Oriakhi is a good one, however, I still think we need about 9-10 points from him, in addition to rebounds and defense to beat the kind of teams that lay ahead. Oakwando, although not a superstar, has made some nice progress this year, plays good defense and will get us a few buckets.
First blush is that this game will be very close but that the Huskies will move onto the Elite Eight. I'll also take Calhoun over Fischer as a game coach but without anointing him a Saint.
Steve
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