The No. 2 UConn Huskies men’s basketball team hasn’t exactly played it’s best basketball against the Providence Friars in the recent past and were looking to send them a message this afternoon. They did just that and more this afternoon behind the play of the big fella and the player affectionately known as “Sticks”.
Hasheem Thabeet had the finest game of his college career as the first triple-double of his career helped spring the Huskies to a 94-61 thrashing of the Friars at a sold-out Gampel Pavilion in Storrs, CT.
It was the 9th straight win for the Huskies who improve to 20-1 (9-1 Big East) while the Friars fall to 14-7 (6-3). The win should propel the Huskies to the No. 1 spot in the land after the Duke Blue Devils fell to Wake Forest earlier in the week.
Thabeet had 15 points, 11 rebounds and a career-high tying 10 blocked shots for his first career triple-double. A.J. Price actually led the Huskies in scoring with 19 points, including the 1,000th of his UConn career, and added 4 rebounds and 4 assists. Stanley “Sticks” Robinson finally broke out his slump since his return to the Huskies with 18 points, 7 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 steals and 2 blocked shots of his own.
Jeff Adrien had another fine game with 14 points, 6 rebounds, 3 assists and 2 blocked shots. Craig Austrie came off the bench to score 9 points and both Gavin Edwards and Jerome Dyson chipped in with 8 points in the finest team effort of the season for the Huskies.
Randall Hanke led the Friars with 16 points while Jonathan Kale was the only other Friar in double figures with 12 points. Sharaud Curry had 10 assists and Brian McKenzie led the team with 9 rebounds.
The two teams exchanged baskets and the lead early on (6 lead changes in a span of 4 minutes) before UConn started to seize control of the game. The Huskies were trailing 16-14 before a 6-0 mini-run gave them the lead at 20-16. UConn was able to push their lead to only 5 points as the Friars stuck around as best they could.
Providence might have gotten closer than the 5 points but the Huskies had 10 blocks in the first 16 minutes of the game, including 5 by Thabeet. The Huskies closed out the half on a 4-0 mini-run to take a 38-34 lead.
So how did the Huskies extend their 38-34 halftime lead? They used runs of 15-0 (4 in the first half and 11 to start the 2nd) and 20-0 to put the game away. The lead swelled to 37 points as it just didn’t seem like anything would go wrong for the Huskies.
Besides the fact that they were on fire, they turned their defensive pressure up to level we haven’t seen since the late 80’s/early 90’s and were just relentless. It seemed like every time Providence went inside, it was sent flying back out by someone on UConn. Plus the shots were falling for the Huskies who shot 51.3% in the second half.
I said the other day the Huskies will need Robinson to be successful to achieve their goal of winning another national championship. Today was a start and it needs to continue for him. Hopefully this gives him the confidence that he’s shown in the past.
Things won’t be easy for the Huskies though as they will head to Louisville to take on the now No. 7 Louisville Cardinals on Monday night. The Cardinals will likely move up to maybe as high as No. 3. Tip is scheduled for 7 PM and the game will be broadcast nationally on ESPN as part of their Big Monday package.
Notes and musings:
Providence Friars @ UConn Huskies 1.31.09 men’s basketball box score
The starters were A.J. Price, Jerome Dyson, Stanley Robinson, Jeff Adrien and Hasheem Thabeet.
The Huskies wore their gray alternate jerseys.
You may have noticed the coaches wearing sneakers today. They were doing that as part of the Coaches vs Cancer Suits and Sneakers Awareness Weekend.
Jim Calhoun needs just 6 wins now to reach 800 in his career and 4 wins to reach 550 at UConn.
With the 1,000 point of his career, A.J. Price is the 42nd Husky to achieve the mark.
Jeff Adrien is now 21 rebounds away from reaching the 1,000 rebound plateau in his career. With the way, he puts up double-doubles, that could happen in the next two games. He did have his 6 straight games with double-doubles streak snapped today.
This was the 2nd time in his career that Hasheem Thabeet had blocked 10 shots. It’s also tied for the best in UConn history with Donyell Marshall and Emeka Okafor.
The 17 blocked shots by UConn fell just short of the 19 blocks recorded against Notre Dame in 2006.
The UConn football team was honored at halftime for their big win in the International Bowl.
The Huskies shot 47.3% (35-74 in the game) while the Friars shot 33.3% (25-75).
UConn had 17 assists on their 35 made baskets.
The Huskies looked good at the charity stripe again as they were 19-of-24 (79.2%).
UConn won the battle of the boards 52-46.
The Huskies had just 7 turnovers in the game while the Friars only had 11.
UConn outscored Providence 44-32 in the paint and 12-8 on the fastbreak.
Connecticut has won 18 of its last 19 home games and 11 of 12 conference home games.
