Everyone was worried about how the No.1 seed UConn Huskies would play against the No. 16 seed Chattanooga Mocs without head coach Jim Calhoun, who was out due to illness. Calhoun was probably feeling a little better after watching the effort that his Huskies put forth this afternoon.
Stanley Robinson led five players in double figures with 24 points to help the Huskies to a 103-47 destruction of the Mocs to advance to the second round of the NCAA Tournament at the Wachovia Center in Philadelphia. It’s the Huskies first win in the NCAA Tournament since beating the Washington Huskies in Sweet 16 back in 2006.
The Huskies (28-4) will take on the Texas A&M Aggies on Saturday at a time to be determined. The Mocs finish up the season 18-17.
Hasheem Thabeet added 20 points, 13 rebounds and 3 blocks while A.J. Price also had 20 points, 6 rebounds, 3 assists and 3 steals. Jeff Adrien finally showed back up as he had 13 points, 16 rebounds and 4 assists. Kemba Walker rounded out the Huskies in double digits with 10 points to go along with 6 assists while Craig Austrie also had 6 assists to go with his 4 points.
The Mocs were led by Kevin Goffney’s 15 points. Nicchaeus Doaks chipped in with 9 points and 6 rebounds while Chris Early had 8 points. Mocs leading scorer Stephen McDowell had a rough game from the floor (1-for-12) and finished with 2 points.
For about the first 5 minutes of the game, it looked like the Mocs might hang around with UConn as they held an 8-6 lead with 15:18 to go in the first half. Then the Huskies went on a 10-0 run before an Early layup stopped it to make it 16-10 UConn.
The Mocs came back though as they went on a 6-1 run that ended on a Jeremy Saffore layup that cut UConn’s lead to 17-15. It was all Huskies after that as they went on a 14-0 run to open up a 31-15 lead. After Doaks made a layup to stop the run, the Huskies went on an 11-0 run to push the lead to 25 at 42-17. The Huskies would go into the locker room with a 48-20 lead.
If there was any chance of a Moc’s come back in the second half, UConn quickly put that to rest as they opened up the half with a 15-0 run in the first 4:18. After that it was just a clinic by the Huskies as the Mocs missed 27 straight shots that started with 7:45 to go in the first half and ended when Goffney made a layup with 14:54 to go in the rout.
While the Huskies were without their leader in Calhoun, the guys you expect to step up did just that. Robinson and Thabeet were outstanding on both ends of the floor. Once Price got hot, you knew it could be a long night for the Mocs and it was. Also good to see Adrien back playing some basketball instead of being invisible on the floor and stat sheet.
If there was one thing that the Huskies didn’t do well today, it was their free throw shooting (again). While it didn’t matter today, it may matter down the line and there’s no way the Huskies can shot 59.0% (23-of-39) from the free throw line and expect to win games.
Apparently the Boston Red Sox tried sneak Wes Littleton waivers and failed to do. The