Uconn - Pregame Links

Call it the Attack of the Assistants.

The Battle of the Backups.

Or the Showdown of the Substitutes.

But when St. John’s visits UConn Saturday afternoon, neither team will have its head coach.

St. John’s assistant Mike Dunlap continues to coach the Johnnies while head coach Steve Lavin recovers from prostate cancer surgery.

Meantime, UConn associate head coach George Blaney is running the Huskies while head man Jim Calhoun sits out a three-game Big East suspension stemming from NCAA violations.


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“I’ve actually been texting Calhoun the last couple days,” Lavin said Nov. 9, the day he returned to coach his first game, a 78-73 win over Lehigh. “He reached out yesterday and we kind of texted as well today and I was asking him when he felt that he was back at full strength and he said it took about three months.”

Read More:
http://www.zagsblog.com/2011/12/30/blaney-vs-dunlap-a-showdown-of-substitutes/#more-64175

http://blogs.rep-am.com/time_out/2011/12/30/game-preview-uconn-men-host-st-johns/

Local Connecticut paper.

In another one of those games that may have looked easy when the schedule was drawn up, the UConn men's basketball team will be up against a more challenging opponent now that New Year's Eve, and St. John's, is upon them.

After all, not until Thursday night did we know that St. John's, with one of the youngest rosters in its long basketball history, would begin Big East play with a 24-point blowout of Providence, or that freshman Moe Harkless would score 32 points — a record for a freshman debut in Big East play.

http://www.courant.com/sports/uconn-men/hc-uconn-men-1231-20111230,0,871350.story

Learning to play defense at the major-college level comes as a shock to the system of most incoming recruits, so imagine the problem for a St. John's team with five freshmen and one junior-college transfer in a seven-man rotation. But the Red Storm's young players proved they are willing to work at it in their 91-67 blowout of Providence in Tuesday's Big East opener.
Now St. John's kids will try to take a huge leap up against defending national champion Connecticut at noon Saturday in Hartford. The No. 9 Huskies (11-1, 1-0 Big East) have a significant size advantage and preseason All-American Jeremy Lamb, who is averaging 19.3 points and shooting 51.6 percent from the field, plus 6-10 freshman center Andre Drummond, a 60.7-percent shooter.

http://www.newsday.com/sports/college/st-johns/st-john-s-faces-tough-task-at-uconn-1.3419663

Big East play just started and the Huskies are already banged up.
Sophomore forward Roscoe Smith missed the past two practices with a left wrist injury and point guard Shabazz Napier practiced only 40 minutes on Friday due to left foot injury that he suffered against South Florida on Wednesday. Smith is listed as day to day while Napier, who is "fine," according to associate head coach George Blaney, will likely play when the No. 9 Huskies host St. John's today at noon in Hartford in their second Big East game.


Read more: http://www.ctpost.com/uconn/article/Smith-Napier-ailing-as-UConn-hosts-St-John-s-2433547.php#ixzz1i4pxLIV6

Records were made to be broken, and Moe Harkless proved that in his Big East debut by scoring 32 points to set a new standard for freshmen playing in their first game as a member of what has been described as the best conference in the nation.

Harkless’ St. John’s team used the career night to their advantage on the way to a 91-67 victory over Providence in their Big East opener.

Read More:
http://johnnyjungle.com/columns/calm-before-the-storm/red-storm-look-for-2-0-big-east-start-against-reigning-national-champion-uconn/

shame on the Post for not covering this game at all in the Sat morning edition

College basketball coaches can be the high priests of hyperbole but Red Storm coach Steve Lavin was in an emotional waste dump the first time he got to see Maurice Harkless play in person.
It was June 5, 2010, the day after John Wooden, Lavin’s mentor, and arguably the second most influential person in his life after his father, Cap, passed away.
Lavin knew it was coming. We all did. Wooden was 99. His teachings will live forever but his time had come.
When someone of that stature — someone who has helped you master your craft and measure yourself as a man — leaves this earth, it’s always a blow to the soul.


Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/sports/college/basketball/moe_turning_heads_OLEwtc5MKrrRXLZxOAVcUP#ixzz1i7qOnW6v