25 points, 20 boards, and 9 swats in Saturday’s win over Seton Hall. Though Connecticut could be in trouble further down the road (actually as soon as Monday vs. Pitt) with Jerome Dyson out for the season. A.J. Price and Craig Austrie (Dyson’s replacement) were a combined 4-20 from the field. If UConn is to stay on top, Thabeet, along with Jeff Adrien (14 points and 15 boards on Saturday), are going to need to be sensational in every way imaginable. Losing Dyson is bigger than pundits seem to be leading on.

6′10 sophomore Blake Griffin

In 31 minutes against Texas Tech on Saturday scored 40 (16-23 fg), grabbed 23 boards, and basically had a whole segment of Sportscenter all to himself. Is it just me or is he the next Amar’e Stoudemire?

6′4 junior Jodie Meeks

Against Arkansas on Saturday poured in 45 (17-24 fg), hauled in 7 boards, and swiped 3, all without the services of Patrick Patterson (sprained ankle). Averaging over 25 ppg while being the number one target on opponent’s scouting reports. Made a disgustingly difficult shot to beat Florida on Tuesday. Do you believe the hype?

6′5 junior Joseph Harris

In a 3 point win over VMI on Saturday, the Coastal Carolina forward notched 33, grabbed 22 boards, and chipped in with 6 feeds. The win propelled the Chanticleers to 5-9 in the Big South while dropping VMI to 2nd place at 11-3.

Post from: EveryJoe

Players to keep away from small children and animals

First off, Mr. Hunter states that UConn, if they can beat Louisville tonight, will stay in the #1 slot for at least a week considering they play “lousy” teams such as Michigan and Syracuse (#20) soon after tonight’s Louisville affair. I’ll give him a slight pass at the Michigan jab (because they’re tripping mightily right now and elbowing folks left and right as well) but not the one toward Syracuse. Since when did a top 25 team become lousy? Sure, Syracuse’s current 3 game skid has been pretty dreadful but they could just as easily rattle off 3 straight W’s and be looking pretty again right back in the top 10.

My second beef includes something Kevin said about Utah State (#25). At first glance the #25 ranking for the Aggies caught me by surprise as well, but hey, 21-1 is 21-1. It’s not like they play in the Big Sky or Big West conference, this is the WAC we are talking about. Kevin’s assertion that Utah State will end up as a 16th seed basically shows me either A) he got his WAC and SWAC conferences mixed up, B) he hasn’t yet figured out that teams with sick records do not get relegated to 16th seed duty, or C) he was just exaggerating (possible) and really just intended to say that Utah State will be a first round cupcake anyways.

I’ll be optimistic on this one and say Kevin was just being facetious. But remember now, he does live in California.

Update- UConn is beating Louisville by 12 with 17 minutes to go.

Update- UConn won at Louisville 68-51.

#’s of note…

UConn…
Hasheem Thabeet- 14 points, 11 rebounds, 4 blocks, 2 steals, 39 minutes
Jeff Adrien- 18 points, 7 rebounds
20-24 free throws as a team

Louisville…
Earl Clark- 2-16 shooting
2-2 free throws as a team

Another Update- Just found this Utah State article on Storming the Floor.

Post from: EveryJoe

Head in the Sand

After this last season ended in depressing fashion for the Huskies, Hasheem knew he wasn’t ready to contribute at the next level and knew he still eagerly wanted to conquer a NCAA championship, so instead of making a few million bucks while playing sparingly for an NBA team, he decided to hop on board the college scene once again.

UCONN is talented, well represented from a point source position, has a good mix of veterans and young-uns, and most importantly, is coached by Jim Calhoun.

Not only does the team boast good guard play, they also get offensive and defensive help from the bigs.

Thabeet can take care of the paint by himself, but he does have help.

Usually unheralded Jeff Adrien was the leading scorer for UCONN last year. And not only does Jeff know how to score, he rebounds and even blocks shots too.

An efficient complimentary talent to lessen the load off of Thabeet, don’t ya think?

The Stanley Robinson situation now needs to be resolved.

Will he return in December?

2nd semester?

Having a double digit scorer who can knock down a three, block shots (1.3blk) and rebound consistently (6.5reb) will dramatically help out Thabeet, not to mention the team’s efforts to advance deep into the tourney.

But, again, defense isn’t really a concern for UCONN.

The concern is more aimed at making Thabeet into a full-fledged star.

Thabeet’s game is highly flawed, but not so demented that he will be unable to vastly expand upon his sophomore year’s accomplishments.

He started to develop a jump hook toward the end of the season, but still lacks a comfortable and dependable go-to move in the paint. Finishing at the basket is at times awkward, yet so many times he seems totally unfazed as his long arms often receive no resistance from defenders.

An area I really could see him improving in would be the free throw line percentage. He made a giant leap from the first to second year, so why not a nice little jump to about a mid 70’s ft %?

Blocks will ultimately be his ticket to the big show, however in terms of raw stat meddling, the per game blocks will not increase much, if at all, this next season. The load will continue to be helped by Adrien and Robinson, along with any contribution coming from 6’10 Frosh Ater Majok.

We all know what Thabeet’s strengths are. He won’t lose his defensive presence or his classic rebounding habits just like that.

Thabeet will do a lot of this to opposing victims, yet he needs to do more on the other end of the court to separate himself from the others.

But hopefully he knows there’s more in it for him.

His maturity and ability, and maybe patience as well, to stay in school, could symbolize his desires to aspire to that next level and put the team on his back.

God knows he could do it.

So. 10.5ppg 69.8 ft% 7.9 reb 4.5 blk

Fr. 6.2ppg 51.3 ft% 6.4 reb 3.8 blk

Hasheem’s bare minimum averages in 08/09-

14.5ppg, 74 ft%, 9 reb and 4.2 blk ????

photo credit: Newscom

Post from: EveryJoe

Could’ve been riding the pine in Toronto or Charlotte