UCONN Men Subdue The Bulls

In front of a sell-out crowd an announced crowd of 15,174 at the Hartford Civic Center, the UCONN Huskies bounced back from their loss on Saturday to defeat the South Florida Bulls 69-50. Jeff Adrien led the way for the Huskies with yet another double-double, 16 points and 15 rebounds. Jerome Dyson also chipped in 16 points. AJ Price rounded out the Huskies in double figures with 10 points.

Before I get into my notes and observations I would like to say this. I watched the game on television and noticed a lot of empty seats at the game. At one point they panned into the 300 level of the Hartford Civic Center and most of it was empty. So for UCONN to announce a crowd of 15,174 when there was easily at least 2 to 3 thousand empty seats in the place. It brings me back to my minor league baseball days when I would attend the New Britain Rockcats games that had the 2,000 fans and the GM would announce a sell-out.

Notes and observations:

• The starters were the usual five: Price, Dyson, Johnson, Thabeet, and Adrien.
• Jonathan Mandeldove was the first off the bench tonight because Thabeet picked up a quick foul early on.
• Hasheem Thabeet blocked 5 more shots tonight. Ironically enough, the second leading person with blocked shots, McHugh Mattis, played for South Florida. He also blocked 5 shots as well.
• Doug Wiggins had another solid effort of the bench scoring 9 points.
• 9 players played in double figure minutes tonight. This should be the trend as the Big East season wears on.
• Besides scoring 10 points, AJ Price added a career high 8 rebounds.
• UCONN’s free throw shooting was a little improved over the last game. They were 10 of 16 (62.5%) from the line. I am sure Coach Jim Calhoun is not happy about this still.
• Hasheem Thabeet was absolutely leveled by South Florida’s Kentrell Gransberry going up for a dunk late in the second half. Gransberry was called for an intentional foul and Thabeet had to be helped from the floor. He did return to the game later on.
• Jim Calhoun is now 3 wins away from 500 in his UCONN coaching career. Overall, he has 745 wins in his career.

With the win, the Huskies move to 12-1 (1-1 Big East) on the season. Next up for the Huskies is a nationally televised game on Saturday night at 9 P.M. The game will be broadcast on ESPN and ESPN College Game Day will be there.

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