The UConn Blog: FanPosts

The Senior Class: The Charges

2010-03-04T04:38:08Z

My rage has led me to think about all the things this senior class of Gavin Edwards, Jerome Dyson and Stanley Robinson have and have not done.

IN THEIR FAVOR

-Made the Final Four in 2009, overcoming the injury of Jerome Dyson

-Got UConn's first ever win at home against a #1 ranked team (Texas, 2010)

Now, let's get to all the negatives. It's quite the list.

CHARGES AGAINST

-The first Jim Calhoun team to miss postseason play since 1986-87 (2006-07)

-The first Jim Calhoun team to lose a 1st Round NCAA game (San Diego 2008)

-The first Jim Calhoun team to lose a game at the Final Four (Michigan State, 2009)

-Have not won a single Big East Tournament game

-Have not won a Big East Regular Season Championship

-Lost to Syracuse in the Big East Tournament twice

-Lost the greatest game in Big East Tournament history (6 OT)

-They have the worst W-L of a 4-year Jim Calhoun class (not counting seniors in his first 3 seasons) since the 1994-95 seniors, and need 3 wins just to TIE that class (currently 89-41)

-Have a player who will likely never win an NCAA Tournament or postseason game, and has so far only played in one (Jerome Dyson, against San Diego)

-First UConn team to lose to Duke since 1992

-Drove Jim Calhoun to a medical leave of absence

-Performed so poorly in his return game against a mediocre team (to whom they lost twice) that Calhoun called it one of the most embarrassing losses in his career

-Lost back-to-back must-win-for-NCAA hopes in their senior year, including their final regular season game at Gampel Pavillion where they blew a 13-point lead

Anything else?

Bandwagon to Omaha

2010-02-23T00:44:05Z

Basketball season has to end eventually, hopefully later than sooner, and we're months away from the football team beginning it's Big East Championship season. So what to do in the mean time?

Two options:

1. Form a dominant Connecticut based curling program in preparation for the 2014 Olympics.

2. Root for the baseball team to make a run at Big East title and a possible trip to Omaha.

Unfortunately I can't find any upcoming bonspeils in which to assert my curling prowess, so for now I'm going to attempt to preview the upcoming baseball season.

Why care about UConn baseball? The Huskies have been one win away from the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA regionals in two of the past three seasons. With a good part of their starting lineup returning and a challenging out-of-conference schedule, the Huskies have a chance at making their first regional since 1994. Bonus: It's one of the few places (and only men's sport) where you'll see the Huskies play would-be New England rival Boston College in the regular season.

THE RECAP

2009 Record: 36-24, 14-13 Big East (Eliminated in Big East Title Game 11-3 by Louisville)

Just looking at wins and losses, the Huskies had a mediocre season. They made the most of their OOC schedule but had some trouble in the Big East regular season, getting swept by both West Virginia and St. John's at home, placing 6th in the conference. Despite that record, they finished strong going 9-2 over the last 11 games and ended up in the Big East title game, showcasing some Porter-esque dance moves along the way.

THE PREVIEW

Hitting: If we know one thing it's that the Huskies will hit. They are bringing back nine hitters from a team that finished with a .318 batting average last season. George Springer and Mike Olt are the best of the group.

Springer is a Baseball America Pre-season All-Conference member, a Cape League all-star, and a top conference prospect for 2011. The sophomore was the team's best hitter last year (.358/.454/.679, 16 HR) and a coaches poll from College Baseball Insider listed him as one of the conference's best pure hitters.

Mike Olt is popping up on the draft boards after batting .301 with 8 home runs and 40 RBIs last year. Some projections have the third baseman going as high as the second round next June.

Also returning are Mike Nemeth, Pierre LePage, Joe Pavone and Matt Burnett, all of whom had plus .300 batting averages and over 24 RBIs last season.

Pitching: The biggest question this season is who's going to step up on the mound. The Huskies lost six pitchers to the MLB Draft and pro signings. Elliot Glynn will be the ace after going 5-4 with a 4.76 ERA in 12 starts last season and making the Cape League All-Star game over the summer. Sophomore Matt Barnes and his 95 mph fastball will be the No. 2 starter. According to Head Coach Jim Penders, the other starters will probably come from a pool of two tested veterans in junior lefty Greg Nappo, junior righty Bobby Van Woert and sophomore righty Dave Fischer. Freshman Pat Butler chose to come to UConn after getting drafted by the Twins and might challenge for a starting spot as well.

In terms of relief, they have to find a way to replace David Erickson's team-leading 12 saves, as well as his set-up man Dusty Odenbach (a member of the Chip Cannon best-baseball name all-stars). Sophomore Scott Oberg could step into the closer's role after leading the team with a 1.78 in 30.1 innings last year. Seniors Trent DeLazzler and Doug Jennings didn't get a lot of experience last year, but will have to step up this season. Freshmen Mike Zaccardo and Dan Feehan could see some appearances too.

Defense: The Huskies are bringing back their entire starting infield from last year. In the CBI poll, LePage was voted the league's best defensive infielder and Springer got some votes for top defensive outfielder. They finished last season 108th in the country with a .959 fielding average. I won't pretend to know much about defensive statistics but I'd assume the familiarity the players already have with each other would improve that number.

Schedule: The Huskies will face lot of tests on the road this season and they have to come out of the gate strong. Four of their first nine opponents made regionals in the NCAA Tournament last season (#13 Ohio State, Indiana, Minnesota, BC) and they'll be visiting perennial power houses Tennessee and USC. In conference, they'll have to play away games at conference favorite #16 Louisville (who they avoided in the regular season last year), USF and West Virginia. The Huskies get the projected conference bottom feeders at home, with Georgetown, Villanova, Seton Hall and Rutgers all visiting J.O. Christian Field.

Really, the tone of this season is going to be set in the first month. Baseball America is projecting UConn as an at large team, but the pitchers don't get off to a quick start and pull off some upsets at a couple of big names schools, its going to be hard for the team to make up the wins later in the season. That said, the schedule is very top heavy in terms of difficulty. If they can pull off those early upsets, they should cruise fairly easily through the second half of the season.

I'm excited for this season at least, though I think 2011 might be set up as a more successful year. A trip to the NCAA Regionals would be nice, anything past that would be icing. If UConn could produce a successful spring sport to bridge basketball and football seasons, I think we'd all be happy.

I'll leave you with this. UConn Alum and Hard Hittin' New Britain's own Jesse Carlson beating down some hack Yankee catcher.

Anonymous opposing coach: UConn is 'the team you don't want to play in the Big East tournament'

2010-02-22T21:00:44Z

SI's Seth Davis' column today pulled out the old columnist's trick of pasting together a bunch of anonymous interviews with opposing coaches to evaluate teams. Thankfully, whoever he talked to about UConn was pretty high on the Huskies:

UCONN: Their biggest weakness is they have no depth, plain and simple. They got into a bit of a funk when Jim Calhoun wasn't there, but now they're playing like UConn teams of the past. When they're playing with confidence, they can beat anyone in our league. If you zone them and you can keep them off the offensive glass, that forces them to make jumpers, and that's not their strength. They're going to lose a three-point shooting game. [Kemba] Walker is the key because he's been inconsistent with his shooting. If you can play off of him, they're easier to defend. [Stanley] Robinson is a streaky scorer, so [Jerome] Dyson has had a lot of pressure on him to carry them offensively. Their posts are young and don't really score, so if you can tough them out of there, it puts a lot of pressure on the guards. But if they're controlling tempo and getting up and down the floor and getting offensive rebounds, they can win. I've got a feeling they're going to go on a run right now. They're the team you don't want to play in the Big East tournament.

Fact: Teenage girls dislike Syracuse

2010-02-10T16:51:44Z

While this is from last year's NCAA Tournament it was the firs tthing that came up on YouTube when I searched "Syracuse sucks," and I'd like to think it's pretty amusing.

I also heard that when he's not coaching Jim Boeheim likes to deny the holocaust, not give his change to homeless people and punch babies in the face.

In all seriousness though, lucky break that 'Cuse didn't schedule LeMoyne as an actual game on the schedule, right?

UConn Hockey: Enough Is Enough

2010-02-09T09:03:38Z

I don't like the idea of sites set up to call for a coach's firing, or people saying they can do the job better themselves. But I'm writing this post because I am 100% certain I am correct on this one. It's painful to watch a program with decades of history going down the drain because the coach in charge looks like he doesn't care anymore.

No, I don't mean George Blaney.

I'm talking about Bruce Marshall. Who is Bruce Marshall? He is the winningest coach in the history of UConn Men's Ice Hockey. He led the team's NCAA-mandated jump from a middling Division III team to being the worst team in Division I.

I'm not being facetious. The University of Connecticut has the worst team in all of Division I. This year the team is 4-22-3.

4 wins. 3 ties. 22 losses.

But it would be silly to say they have the worst team in all of D-I based on schedule. After all, the Huskies play in Atlantic Hockey, which is the Great West of Division I hockey (complete with having Air Force in the conference, because when I'm thinking of the Atlantic Ocean, oh yeah, I'm thinking of Colorado Springs). As such, they are going to be playing against bigger, stronger schools (read: ones whose athletic departments care) out-of-conference.

They are the worst team based on statistics. Let me explain through the wonders of math.

UConn is 58th in the RPI. Out of 58. By a wide margin.

Despite playing an easier schedule than 6 other D-I teams.

Putting them behind American International College.

Which is an otherwise Division-III commuter school.

In Springfield.

The program has been trending downwards since the program's apex, winning the 2000 MAAC Hockey Championship at home, in front of a packed house. Unfortunately for the Huskies, the NCAA did not grant auto-bids to teams that won their conference tournaments until the next season. Little did anyone know that Bruce Marshall would oversee a program careening off the tracks after that.

Season W-L-T

2009-10 4-22-3

2008-09 9-26-2

2007-08 13-21-3

2006-07 16-18-2

2005-06 11-23-2

2004-05 11-23-3

2003-04 12-16-7

2002-03 8-23-3

2001-02 13-16-7

2000-01 12-19-4

TOTAL: Last 9+ seasons 109 wins, 207 losses, 36 ties

To be fair, this year's team is young. 18 underclassmen. No slight to these young men, they deserve a lot of credit for playing at UConn while getting no athletic scholarship assistance, despite all the past failures, just because they love the school and love their sport. They are the student-athlete pictures the NCAA tries to drill into us ad-nauseum during March, between games where one-and-dones make millions of dollars for their schools.

But the stats above don't lie. I don't expect it to get any better in the next 3 years because it hasn't gotten any better in the previous eight. Eight seasons, going on nine, is a perfectly reasonable time frame from which to conclude a change should be made.

Let Coach Marshall collect his pension, let him aid in the search, let him retire with dignity, name the rink surface for him if you'd like. But for the love of all that is Todd Krygier, make a change. Give some young assistant in Hockey East who wants a job a shot. Take a chance. Really, you can't improve on 4 wins? With a young impressionable roster? Impossible.

Long-term, I'm not expecting UConn to join Hockey East, even though their commissioner has in the past publicly opined for UConn and Rhode Island to step up and bring every state school in New England into the conference. I don't even expect a Quinnipiac-like-attention-whore push into the ECAC.

UConn has advantages over every single program in the conference. Every one. No military commitment, a bigtime athletic department committed to winning across the board, their own rink on-campus, a large school fan base to pull from and a very good academic school as well (love the LeMoyne synergy in that last link).

Can they try and at least be competitive in Atlantic Hockey? Is that really too much to ask?

If it is, then why bother. I love the program. Warts and all. But they should just drop it if they're going to let it rot. It's like leaving old tuna in your fridge because, well, you're too damn lazy to throw it out. You just get used to the smell because you tell yourself it'll change eventually.

It never does. It just smells worse.

Inspired!

2010-02-08T23:18:15Z

Inspired by your wager and upset by the lack of hate for the backwoodsmen to the north I will express my hate. How can any self respecting University of Connecticut Huskie fan show respect for a team that is so close to the Canadian border. Thats like rooting against America. I have two uncles that are "Soviet"cuse univ alums and fans and I refuse to ever agree with their crazy talk of superiority. Ever since the debacle after 6 OTs UConn seems to have a block against the described hated ones. We need for Coach Cal to lead the charge and show everyone that (like the Canadians) "the orange produce"univ are inferior and merely the hats on our head.

I can't believe this hasn't been posted yet, Tyler Lorenzen singing 'Single Ladies'

2010-02-07T19:55:59Z

Tyler Lorenzen won the Super Bowl Idol for singing Beyonce's "Single Ladies". This is right up there with the "God Damnit Donald" in terms of funny videos involving UConn alums. I also heard that as a practice squad player Lorenzen was tasked with driving one of the cars in the Saints' NFC Championship victory parade. Oh Tyler, how I miss you.
http://www.wwltv.com/video/featured-videos/Saints-TE-does-Beyonces-All-the-Single-Ladies-83486897.html

UConn men pick up PG recruit, maybe (UPDATE: Nope.)

2010-02-04T04:33:00Z

UPDATE (Thursday, 12:07 p.m.) - FEBRUARY FOOLS!

Looks like this one's a hoax, folks. If you click the link to the BE Basketball Report's commitment story, you'll see an updated version that makes it appear as if Mr. Lawhorn's Facebook and e-mail accounts have been hacked, and someone falsely claimed that Lawhorn committed to UConn.

So, uh, good one, hoax guy. You got us. I'll keep the post up for posterity reasons (because who doesn't love a good hoax?), but just know that everything below the jump (except for David Borges' denial) appears to be false.

No, not Brandon Knight, Josh Selby or Cory Joseph. Those heralded, superawesome recruits have yet to officially break our hearts and sign with other teams.

But according to Scott Procious of the Big East Basketball Report, the Huskies did receive the committment of New York City point guard Danny Lawhorn, a 3-star recruit from South Kent (Conn.) Prep.

Lawhorn is 6 feet tall, 155 pounds, and he averages 13 points, 12 assists and 5 points per game.

Procious describes Lawhorn as a defensive stopper, but it appears as if he'll be an understudy as a freshman, similar to the roles of Darius Smith and Jamaal Trice this year.

If my counting is right, this would fill out UConn's allotment of scholarships for the 2010-11 season, barring a transfer. Lawhorn would be the fifth incoming freshman, replacing the four graduating seniors on the roster (which includes 12 scholarship players currently). The article mentions that Lawhorn was originally going to classify himself as a class of 2011 recruit, but the point guard is now apparently planning on coming in next fall.

Also, this is kind of worriesome:

To be able to run the Husky offense for coach Jim Calhoun in the future, Lawhorn does need to improve his decision-making with the ball. At the Prep Showcase he was prone to questionable decisions on the fast break after making steals or pushing the ball in transition, a staple in the UConn attack.

Nevertheless, welcome aboard, Danny.

Unless, of course, you're not actually coming to UConn. So says David Borges of the New Haven Register, and rather definitively: he says UConn wasn't even recruiting Lawhorn.

Clearly, one of these reporters is right and the other is wrong. Procious has an actual quote from Lawhorn in his story, though, so I can't imagine he's just making it up as he goes along. Unless this is one of those Kevin Hart situations. And wouldn't it be awesome if it were?

UPDATE (11:55 p.m.) - The Big East Basketball Report is sticking by its story. Lawhorn informed the site of his committment to UConn Wednesday afternoon.

Lawhorn, then, would appear to be an insurance policy in case UConn doesn't land Selby, Joseph or Knight.

But were UConn to pick up one of the big three for next season, it's unclear whether UConn would stick with Lawhorn, given the glut of guards currently in the program (Walker, Beverly, Smith, Trice, Lamb).

The NCAA does not understand the concept of "equilibrium"

2010-02-01T22:14:15Z

Or at least, it seems that way, if the unconfirmed reports of NCAA Tournament expansion are to be believed.

The NCAA wants to expand to either 68 or 96 teams, depending on who you believe.

The 68-team bracket would expand the number of ultra-popular play-in games between teams you've never heard of from one to four; the 96-team bracket would create a whole new round for bracketologists to go crazy over.

The 68-team bracket isn't a terrible idea in theory, but only if you punish the last eight at-large teams by having them face off with each other. Wouldn't you much rather watch (say) Clemson vs. Minnesota for the right to take on a No. 5 seed Vanderbilt, rather than Alabama A&M-Chattanooga for the right to be destroyed by Kansas?

Of course, the NCAA geniuses will just match up the worst eight teams in the field, creating four more games that nobody will watch.

So this, to me, makes the 96-team bracket more likely. Let's do some quick math.

There are six major conferences (ACC, Big 10, Big 12, Big East, Pac 10, SEC) who suck up most of the at-large NCAA Tournament bids now. Those six conferences are made up of 73 teams at present. If you allow for a generous average of 2 bids for the other 25 leagues, at least 46 of those 73 teams (and this is about as low as it would feasibly go) are making the new-and-improved NCAA Tournament. That's roughly two-thirds of all the 'BCS' conference teams - or adding ~20 bubble teams to the tournament proper, and another 20 middling teams to the bubble.

Finish 7th in the Pac-10 (maybe not this year, anyway)? You're probably in. The 11th-place team in the Big East? Here's your bid to the national championship tournament. (I would laugh if the NIT, CBI and CollegeInsider.com tournaments all continued, sweeping up every .500 team in America.)

The tournament as constructed currently is perfection. The NCAA is going to tinker with it, even though the NCAA is a non-profit (ha!) governing body (ha!) that must balance academics (ha!) with athletics.

And yet they won't expand the NCAA Division I football playoffs from 0 teams to some reasonable non-zero number. I hate you, NCAA.

Poll

How do you like your NCAA Tournament?

Two teams, let computers decide

2 votes

Between 3 and 63 teams

0 votes

64 teams

8 votes

Between 65 and 68 teams; play-in games determine last at-large teams

5 votes

Between 65 and 68 teams; play-in games determine lambs for No. 1 seeds to slaughter

1 votes

96 teams

0 votes

Everybody gets in! Think of how cool a 340-team bracket would look.

3 votes

19 votes | Poll has closed

Frustrating!!

2010-01-13T22:05:59Z

I agree that this will be a hard fought battle to the end tonight. But, all i cant think about with this Husky team is what if or what could be. As meach had reffered to in his preview tonight against Pitt this team can hang with anybody in the country. They just can't seem to kick the other team while there down. Until Dys and Kemba stop dive bombing through three defenders and look up a little bit and obviously the frontcourt gets some balls this coach Cal team will continue to come up just short and leave us saying what if....

Kiffin to USC

2010-01-13T18:42:56Z

The blog is in full-on basketball mode now, but apparently some people still care about that whole "football" thing, and specifically, the fact that Lane Kiffin has bolted from Tennessee become the coach at Southern Cal. SBNation has a page dedicated to all the developments, check it out here.

#1 Kansas loses to Tennessee

2010-01-11T00:20:09Z

Instant analysis: Tennessee 76, Kansas 68 (ESPN.com)

Kansas becomes the millionth ranked team (including, off the top of my head, Duke, Purdue, West Virginia and some awesome Big East team from an hour southwest of Boston) to lose this weekend, this one in shocking fashion to an undermanned Vols team missing its best player.

UConn has something of a tangential interest in this result: Texas is likely to take over the #1 ranking in the polls. Assuming they can get through their early Big 12 schedule (including a tough game with Kansas State, who also lost this weekend), the Longhorns would be the first #1-ranked opponent to visit Gampel Pavilion when the two teams play Jan. 23. Get your tickets from your local scalper now.

Someone pulls lamest prank ever on Calhoun

2010-01-08T19:17:26Z

Apparently a hacker invaded the Big East conference call yesterday and took the opportunity to ask Jim Calhoun a few questions about guns. I guess. The whole thing is pretty confusing and not funny in the slightest. But check it out for yourself, here's the transcript from Adam Zagoria:

"I just want to thank you for you and your players listening to the Kidd Chris Show out of Portland, Ore., KUFO. Appreciate that.

"Talk about the Kidd Chris Show. Do you guys have guns in the locker room anymore? I don’t know what that problem is. Was that any of your problems, or was that just Kidd Chris Show."

"I’m sorry," a baffled Calhoun responded.

"Uh, you heard me, coach. Just go ahead and answer it," the caller said. "Coach, it’s the Kidd Chris Show out of Portland, Ore."

"I don’t know what you’re talking about," Calhoun said.

Leavitt fired by USF

2010-01-08T18:33:52Z

The big Big East news of the day is that South Florida fired head football coach Jim Leavitt after allegations that he mistreated a player. I'm not sure quite how South Florida was shaping up for next season, but you have to assume this will put a big dent in their prospects and it certainly can't hurt UConn's chances in the BE next year.