SUPER BOWL 2012

A day after the Celtics' 95-91 win over Chicago at the TD BankNorth Garden, Ray Allen found time in his schedule to drive down to Gampel Pavilion to sit through UConn's practice on Monday, then deliver a 20-25 minute speech to the team afterwards in the locker room.

“It was vintage Ray Allen, it was a classic talk," reported associate head coach George Blaney. "That’s what Jim (Calhoun) has built here: the family atmosphere of great, great players that have done tremendous things for the state of Connecticut and have gone on to even do greater things in the NBA, and still have that feeling of closeness to the team."

Allen touched on numerous topics: getting through tough times, how to communicate with teammates, his relationship with current Celtics players and with UConn assistant coach Kevin Ollie, his former UConn teammate.

He also instilled in the team the belief that this season is far from over.

“He said you’ve got to bring it every day," said Ryan Boatright. "Just because we’re down right now doesn’t mean we can’t turn it around. He gave us two examples: the team last year with Kemba, and the New York Giants. They lost four straight in the regular season, now they’re the Super Bowl champs. He told us to keep fighting and we can turn this whole thing around if we come together as a team.”

Tyler Olander said the biggest thing he took from it was "trusting each other, keep playing basketball. He reminded us that in the game of basketball, mistakes happen. Even at his level in the NBA, people shoot air balls, people dribble off their foot, but you’ve got to keep playing through that. We’ve let mistakes get to us and bring us down, so that was good to get our minds on that.”

Blaney pointed out Allen's high praise for Ollie.

"He really went on a lot of different areas: the players on the Celtics team, a lot about Kevin (Ollie), what Kevin meant to him as a player – how Kevin drove him to be better than he was, that Kevin’s work ethic and his ability to make me work harder was something that is still ingrained in me today. To me, that was a great tribute to Kevin.”

And the fact that Allen decided to make the trip to Storrs at all was "a tribute to Jim (Calhoun) and how he’s built this program, and the kind of players that he’s had in this program that still want to give back.”


Added Boatright: “That was good, just to know that the guys that went through here still pay attention to us. For him to take time out of his busy schedule to come talk to us, to try to help us get back on track, we really appreciated it.”

Blaney noted that Allen said when the Celtics played Memphis recently, he and Rudy Gay were talking at midcourt about the UConn game they had watched the night before.

"The college players all watch the NBA," Blaney said, "and the NBA guys all watch college games."

Andre Drummond sat out of Monday's practice with his sore right ankle, but it gave him the chance to talk to Allen throughout practice.

"We were just running through a bunch of topics," Drummond noted. "After practice, he was talking to the guys, saying we’ve got to pick each other up, we can’t talk down to each other. You’ve got to know who to talk to in what ways, and that things will click for us after we start trusting each other more.”


Added Olander: “That was a real good experience, just to have him come, with all his knowledge and experience and all the things he’s accomplished, just to get our minds right again, tell us forget about things that have happened and to move on as a team. It was special to have him there to get us re-focused on what we have to do to get through the rest of the season.”


*** As for UConn's walking wounded, Jeremy Lamb's sprained right toe has improved, according to trainer James Doran, and he was expected to give it a go at practice today. Same with Drummond, though the team is being more cautious with him.

"It tweaks sometimes when I make the wrong step," Drummond said, adding that he'll likely "go in spurts" today in practice.

Drummond said on Sunday, the day after he turned his ankle up in Syracuse, his ankle really hurt and he could barely get out of bed.

“I told James, you might wanna come get me, because I can’t walk," Drummond said with a smile. "I’m struggling to get out of my bed. He loosened it up for me. He’s a great trainer, because if I was on my own, I’d still be stuck in my room to this day.”

Also, Roscoe Smith was pulled out of practice with a sore left Achilles tendon on Monday, and it wasn't known whether he'd practice today.

***UPDATE*** Lamb and Drummond both got through practice on Tuesday, though it was a struggle for both (particularly Lamb). Smith did not practice and appears questionable for Wednesday's bout with DePaul.

Today was 'The Boat Show,' no question about it. We'll get to Ryan Boatright (who confirmed that is his nickname) later. For now, let's get to the even bigger surprise of the day.

The UConn beat writer contingent was convinced that Jim Calhoun would come in breathing fire after the game, despite the Huskies' 13-point win over Arkansas. UConn, after all, had been beaten 47-35 on the boards. Worse, they were outrebounded on the offensive glass by a whoppiing 27-4 margin.

Instead, here's how Calhoun started his postgame presser:

"In sum total, I would say that might be our best game."

Huh?

He continued: "The 15 turnovers, which are heading down to where I want them, at least four or five of them were beautiful passes that just went off guys' hands inside the post."

As for the rebounding: “We’ve got to catch the ball inside, and we’ve got to rebound. Otherwise, in a game where we got beat by 12 on the glass, I’m not as disappointed, because I can see the rebounds, I can see our heads under the net. You can’t rebound under the net, and we’ve got to do a much better job of that.”

And, as Arkansas coach Mike Anderson pointed out: “We missed a lot of shots (53), so there were a lot of rebounds to be gotten, I guess.”

True enough. And I can see Calhoun's point. There were a lot of good signs for the Huskies today, starting, of course, with Boatright and moving on to UConn's three-guard attack of Boatright, Napier and Lamb, who were never really rattled by the Razorbacks' aggressive, pressure style.

It's a real good sign, in fact, that Napier seemed perfectly willing to relinquish the scoring burden to Boatright and even Tyler Olander (career-best 12 points) while picking his spots carefully (taking just six shots, making three). Lamb was also saddled with foul trouble, DeAndre Daniels and Roscoe Smith were just about invisible, so it was good for UConn to get scoring from other sources.

And they have a lot of sources. Seems this could be the type of team that will be led by its superstar (Lamb) and get contributions from various other players on any given night.

Niels Giffey was a positive, as well. Shackled to the bench for the entire Florida State game, as well as the first 16 minutes of the first half Saturday, he wound up contributing with four points, two boards and some generally solid overall play -- particularly on defense.

In fact, Calhoun strongly considered starting Giffey over Daniels until backing of at the last minute.

“Niels hasn’t seen the light of day much. He’s had four good practices in a row. We were talking to him about starting him over DeAndre – who we think is going to be a very good player, he just needs to understand the level we’re playing at is highly different.”

“My assistants kept saying to me, and they were 100-percent right – for once – to leave Niels in on defense, because he’s doing a great job."

As for Boatright, what more can you say -- 23 points, six assists, five rebounds, two steals, boundless energy. He's fearless taking the ball to the hole yet looks for his big men inside more than any of UConn's guards. He is the real deal.

“Ryan was pretty special,” said Calhoun. “He has those Allen Iverson kind of things where his athletic ability just allows him to do some pretty special things that you don’t normally see.”

Said Boatright: “I play with heart, so I never surprise myself. I came from high school scoring 40, 50, so I know I can score. But it’s not really about me scoring 23, as long as we got the ‘W’, I don’t care if I had three points, as long as we won, I’d be fine.”

Added Anderson: “He really gave them a big-time lift … I saw the game he played against Florida State and I thought he was the difference in that game, as well. He’s a good, crafty little guard. With Shabazz and him on the same team, and then you’ve got a guy like Lamb that can knock it down at any point in time, that’s a good tandem there.”

No doubt about that.

Calhoun mentioned how Boatright was going up against Ray Allen at Gampel the other day.

“He was saying ‘Ray, I got ya.’ (He was) going into Ray Allen. Not many guys can do that with Ray. They were kidding back and forth, but the point being: all he’s been doing through this whole process is, ‘Coach, get me on the floor.’ He never said a word about starting – obviously, I wouldn’t have listened to him anyway – but still, a lot of kids come back and say things.”

Upon taking over as school president in June, Susan Herbst created a President’s Athletic Advisory Committee, comprised by some of the university’s most well-respected faculty members. The committee implemented a plan aimed to improve UConn’s APR in men’s basketball – and, indeed, for all sports – moving forward.

While it's obviously still very early to see the fruits of this plan, all signs point to UConn being on the right track. Nothing will be official until the spring, but we're told that the Huskies' APR for the 2010-11 team should be 975. Donnell Beverly and Charles Okwandu have both graduated, and while Kemba Walker hasn’t earned his degree yet, he left the program in good academic standing.

The only point UConn will likely loss will be for Jamal Coombs-McDaniel, who didn’t have a high enough grade-point average before transferring to Hofstra, according to a source.

(UConn in the clear for this season's NCAA tourney)

Even with this improved APR, however, it won’t be enough to lift the Huskies’ four-year rolling average above 900. Don't forget: while adding the 975 score, UConn will lose a decent 946 APR from the 2006-07 team.

Here are the five aims of UConn's APR plan, and what UConn has already done (or not done) to make strides on each point:

* Ensure that student-athletes who leave to pursue professionally opportunities are academically eligible as they depart the University. (Kemba Walker left in good academic standing)

* Actively encourage former student-athletes who have exhausted their eligibility to return to the Institution to complete their degree programs by utilizing the National Consortium for Academic and Sport Degree Completion program. (It doesn't appear any recent players have come back to complete their degree. That Scott Burrell finally earned his diploma a few years ago and Ray Allen has apparently talked about doing the same is something the university is happy about and wholeheartedly encourages -- and may even earn them some "bonus points" -- but doesn't have much if any effect on the APR)

* In order to make significant progress toward graduation, continuing student-athletes will be required to enroll in a minimum of nine credit hours during summer school.

* Provide enhanced academic support services (Study Skill techniques, Freshman Year Experience classes, etc.) in the summer prior to initial full-time enrollment and the fall semester of the student-athletes freshman year.

* Decrease the number of student-athletes who transfer from the institution with eligibility remaining. (Coombs-McDaniel still earned the program three out of four points)

So I’m doing a UConn season preview for Lindy’s, and they ask that we list the team’s key statistics from last year and how they ranked both in conference and nationally.

Come to realize that UConn didn’t shoot the ball well last year (44.4 percent, 11th in Big East, 182nd nationally) and was even worse from beyond the arc (32.9, 12th Big East, 221st nationally).

The Huskies didn’t score particularly well (72.4 ppg, 7th, 74th), weren’t as menacing as they usually are defensively (64.9, 6th, 84th), and didn’t dole out a whole lot of assists (13 per game, 13th, 155th). Even their usual rebounding dominance was a bit down – their rebounding margin of 4.4 per game was fourth in the Big East.

And while the Huskies were second in the Big East and 11th nationally in blocked shots, that’s a far cry from leading the nation in the category, as they had done several times over the prior decade.

So how in the world did UConn win a national championship last season? Oh yeah … Kemba.

To be fair, UConn did lead the Big East and was 11th nationally in free throw percentage at 76.3 percent. And they turned the ball over just 11.4 times per game, second in the conference.

I realize numbers don’t always tell the whole story … which again leads us back to Kemba and the remarkable leadership, clutch play and intangibles he brought to the table. Despite all the talent returning next season, not to mention the two blue-chip recruits UConn is bringing in, the loss of just that one player will be incalculable. Nobody in the history of the program has meant more to a single team than Kemba did last year – and that’s saying a lot, as this program has churned out Ray Allen, Emeka Okafor, Ben Gordon … you know the list.

I think Shabazz Napier and Ryan Boatright are as good a replacement as you could find, but losing Kemba Walker will still be a lot to overcome. Think about how much Jeremy Lamb benefitted from defenses keying on Kemba. Lamb is great, and he can certainly create his own offense, but it will be a different challenge for him next year as “The Man.”

Think about who’ll have the gumption to step up and hit all those clutch shots. Who’ll take the team by the reins like Kemba did last winter, when he steered it away from all the nonsense that was going on within the program (and it goes deeper than you might imagine) and kept the Huskies' eyes focused on the prize?

Questions that need to be answered. The talent is there – even more overall talent than last year’s team – and there’s no doubt the Huskies will be one of the top teams in the country. Just be careful with any Final Four expectations.



Oh, a couple of other numbers for you: I’ve never been big on knowing and remembering uniform numbers, but some people are. With that in mind, we’ll tell you that DeAndre Daniels will be sporting No. 2 for the Huskies this year and Boatright will wear No. 11.

Jim Calhoun participated in his fifth annual ride and walk against cancer on Saturday. Starting amidst a torrential downpour ("I'm a rain-maker," he noted), the clouds were clearing by the time he finished his bike ride.

Fitting, as things couldn't be much sunnier for the UConn men's basketball program these days.

Here's a little of what Calhoun said on a number of topics Saturday afternoon in Simsbury:

(On what he's telling prospective recruits about his future at UConn)

“Whatever answer I’m giving them, apparently, they like it.”

(On the Huskies' program as a whole)

“I want the program to be like Carolina’s and, somewhat Duke, but more like Carolina’s in the sense that Bill Guthridge went to the Final Four when Dean (Smith) left, Matt (Doherty) had a really great year then a not such a great year and Roy (Williams) came in and they moved on. What we’re selling in our situation is the ability to get you ready to succeed, get to postseason play and get to the NBA. We had a pretty good year this year doing that.”

“The program is exactly where we want it to be.”

(On the team's APR situation)

“We just need some change, so that we don’t have a situation like we did with the APR. Not drastic change, just change. It’s actually already built in there, we’ve just got to get everybody aboard.”

“Having Susan (Herbst, the school's incoming president) out here like this is, I think, terrific. She was at the Final Four, at the Big East. We need people to be active, just like our coaches are active.”

(On the recruiting efforts of Kevin Ollie and Glen Miller)

“They’ve done a terrific job, I didn’t expect anything less. When Kevin Ollie talks, you’re going to listen … (Glen) knows the terrain, he knows what he’s doing, he’s smart and he’s a great basketball guy. I thknk a lot of times we lock too many things into Kevin Ollie, Glen Miller or whomever it may be. It’s UConn. We happen to have very good guys in place, doing a wonderful job. But we’ve had other good players come in before. We got Ray Allen, we got Emeka, we got Ben Gordon ... we've got some guys who can play a little bit. I’ve always said that one of the greatr recruiting jobs of all-time in recognizing that he would be good was Andre (LaFleur) with Hasheem Thabeet. I didn’t’ see what he saw. He saw that, and plenty of other coaches didn’t see that. He did.”

Jim Calhoun is feeling pretty well these days. And why wouldn’t he? Fresh off his third national championship, the UConn men’s basketball coach says he’s as healthy as ever.

“I’ve always worked out,” he pointed out, “but now I’m at a level that I was about 25 years ago.”

One of his favorite modes of exercise is bike riding (“My wife says I’m trying to ride my bike away from age,” said Calhoun, who turned 69 last month), and he’ll be pedaling away on Saturday at the fifth annual Jim Calhoun Cancer Challenge Ride and Walk in Simsbury.

The event will be held at Simsbury Meadows on Iron Horse Blvd. and feature four different bike rides (10, 25, 50 and 75 miles) as well as a 5K walk/run. All proceeds benefit the Carole and Ray Neag Comprehensive Cancer Center at the UConn Health Center in Farmington, as well as Coaches vs. Cancer, an American Cancer Society program.

“From my position as head coach at UConn, I can do good things,” Calhoun said. “This is really, really special for us. Being a survivor of cancer, losing my college roommate this past fall and my sister-in-law this past winter, (I realize) cancer strikes all of us. It’s very difficult.”

Organizers are expecting over 1,000 riders and walkers, including Calhoun (who says he’ll do either the 25-mile or 50-mile bike ride), assistant coaches Kevin Ollie and Glen Miller and other former players, including Donny Marshall and, possibly, Ray Allen.

“The only time Ray hasn’t done it is when he’s been in the NBA Playoffs,” said event spokesman Peter Gold.

Obviously, that won’t be a problem for Allen this year.

The 75-mile ride begins at 8 a.m., followed by the 50-mile at 9, the 25-mile at 10 and the 10-mile at 10:30. The 5K walk/run will also being at 10 a.m.

All participants will receive a free gift bag and an invitation to a special UConn men’s basketball closed practice in October.

The event also includes a cookout featuring Price Chopper’s famous “House of Barbecue,” live music from the Timmy Maia Band, hot-air balloon rides, children’s activities and more. Also, the UConn Health Center Department of Dermatology will offer free skin cancer screenings from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m.

And, all three trophies from UConn’s national championship seasons – 1999, 2004 and 2011 – will be on display.

To register, or for more information, visit www.calhounridewalk.com or call Gold, Orluk & Partners at 860-674-1500.

*** Calhoun will also be an honored guest tonight at the Franciscan Sports Banquet and Silent Auction at the Aqua Turf Club in Southington. Quinnipiac head coach (and former UConn assistant) Tom Moore will receive the Franciscan Life Center’s St. Francis Award and Ollie will receive the Jim Calhoun Community Service Award.

The event starts with a silent auction, beginning at 5:30 p.m. Items include signed jerseys from C.C. Sabathia and Carl Crawford, a signed baseball from Albert Pujols and autographed pictures of Ted Williams and Mickey Mantle.

Dinner begins at 6:30 p.m. Tickets are $60 per person (children under 12 $30).

The NBC Connecticut Jim Calhoun Cancer Challenge Ride and Walk will be held on Saturday, June 11 in Simsbury.

There will be rides of 10, 25, 50 and 75 miles and a 5K walk/run. Walkers are encouraged to bring their children and/or their dogs. The day will culminate with a summer cookout featuring the famous House of Barbeque, hot-air balloon rides, ice cream provided by Ben and Jerry's and live music by the Timmy Maia Band.

Calhoun will be riding, along with several of his assistants and former players. In the past, Ray Allen, Kevin Ollie and others have taken part in the event. Jim's wife, Pat Calhoun, along with Joe D'Ambrosio and Kevin Nathan will be leading the walk.

To register for the ride or walk/run, visit the NBC Connecticut Jim Calhoun Cancer Challenge Ride and Walk website at www.calhounridewalk.com. All riders, walkers and runners will receive a gift bag as a thank you for participation. Every participant will also be invited to a special closed practice and pizza party with the 2010 2011 men’s team in October, 2011. That event concludes with a pizza party in Gampel Pavilion.

The event has raised more than $850,000 since its inception in 2007.

To register or find out more about the event, please visit www.calhounridewalk.com, or call Gold, Orluk & Partners at 860-674-1500.

Some things to know about the Arizona Wildcats:

*** Derrick Williams is an absolute beat and promises to be an extremely match-up for UConn. So why don’t we hear more about him? Plain and simple, East Coast media bias. If he played in the Big East, ACC or even the Big 10, his 32-point, 13-rebound domination of Duke Thursday night would have hardly come as a surprise. As it is, many sports fans on the East Coast are probably just getting to know him.

*** For all that Williams does well – and there’s a lot – getting to the foul line is one of his best assets. Williams led the nation in free throw attempts this season with 319, and he hit 238 of them for a 74.6 percentage.

“It’s just being aggressive, really," Williams said. "I try to get to the free throw line to take a break, really. Whenever I get to the free throw line, it gives our whole team a break, and we get right back to it. Hopefully, I knock down two free throws and it’s positive.”

*** Alex Oriakhi said he'll draw the early assignment on Williams, though the Huskies are hoping Williams fell in love with the 3-pointer (he hit five vs. Duke) and stays out on the perimeter most of the game.

“I’ve seen him out on the wing. He looks like a 3 to me,” Oriakhi said. “I’m definitely going to have my hands full, especially out on the perimeter. But if he’s able to go by me, Roscoe (Smith) said, ‘I’ve got your help defense.’ Me and Roscoe both help each other out when our man is able to go by us.”

*** The Wildcats looked good – real good … as in, unstoppable good – in Thursday’s 93-77 whitewash of Duke. But it hasn’t all been rosy for the Wildcats this season. They had one of the worst losses I’ve seen this season back on Feb. 26 when UCLA trounced them, 71-49. It was an embarrassing performance by the ‘Cats, their second loss in a row. They have, of course, won seven of eight since then and may just be peaking at exactly the right time.

Sound a little like a team we know?

*** Arizona has lost its last two regional finals (in 2003 to Kansas and in 2005 to Illinois). The ‘Cats are also 0-2 in regional finals here at the Honda Center (Kansas in ’03 and Utah in 1998).

*** Sean Miller is one of the few college coaches whom Jim Calhoun also coached against as a player. Neill Ostrout’s crack research revealed that Seton Hall’s Kevin Willard is another. We’re trying to think of some more, but coming up blank. There almost have to be a few others. Can anyone think of any?

*** ‘Zona can shoot. It hit 40.3 percent of its 3-pointers this season and eclipsed 60 percent from beyond the arc five times. It’s hit 10 or more treys a dozen times this season. The Wildcats also hold opponents to 29.3 percent shooting on triples.

*** Every four-year player at Arizona since 1985 has played in at least one Sweet 16 in his career in Tucson. Pretty impressive.

And a tale of the tape between the Huskies and Wildcats:

NCAA titles: UConn 2, Arizona 1

Final Fours: UConn 3, Arizona 4

Elite Eights: UConn 10, Arizona 9

NCAA tourney appearances: UConn 30 (one has been vacated), Arizona 27 (two have been vacated)

Current players in the NBA: UConn 11, Arizona 10.

Most NBA draft choices since 1989: UConn 24, Arizona 31

Best pro ever: Ray Allen or Sean Elliott (or maybe Gilbert Arenas?). Elliott had a nice, long career and won an NBA title with the Spurs, but Allen is a Hall of Famer.

Better Kahlid: El-Amin or Reeves? Reeves averaged 24.2 points per game as a senior in 1993-94, but El-Amin engineered the Huskies' first national title in '99.

All-time series: UConn, 4-0. The two teams have never met in the NCAA tournament -- until Saturday night.