UConn Holds Off Notre Dame, 72-65

Jeff Adrien, one of three scholarship seniors honored before the game, had 25 points and nine rebounds Saturday as No.2 UConn defeated unranked Notre Dame 72-65 before 10,167 at Gampel Pavilion.

[JRobert]

Not your best guys, but way to tough it out against a determined Notre Dame team. Adrien is The Man. Unfortunately, Robinson is still a deer in the headlights. Thabeet (who supposedly can't play against the big guys) had another nice game, and it's great to see his offense coming on.

Bring on Pitt.

[JimmyJames]

ESPN: I will pay you CASH if you will please buy out the CBS contract. Seriously - how painful was it to listen to the play by play after a couple of ESPN games?

[Jamal860]

very good, tough win. nice to see the seniors go out with a win in gampel. what's up with Digger though? he swore up and down Uconn would lose today. Seems he's had it in for the huskies all season long. did Jonathan the mascot bang his wife or something? Geesh....

[canary]

Jamal860 wrote:

very good, tough win. nice to see the seniors go out with a win in gampel. what's up with Digger though? he swore up and down Uconn would lose today. Seems he's had it in for the huskies all season long. did Jonathan the mascot bang his wife or something? Geesh....

Digger has always hated UConn, he guaranteed Duke would crush UConn in 99... He still has egg on his face. Besides, his Irish can do no wrong in his eyes.

[Husky Fan Forever]

I didn't think the team was "flat." I enjoyed an exciting, competitive game. ND played a lot tougher than I thought they would, but some of those three's were pure luck.

I was a little disappointed that Haralson did not get to play more--I think he may have a lot of promise with the long ball. Sticks did OK, but will be expecting more of him. Adrien and Thabeet, of course, were great. Really enjoyed watching Walker too.

[Marc]

Haralson does show a lot of promise. i think it's good calhoun is giving him some time, but down the stretch i think he went with his more experienced players, and undestandably so. Haralson isnt a great defender but hopefully that will come and in time we could be looking at the next Rashad Anderson.

[uconn]

Husky Fan Forever wrote:

I didn't think the team was "flat." I enjoyed an exciting, competitive game. ND played a lot tougher than I thought they would, but some of those three's were pure luck.
I was a little disappointed that Haralson did not get to play more--I think he may have a lot of promise with the long ball. Sticks did OK, but will be expecting more of him. Adrien and Thabeet, of course, were great. Really enjoyed watching Walker too.

also give credit to Craig Austrie for making Clutch free throws at the end

[avid reader]

How come no post game interview with Ken (the would be photographer)Krayeske? Doesn't anyone want to know how much Jim makes anymore???

[great year]

I was at the game. The team was not flat, I just think Austrie and Robinson were controlling the ball when Price and Walker needed to be. Great Regular season. With a win against Pitt it will surpass any regular season in Uconn history. Great job!

[JRobert]

avid reader wrote:

How come no post game interview with Ken (the would be photographer)Krayeske? Doesn't anyone want to know how much Jim makes anymore???

Nope. His 15 minutes are almost up. But one of the announcers did say he listened to the entire interview several times and he saw nothing wrong with anything Calhoun said.

That leads me to my rant about the lying media. ALL of the "news" reports that I saw or heard used ONLY the words "shut up" without broadcasting what immediately followed. Calhoun actually said something like "shut up so the rest of the reporters can ask questions about the game."

A perfectly reasonable response after being ambushed by a fake reporter who tried to steal the post game interview.

[uconn]

great year wrote:

I was at the game. The team was not flat, I just think Austrie and Robinson were controlling the ball when Price and Walker needed to be. Great Regular season. With a win against Pitt it will surpass any regular season in Uconn history. Great job!

what was the beginning ceremony like?

[Jeffman]

Jamal860 wrote:

very good, tough win. nice to see the seniors go out with a win in gampel. what's up with Digger though? he swore up and down Uconn would lose today. Seems he's had it in for the huskies all season long. did Jonathan the mascot bang his wife or something? Geesh....

Jamal 1860, For a former coach who led his team to a grand total of one Final Four appearance at Notre Dame, Digger Phelps is not the most reliable and knowledgable person to get advice from in analyzing college basketball. Besides, the man bleeds Notre Dame through and through. Would you expect him to ever pick his former team to lose a game?
Good, tough win today, guys! And great bounce-back game Jeff Adrien from the game at Marquette which was his worst statistical game of the year. Jeff was determined to "be the man" since it was his last home collegiate game of his career. Let's pay back Pitt for defeating them last week, in the final regular season game! Go Huskies!

[great year]

It is always great to see the player's families. I love seeing the walk-ons. Can you imagine devoting that much time to something you know will never let you play in a real game (all but 2.8 seconds today)? The crowd was great for Austrie, AJ and Adrien (they came out in that order). They were loudest for AJ, but that could be because AJ's father (much larger than Calhoun and Adrian) was pumping his fist and really excited. Adrien brought out his nieces, nephews and grandparents. Cool to see all these guys in a different light. Calhoun was also honored for his 800 win, but it was underplayed b/c it was the Seniors' night. All in all a fun game. ND played well and got good games from their role players (Nash & Ayers). Uconn's defense was good. The problem was the offense was getting the ball to the wrong guys. I hate to bash a kid that works as hard as Austrie, but Calhoun needs to tell him get the ball to AJ he is the star (instead of relying on Craig's legendary floater or his disappearing three). Calhoun needs to get Haralson more minutes because Austrie missed 3 wide open threes and the kid is 3-6 in the last two games. It shall be fun at Pitt. Let the rhetoric begin.

[tim]

for a player of the year candidate, it was surprising to see Thabeet decide not to take his free throws at the end of the game. he was back at the scorer's table ready to come in just a few seconds afterwards.

[twomiler]

It's good to see a different player become "the guy" in recent UConn wins. No one player can do it all the time. It wasn't Price today. It was Adrien and Thabeet. Who will it be at Pitt Saturday?

[JRobert]

tim wrote:

for a player of the year candidate, it was surprising to see Thabeet decide not to take his free throws at the end of the game. he was back at the scorer's table ready to come in just a few seconds afterwards.

Always looking for something to knock Thabeet.

It was the kid's second hard head shot of the afternoon and his bell was probably still ringing. And if I was the coach, I would have told him to "let his head clear" and sent in a better foul shooter.

[Clueless]

twomiler wrote:

It's good to see a different player become "the guy" in recent UConn wins. No one player can do it all the time. It wasn't Price today. It was Adrien and Thabeet. Who will it be at Pitt Saturday?

Adrien's been "the guy" his whole career. He will be missed.

[Show time]

Nice win today -- clich double bye in BE. UCONN beating Pit next week will give them good confidence in BE Tourney

[great year]

Yea, Hash does fall a lot, but not this time his head bounced off the pad in back of the basketball (left a sweat imprint to show) and snapped back. I will put you on stilts to get you 7-3 , have run, and then push you down into where the floor and basket meet. Get real.

[Luke]

Husky Fan Forever wrote:

I didn't think the team was "flat." I enjoyed an exciting, competitive game. ND played a lot tougher than I thought they would, but some of those three's were pure luck.
I was a little disappointed that Haralson did not get to play more--I think he may have a lot of promise with the long ball. Sticks did OK, but will be expecting more of him. Adrien and Thabeet, of course, were great. Really enjoyed watching Walker too.

Sticks did ok??...what game were you watching???