WOW! Was A.J.Price on fire last night or what? He had 36 points, in 37 minutes and easily, this was the best complete game of his entire UCONN career.  Additionally, it came on the same night “Jimbo” Calhoun got his 800th win and that made A.J’ s brilliant performance even sweeter. His three point shot went down faster than the first cold beer on a Friday night and he was even better in the second half than the first.

Now, before I continue with accolades for some of the Huskies and relative to their huge 93 to 82 win over Marquette, let me first address the bettors who I told to take the home team, last night. Obviously, you didn’t make out yet, it was due to plain and simple lousy gambling luck. If I knew that Dominic James wasn’t going to play more than 4 minutes in this game, you know I wouldn’t have told you to bet on Marquette. I said the game would be a close one and so, losing a player of this magnitude and due to injury, was a sure kiss of death. James, even though his offensive numbers may be down this year, is the straw that stirs the drink for the Golden Eagles. Not only did they lose a veteran senior player counted on to perform well in big games, they also lost their best ball handler, a good defensive player and the teams leader in assists. The moment he went down, I turned to a friend and said, lights out and game over. Sure, the Golden Eagles gave it some fight but, without James at the point guard position, their ball movement was a mere shadow of what it usually is. His replacement did hit a couple of first half threes yet, at 5′8″ he was a defensive liability to say the least. Furthermore, after those two threes, he went scoreless the rest of the way. On defense,  Acker couldn’t even protect the baseline and UCONN made him pay dearly for that.

So, last night the Golden Eagles laid a big fat egg and their first home loss of the season allowed UCONN to continue it’s incredible road dominance.  Even worse, with James out for the season, they are no longer a team that can compete with the likes of Pitt, Louisville or UCONN. Yes, even with a great player like senior scoring leader, Jerel McNeal, (26 points against UCONN) losing James is a real difference maker.

Getting back to the game, I have to give an emphatic F to the UCONN guys whose last names start with an A. Adrien and Austrie were horrendous and so, thank goodness everyone else stepped up and made a contribution.  Even Scotty Haralson made a couple of big three pointers and that was a sight that had to please JIMBO and Husky fans. The Golden Eagles were one of the smallest teams the Huskies  faced this season and therefore, the 46 to 26 rebounding advantage was no big surprise. What was amazing was the offensive output of Stanley Robinson, who scored a season high, 19 points. To say Marquette was lousy on defense would be an understatement and so, before you start thinking Stanley is back and ready to make a nightly contribution, please note the following. 1. He was being guarded by a guy much smaller than him 2. With Thabeet scoring practically every time he shot the ball, as well as a constant force on the boards, the Marquette players were collapsing on him and leaving Sticks unattended 3. Whoever Sticks had guarding him didn’t have a clue how to box out  4. His outside shooting, despite the fact he finally made a three, wasn’t nearly as good as his  7 for 14 shooting stats would suggest. More specifically and as usual, it was dunks and easy put backs that accounted for a majority of his points (Garbage buckets). Again, UCONN had no problem dominating in the paint and so, if not for A.J. Price exploding right out of the gate, Hasheem Thabeet would have easily had a bigger offensive night. That said, when this one was about 5 minutes old, I was having a hard time remembering if Adrien or Thabeet had even touched the ball yet. None-the less, in the second half and when Thabeet started getting the ball down low, his play was  almost flawless. Not only did he have a game high 15 rebounds, he also chipped 14 points. Even more impressive was the fact that he was 4 for 4 from the field and 6 for 7 from the foul line. Dick Vitale, when he wasn’t running his mouth with useless, annoying and repetitive commentary, pleaded with the UCONN guards to get the ball into Thabeet. Good thing for Marquette they didn’t until late because, instead of 5 Marquette players ending up with 4 fouls,  many of them would have easily fouled out trying to stop the big guy.

Next game is at home against a desperate and hungry Notre Dame team, fighting to make it to the NCAA’S big dance. Well, that’s too bad for them because UCONN, who should once again be ranked #1 in the country, is going to easily beat the Fighting Irish for the second time this year.

By the way, the Marquette fans chanting “How much money”, followed by “Not a Dime” was pretty funny.

I’m out of here!  Sic Rick