Spring Break
Huskies With 'Big' Hope For Conference Games
Men's Basketball Notebook
Dan Olender
Issue date: 1/22/07 Section: Sports
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UConn resumes Big East play Monday night when it heads to Kentucky for a game with Louisville.
"We look at Louisville as our game to turn the corner," said guard Doug Wiggins.
The Cardinals are 13-6 this season, including 3-2 in the Big East. In their most recent contest, Louisville took down DePaul, 59-50 in Chicago. Juan Palacios led all scorers with 21 points in that game on 8-of-10 shooting from the floor. Terrence Williams is the team's leading scorer, averaging 13 points per game.
"We're going to have to prepare ourselves to play against zone," said head coach Jim Calhoun. "We've got to continue to rebound like we did [Saturday], we got to continue to run like we did [Saturday] and we got to shore up our defense a little bit."
Monday's game will be played at Freedom Hall in Louisville, Ky. and can be seen on ESPN at 7 p.m.
Dyson Banged Up
Jerome Dyson played a painful 30 minutes Saturday against Indiana. Calhoun said after the game that Dyson has a bursar sac in his hip, which has affected his play.
Dyson said he injured his hip before the Pittsburgh game and that he received a shot after the Indiana game to help with the injury.
If that wasn't pain enough, Dyson's elbow has started to bother him again. He has gone back to the compression sleeve to help keep the swelling in his elbow down.
Dyson finished the game with eight points, two steals and an assist. For the season, Dyson is averaging 12.2 points per game and has 36 steals in the teams 18 games.
Optimism In The Air
Despite Saturday's loss, which was UConn's fifth in seven games, there was still plenty of confidence about the team's progress and where they are headed in the future.
"We're working hard," said Jeff Adrien, who picked up another double-double against Indiana with 15 points and 12 rebounds. "It's just a matter of time, we're going to get a W."
And while a win over Indiana would have given the Huskies a much-needed quality win, Adrien knows the team will have other opportunities.
"That would have been great on our resume," Adrien said, "but there [are] still great teams out there to get our good wins against."
"I'm very proud of the way we played [Saturday]," Calhoun said. "I don't know if we made steps forward, backward, sideways. I think they played their butts off; they gave us everything."
"Our best is right around the corner," Wiggins said. "Each game we keep getting better and better, we're just not pulling out the win. That's going to come."
- Dan Olender
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