The Maine Event

This was a clinic and is a great early Christmas present but remember last year Uconn won 105 to 55 against Texas Southern before collapsing down the stretch. There were plenty of good signs. The outside shots were falling, they scored without their leader in points and they executed good inside sets against the zone. And they got to the line 38 times and got 27 points from that.

The guards did well. A.J. had a great game keeping the offense flowing. And with Dyson out, he asserted himself more into the offense. Not only did he shoot more but his 9 assists to 1 turnover were spectacular. He is now leading The Big East in assists to turnovers and assists a game. Wiggins could be a possible Rajon Rondo. Unlike last year, he has been able to maintain his dribbling while flying up the court. He has also been able to control his turnovers and increase his assists. If he continues his improvement then he could make it to the next level. Donnell Beverly did another good job of keeping the offense rolling. Though he didn’t look for his shot, he played solid defense.

What can you say about Stanley Robinson? Its great to see him have some feistiness to his game. As soon as he got that technical foul, he went into attack mode. He smothered rebounds, battled loose balls, gave up his body, sank jumpers, sent a double clutch dunk down, and played the most dominating game of ball UConn has seen in two years. Even if you take Stanley’s 32 points from the game, Uconn still would have won by 13 points. That’s a sign of great defense and he played that too, getting 3 blocks and 2 steals.

Adrien also played spirited, ending his day with 17 points and 13 boards. Is the double-double man back for good? We'll see. The only thing that he lacks is athleticism. He is tenacious on the boards but he doesn’t have an above the rim game.

Thabeet is a totally different player than the player who started the season. Brian Andre threw his huge frame against Thabeet all game and he stood in there and took it. Last year meatier players were able to push Thabeet out of position. So far this year, Thabeet has been able to take the pounding and get to the stripe while converting at a point guard like, 10 of 13.

Its great to see this team put together an effort like this but they had scored 105 points last year and I’m not going to get excited until they beat a team with comparable talent. For now they have their annual free vacation/trip to Florida and then the real challenge of conference play. Until then it’s a step in the right direction but not the leap needed to take them to where they want to go.