UConn overwhelms St. John's 83-69 with varied offensive arsenal

In a noon time start at the Hartford Civic Centre, UConn dominated St. Johns,83-69 with four Huskies in double figures and seven treys from their backcourt trio of Lamb, Napier and Boatright. UConn was led by Shabazz Napier 17, followed by Drummond (16), Lamb (15) and Boatright with 10. One of the emerging hallmarks of this years team, the capacity to give very different offensive looks and patterns was on full display today. The Huskies offense varied from guard dominated jumpers to Napier/ Drummond alley oops and excellent interior passing from the frontcourt. As a consequence the scoring can be balanced as it was today, or come more from any one of the four players in double figures today as the game dictates. I feel this a very unique aspect of this years team.

Drummond came back with another strong offensive performance, led the Huskies with 11 rebounds and displayed some impressive passing and ball handling for a man of his size. I continue to be VERY impressed with Freshman Ryan Boatrights ability and intelligence. He is playing about 25 minutes per game, either as Napier's back up at point or as a third guard with both Napier and Lamb on the floor. When Napier is out, Boatright becomes more assertive, and penetrates well; when he is the third guard he has shown the game sense to play a secondary role and look for more outside shots; He is outstanding on defense and slows down the opposition attack with tight man defense, particularly on the opposing point guard. When he came in the game today, he quickly swiped the ball from the St. Johns point and dunked. (he is 5'11")
With Roscoe Smith limited to four mnutes because of a hand injury, Niels Giffey played 14 very effective minutes, was 2-2 from three point land and finished with 7 points. By the way, Associate Head Coach, George Blaney did not make his first substition until there were 41/2 minutes gone in the first half. I don't think that Calhoun has ever gone that long without subbing in his career.

A couple of sidenotes - The UConn games that are not on CBS or ESPN are carried on SNY by the BIG East Channel. I think that there play by play guys, although not nationally known, are among the best I have heard. They have good, young color comentators who are knowledgeable and improving and their studio team is terrific. I particularly like Bob Picozzi who was the play by play broadcaster last night. He does his home work, knows the game, and has a very relaxed style. He does not over talk or impose himself over the game. His color commentator last night was Karen Lawson, the former star at U. Tenn. While I confess that I am not generally a fan of woman broadcaster's covering men's sporting events she is developing and is very knowledgeable. She is trying a bit too hard to impress and tends to repeat little catch phrases she thinks make her sounds like she knows BBall, however, in time she will be good. Her best observation last night was the point that the Huskies might have more upside than any of the other top ranked teams because they are such a young team.
Finally, I want to welcome Jonathan Scher to the site who immediately followed up to be a "follower". He is a friend and the dentist for my close friend Ben Cohen and is a UConn graduate
Jonathan, you will not lack for professional colleagues among my e-mail followers since you make the fifth dentist on the site.
Andre Lang Syne and Happy Napier to all,
"You heard it here first"
Steve