Price, Robinson shine in victory

PHILADELPHIA - Before Thursday's game, A.J. Price had only played a total of nine minutes in the NCAA Tournament. His ACL injury in the first half of last year's 70-69 overtime loss to San Diego was the only NCAA experience Price ever had.

When Hasheem Thabeet won the tip for UConn, A.J. Price brought the ball across half-court. He was in the middle of calling out a play when Chattanooga's Keyron Sheard stole the ball and converted on a lay-up. Inside the Wachovia Center, fans erupted in a chorus of cheers.

The start of Price's second NCAA Tournament game wasn't going well.

"It was a good defensive play on his part," he said. "But it was also a bad play on me, as well."

In the ensuing UConn possessions, Price took three 3-pointers and a jumper, missing on all four shots.

Then he got going.

"I was just thinking about getting one to go down for me," Price said. "I couldn't hit one, it seemed like, to start the game. Once I got the first one, I just got into a rhythm. I'm a rhythm shooter."

With 10:34 left to play in the first half, the Huskies were winning 19-15. Price hit one 3-pointer. Then he hit another. And then another after that.

Within one minute, Price put the Huskies up 28-15.

After hitting his second 3-pointer, Price was leading the fast break when he started smiling. It seemed as if he knew something was going to happen.

"I was smiling at the defender because in my head, I knew I had the guy right where I wanted him," Price said. "I had the world in my hands and I knew I could do anything with the ball."

Price's nine points in one minute led the way for a 31-5 UConn run to end the first half.

"A.J. is a crazy player; I've always thought that he was a crazy player," said teammate Stanley Robinson. "He's just a great player and the way he performs every game is unbelievable. It's great to have a player like that on the court, especially when he's on your team."

While Price finished the game with 20 points on 7-of-15 shooting, it was Robinson who led the team in scoring, putting in 24 points on 11-of-17 shooting. But Robinson's 24 points don't reflect the bigger impact he had on Thursday's game.

Of Robinson's 11 field goals, seven of them were dunks. Of those seven dunks, four were alley-oops.

"There's always going to be alley-oops," Robinson said. "I just have to go out and get them."

One alley-oop that sent the crowd roaring, came off a pass from Craig Austrie. On a two-on-one fast break, Austrie threw a no-look pass into the air that seemed to be going nowhere until Robinson grabbed the ball out of the air and threw it down.

"His athletic ability is out of this world," Austrie said. "I just lobbed it up soft and I knew he'd go up and get it."

At the end of the first half, Robinson only had one dunk. During the halftime talk, associate head coach George Blaney said something to Robinson that got him going.

"Coach Blaney told me he wanted a couple of dunks," Robinson said. "He wanted two-handed dunks, some alley-oops, so we wanted to come out and give him what he asked for."

Of the seven dunks, Robinson said he didn't know which one he liked the best, although he did admit that the no-look pass from Austrie was great.

Robinson's 24-point game is his second 20-point game in a row, and these types of performances are something that Price is excited to see.

"He's huge for us; he's another scoring option," Price said. "I'm proud for him. He had a great game last game and many people thought he couldn't do it again, that he was inconsistent. He really silenced all the critics."

Looking ahead to Saturday

With Thursday's win over Chattanooga, the Huskies will take on Texas A&M on Saturday at a time to be determined.

Before their game, the Huskies sat in on the early game in which the Aggies beat BYU, and there were a few things that caught the Huskies' eyes.

"They're a good team," Price said. "They're a physical team and I noticed that they got hot early and it was hard to slow them down. We've just got to get out on them and stay on their shooters."

While none of the active UConn players have ever played against the Aggies, Thabeet is quite familiar with his opponents.

As a high school student in Texas, Thabeet said he's played against most of the players on the Texas A&M team in various AAU and pick-up games.

"I know a lot of those guys," Thabeet said. "I know what we need to do to win the game."

Thabeet said he still keeps in touch with some of the players on Facebook.

Quote of the day

"We were recruited to Connecticut to win big games, and to win championships." - Jeff Adrien on playing the game without coach Jim Calhoun.