All aboard the blowout train

UConn notches third-biggest victory in tournament history

By: Kevin Duffy

Posted: 3/20/09

PHILADELPHIA - Prior to the West regional match up between top-seeded UConn and No. 16 seed Chattanooga, it was announced that Huskies head coach Jim Calhoun would not be on the bench because he was feeling ill.

After the game, however, it's hard to imagine that anyone was more sick to their stomach than the Chattanooga players.

With assistant coach George Blaney filling in for Calhoun, UConn (28-4) put the hammer down early and buried the Mocs (18-17) 103-47, which marks the third-largest margin of victory in NCAA Tournament history. The biggest blowout in tournament history belongs to Loyola (Ill.), which defeated Tennessee Tech, 111-42, in 1963. Kansas' 110-52 win over Prairie View in 1998 places the Jayhawks second on that list.

According to senior point guard A.J. Price, the Huskies may have threatened Loyola and Kansas if Calhoun had been on the bench.

"I think we would have been more fired up if coach were here," Price said. "So Chattanooga actually got off easy."

Price, who opened the game 0-for-4, finished with 20 points on 7-for-15 shooting from the field. He opened up a relatively close game around the halfway point of the first half, rapidly extending a 19-15 advantage to a 28-15 lead by nailing 3-pointers on three consecutive possessions.

After hitting two in a row, Price caught the outlet pass and literally laughed as he dribbled up the court and drained another one right in the face of a Chattanooga guard.

After that, the floodgates opened. The Huskies took a 48-20 lead into halftime led by no less than 36 points in the second period before finishing off the Mocs by 56.

Junior forward Stanley Robinson proved that his 28-point, 14-rebound outburst against Syracuse in the Big East quarterfinal was no fluke. He followed it up with a team-high 24 points and 7 rebounds against Chattanooga.

"A lot of people said [Robinson] had a great game last game and we couldn't count on him to do it again,'" Price said. "I think he silenced critics tonight by coming out and playing as well as he did."

Senior forward Jeff Adrien registered 13 points and 16 rebounds and, according to Robinson, "got to all the loose balls," but for the third consecutive game, Adrien struggled to get into an offensive rhythm. He missed his first seven free throw attempts and didn't score until the 2:17 mark of the first half. Adrien finished the game 5-for-13 from the line.

Adrien and Chattanooga forward Nicchaeus Doaks started getting chippy with one another early in the second half, which Adrien said only got the Huskies more amped to deliver the knockout blow.

"They talked a little too much out there," Adrien said. "We can talk back and play basketball, but they couldn't talk back and play basketball. We're just that much better than the guys who were talking."

Adrien and Doaks' one-on-one duel reached a pinnacle at the 9:40 mark of the second half when the 6-foot-7, 235-pound Chattanooga forward blatantly shoved Adrien and tried to provoke a reaction.

"It was a dumb foul on him and everyone in the world saw it and he looked like an idiot," Adrien said. "They're going home and I'm not, so I feel good."

Price added that the Mocs didn't exactly better their situation by talking trash when they were down 40 points.

"Their talking didn't do anything but hurt them, I think," Price said. "It got us a little more fired up."

According to Blaney, UConn played one of its best defensive games of the season, particularly on the perimeter. The Huskies shut down the Mocs' best player, guard Stephen McDowell. McDowell finished with just two points for the game, a season-low, and was blanketed for most of the afternoon by Price, Kemba Walker and Craig Austrie.

Austrie led the Huskies with seven assists and four steals, but struggled shooting the ball once again. He was 0-for-8 from the field and 0-for-6 from 3-point range, which makes him 3-for-27 from long range since UConn's Feb. 14 victory over Seton Hall.

"We're going to need him to make shots, and I'm confident that he will," Price said. "It's hard to make shots in blowouts because you're expected to. That's what I said to him today, I think he just missed a lot of them because he was too wide open."