2008 Woodie Awards
Thabeet's Close Call
Men's Basketball: Center Did Not Decide On Return Until Last Minute
Dan Olender
Issue date: 4/29/08 Section: Sports
With 13 players in the NBA, UConn has produced more current professional alums than any other university in the country. With such a resource at his fingertips, Thabeet reached out to several of those former Huskies who warned the sophomore about people who don't have his best interests in mind.
"I got to speak with Rudy [Gay], Hilton Armstrong, Emeka Okafor," Thabeet said. "They told me, if I think I'm ready I should go.
"Some of them told me, just to listen to coaches and not people out of Connecticut that want you to leave because they're doing business or they're trying to benefit off of you."
One of the results for having Thabeet, the 2007-08 NABC Defensive Player of the Year, stay is that the Huskies will return all five starters from this year's team. Add to that an impressive list of recruits coming to Storrs and many are already considering the Huskies a top-10 team for next season.
Many of those high marks come as people expect to see a similar improvement of Thabeet's game that they saw this past season. Thabeet went from averaging 6.2 points per game and 6.4 rebounds per game his freshman season to 10.5 and 7.9 respectively this year.
Thabeet himself said he was proud of all the work he put into improving his game last summer and that he's looking forward to continuing to practice and improve for next season.
"People always tell me the sky's the limit for me if I keep making progress as I did from last year," Thabeet said. "I'll keep working on stuff that I didn't do [well] this year."
Calhoun has certainly seen the improvement, and just like the people who spoke with Thabeet, he believes the sky's limit for his center.
"The one thing that I hit him with … he's improved more than any player I've had in 36 years in a two-year period, or even a one-year period," Calhoun said. "So one could presuppose that if he does this same type of improvement, or even 50 percent of that, he'll be one of the best players in college basketball next year."
Contact Dan Olender at Daniel.Olender@UConn.edu.
"I got to speak with Rudy [Gay], Hilton Armstrong, Emeka Okafor," Thabeet said. "They told me, if I think I'm ready I should go.
"Some of them told me, just to listen to coaches and not people out of Connecticut that want you to leave because they're doing business or they're trying to benefit off of you."
One of the results for having Thabeet, the 2007-08 NABC Defensive Player of the Year, stay is that the Huskies will return all five starters from this year's team. Add to that an impressive list of recruits coming to Storrs and many are already considering the Huskies a top-10 team for next season.
Many of those high marks come as people expect to see a similar improvement of Thabeet's game that they saw this past season. Thabeet went from averaging 6.2 points per game and 6.4 rebounds per game his freshman season to 10.5 and 7.9 respectively this year.
Thabeet himself said he was proud of all the work he put into improving his game last summer and that he's looking forward to continuing to practice and improve for next season.
"People always tell me the sky's the limit for me if I keep making progress as I did from last year," Thabeet said. "I'll keep working on stuff that I didn't do [well] this year."
Calhoun has certainly seen the improvement, and just like the people who spoke with Thabeet, he believes the sky's limit for his center.
"The one thing that I hit him with … he's improved more than any player I've had in 36 years in a two-year period, or even a one-year period," Calhoun said. "So one could presuppose that if he does this same type of improvement, or even 50 percent of that, he'll be one of the best players in college basketball next year."
Contact Dan Olender at Daniel.Olender@UConn.edu.
Viewing Comments 1 - 1 of 1
Lame
posted 4/29/08 @ 1:10 PM EST
FYI. many students at UConn are left with the task of taking care of their families fiancially. I sure wouldn't be praising this basketball player simply because he has to take care of family members. (Continued…)
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