STORRS, Conn.- With his team in firm command of the game and a roaring, fervent crowd wearing down on his opponent, University of Connecticut coach Jim Calhoun faced a considerable question Monday night at Gampel Pavilion.
Which big man do I sit down first?
UConn’s starting power forward Charlie Villaneuva (6-foot-11) and center Josh Boone (6-foot-10), along with bench man Hilton Armstrong (6-foot-11), had contributed to much of the team’s dominant rebounding, and with the score at 80-47 over Northeastern following a Villaneuva lay-up, it was time to divvy up his players’ minutes.
“We’re trying to put a lot of pieces together. I really, honestly sit here tonight feeling guilty about [forward] Ed Nelson,” Calhoun said, his team seventh in the nation as it entered the game. “He gave everything he had. Marcus White the same way, even Hilton [Armstrong]. Hilton gets nine [points] and nine [rebounds], and I look up, and he’s played 11 minutes. I said to the team in there, they’ve got to be patient and understand that on given nights, certain players are going to have to play more.”
UConn’s dominant frontcourt was the focal point of the entire game, a physical, inside presence that disrupted any interior game Northeastern hoped to work in. With 74 rebounds in 40 minutes of play, the Huskies in blue made it easy for themselves, making each NU fast break a one-team show any time the ball did not go in.
“I have to put this game into some kind of context,” said Calhoun, the former Northeastern coach from 1972-86 and now two-time national champion. “We have size, and 74 rebounds is a lot of rebounds. We eventually wore them down. We were able to hold [Jose Juan] Barea, who I have a lot of respect for, to 10 points. Just generally speaking, we wore them down because we’re bigger, stronger and, quite frankly, probably better.”
Boone (19 points, 14 rebounds) and Villaneuva (17, 8) helped their team to 30 offensive rebounds, while seeing the Huskies in black only produce 39 in total.
“It’s not so much that they have one great rebounder or two, I think they have five,” Northeastern head coach Ron Everhart said. “It’s almost like every time we did a great job on their frontline guys, like Villaneuva or Boone or Armstrong, it seemed like [Denham] Brown or [Rashad] Anderson or one of those guys crushed us. Not crushed us in terms of physicality, but they’d get to an open area to get the ball, or get their body in between and physically get out of the way.”
Most of the Pavilion’s sold out crowd of 10,167 made noise for much of the contest, but they reached their peak two minutes into the second half.
After two free throws from Barea cut the UConn lead to 15 (59-44), Villaneuva and his teammates were ready at the other end of the court.
Sophomore guard Marcus Williams found a streaking Villaneuva at the free throw line, who immediately took flight against the Husky frontcourt of Bennet Davis and Janon Cole. A one-handed windmill of a dunk by Villaneuva put UConn 17 ahead, and they never looked back.
“I needed a breakout game,” Villaneuva said. “I said to myself to just go and play hard, and that’s exactly what I did. We just got to keep going to the big guys. I still believe that we have the best frontcourt in college basketball.”
After a failed three-point attempt from NU’s Marcus Barnes (the Huskies were 9-35 from the three-point arc), Denham Brown took his turn in the paint. His alley-hoop from an Antonio Kellogg pass made it two straight dunks for UConn.
NU gained the momentum at select points in the game, helped noticeably by the play of Barnes in the first half (16 of his 20 points). Six-footer Barea did his part in driving inside, but found no help near the rim.
Physically, the game demonstrated the differences between upper and mid level conferences in NCAA basketball, specifically, between the Big East and America East.
“I think the difference between the America East and the Big East is the physicality part of it,” Everhart said. “They’re just so big and strong, they’re relentless. I thought we defended a lot of times well enough to make them take a rushed shot. It was like every time we did though, we couldn’t rebound or couldn’t get the ball.”
America East has its share of impact frontcourt men, including Binghamton’s Nick Billings (7-foot), while Northeastern has up-and-comers of its own in 6-foot-9 Bahamas native Bennett Davis and freshman Shawn James (five blocks, nine rebounds). But it was the versatility, depth and total athleticism of a team like UConn that showcased the upper levels of college basketball.
“I’m hoping that this is one of those games we can learn an expensive lesson from,” Everhart said. “I hope that at least our front guys understand how physical they have to be to be better players. I think they got a great lesson from some real good players tonight.”
