University of Connecticut Athletics
Huskies Dominate Bryant In Exhibition Action
11/3/2005 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
HARTFORD, Conn. (November 3, 2005) – Freshman Jeff Adrien (Brookline, Mass.) scored 19 points to lead five teammates in double figures as 2nd-ranked Connecticut opened exhibition play with a 109-62 victory over Bryant College before a crowd of 14,130 at the Hartford Civic Center.
Adrien, seeing his first collegiate action, made six of seven field goal attempts and was successful on seven of eight free throws in pacing the Husky offensive onslaught. Junior center Josh Boone (Mt. Airy, Md.) bounced back from a scoreless first half with 17 points after intermission, making all eight shots from the field in the second half. Sophomore Rudy Gay (Baltimore, Md.) was solid throughout the contest, scoring 15 points, yanking down nine rebounds and he had five assists and five blocks.
Senior center Hilton Armstrong (Peekskill, N.Y.) added 13 points while senior guard Rashad Anderson (Lakeland, Fla.) chipped in with 11. Freshman Craig Austrie (Stamford, Conn.) scored 10 points of five-of-five shooting. Senior forward Denham Brown (Toronto, Ont.) had eight points, nine rebounds and a game-high seven assists. Senior forward Ed Nelson (Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.) had a game-high 10 rebounds for the Huskies.
The Huskies shot a sizzling 66% (46 of 70), including a blistering 73% (24 of 33) after intermission. They enjoyed a 50-34 rebounding advantage, and pounded the ball inside to the tune of 74 points in the paint.
UConn scored the game’s first four points, and led 10-1 just 3:43 into the contest, and were never seriously threatened after that. They increased their lead at intermission to 53-26, and led by as many as 50 points in the contest. The Huskies blocked 16 shots in the contest.
The Bulldogs were led by Chris Burns, who scored 15 points. Bryant was held to just 35% shooting (28 of 80).
The Huskies will close out the exhibition portion of their 2005-2006 campaign on Wednesday, November 9 when they play host to Concordia College at Gampel Pavilion in Storrs. Tip-off is set for 7:30 p.m.
POST-GAME QUOTES
UConn Head Coach Jim Calhoun
For an exhibition game, hopefully we accomplished what we tried to, which was make the game fast….(Bryant) tried to make the game into more of a halfcourt game, and I think our pressure probably looked the best that it has in 10 years. We are not used to playing quick, small people because we don’t have many in practice everyday. I thought that match-up hurt us at times.
Overall, it was a good performance by us, against a team that we were able to overwhelm, in talent, size, quickness-wise, etcetera. But sometimes, they’re difficult match-ups because we don’t have many people to go against – we have wings, we don’t have a lot of guards that you have to defend. So it made it a little difficult and we gave up some threes that we shouldn’t have given up.
On quickness
I think this is the quickest team we’ve had in 10 years. It’s a very fast team. There is not a kid here who isn’t fast and long.
On press
We had to work on our press (tonight), because I think it could be something, if we want to speed games up, then we can. We didn’t quite have the ability to do that last year.
On Denham Brown
I thought we had some terrific play from Denham Brown who, I thought, looked like a guard for the first time in his career.
On Rudy Gay
I thought Rudy was whatever he wanted to be, and that’s good.
On Jeff Adrien
I thought that people will fall in love with Jeff Adrien. All he does is come to work, put the hard hat on, and just keeps getting balls off the glass….I think he’s the second or third leading rebounder we have.
On Craig Austrie
He getting better, and he’s a very confident kid, without being arrogant by any stretch of the imagination – a very humble kid, as a matter of fact. I thought he really looked like a point guard, with a great deal of composure.
UConn Player Quotes
Rudy Gay
Everybody worked really hard. Everybody came out there and did their job.
On Coach Calhoun using so many players
Coach is trying to find his team, the team that sticks for him. It’s really going to be hard for him because we have a lot of players and a lot of people who know the system. And everybody’s
On the new players
Jeff went out there and played his heart out. Craig, he ran the team very well. Rob, he’s getting better at running the team. Marcus, he’s a great defender. They added a lot of quickness to our team and that’s one of the things that’s going to hurt people.
On Jeff Adrien
He’s a monster, really. You finally are going to see it because we’re actually playing a game, but he’s been doing this everyday at practice. He’s just doing what Coach asked him to do.
On pressing more
Coach mentioned that this is one of the quickest team’s he’s ever coached.
Denham Brown
On Jeff Adrien
He’s been working like that in practice. He’s really just turned it over from practice. Jeff Adrien is really allowed to do what he wants in the post – making plays, grabbing rebounds, and just being a monster down there.
On finally getting to play in a game against another team
It came along real quick. I think guys are ready for it. I think overall we did a good job.
Jeff Adrien
On being tenacious
It’s just hard work. I know the ball’s right there in play and why not go after it? Just keep playing hard until the end of the game. Until the clock hits triple zeros I’m still going to play hard.
When I go out there and play, I’m going to make a name for myself. But there’s a lot of things I could have worked on today.
Craig Austrie
We just have to get guys the ball at the right time, the right second. You can’t be late. That’s just what I’ve been working on, getting my timing down in preseason and getting a feel for the guys on the team.
Josh Boone
What do you need to work on before Pepperdine
I think we need to execute better on offense. We were really good in the full court today, but weren’t as good in the half court. We have to get back in the gym and work on helping the point guards out.
