Sunday, March 24, 2002
NCAA: East region notes
UConn thinks uptempo
The Associated Press
SYRACUSE, N.Y. — Practice was closed for Connecticut and Maryland at the East Regional on Saturday. Huskies coach Jim Calhoun wasn't keeping any secrets about his plans, though.
He knows Maryland's inside game can be trouble with 6-foot-8, 260-pound Lonny Baxter blocking the middle. Baxter hammered the Huskies with 24 points in their first meeting, mostly on layups. Maryland won that game 77-65.
“We'd like to get up and down and extend the floor a little,” Calhoun said. “That's what we worked on in practice. That's the game we'd like to see Lonny have to play. If we get into a wrestling contest, we lose.”
Maryland guard Juan Dixon welcomed the news that Sunday's today's game might be a track meet.
“I don't mind,” he said. “It's fine with me.”
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MOUTON MISSES DUKE: Maryland's Byron Mouton was asked if he watched Duke's loss to Indiana in the South Regional semifinals and whether he's glad the Blue Devils are out of the way.
“No, but I saw plenty of highlights,” he said of his fellow Atlantic Coast Conference team, which eliminated the Terrapins in last season's Final Four.
Was he glad Duke is out of a possible title path this season?
“Great teams always want to play great teams,” he said. “It's frustrating that people say, "Now that Duke's gone, you have a chance to win.' We always had a chance to win.”
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A MEETING IN THE MIDDLE: Southern Illinois' strategy to deal with 6-9 UConn shotblocker Emeka Okafor was to take the ball right at him in the regional semifinal. It took half the game for Okafor to adjust, and it gave Maryland some ideas.
“You've got to take it to a shot blocker,” the Terps' Baxter said.
“It's sometimes easy to get a shot blocker in foul trouble. You've got to take it to him and see what happens.”
Okafor, who set a school record with 132 blocks this season, welcomed the challenge.
“I'm ready for it,” he said. “They say they're going to bring it on. Let them bring it on.”
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TEE IT UP: Connecticut coach Jim Calhoun, a low-handicap player, heard that Maryland coach Gary Williams had talked about beating him at golf. The challenge appealed to Calhoun as he took time out from designing a defense to stop the Terps' Lonny Baxter.
“Let's play,” he said. “Straight up. No strokes. I'd like to do that, maybe more than going up against Lonny.”
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WORK IN PROGRESS: Chris Wilcox emigrated from the ACC's North Carolina-Duke-North Carolina State 8-mile triangle to surface at Maryland and coach Gary Williams is glad he did.
An afterthought in his freshman season, the 6-foot-10 Wilcox has developed into an inside force for the Terrapins. He started the last 18 games, averaging 11.8 points, and punctuated his season with 23 points and 11 rebounds when Maryland beat Duke on Feb. 17.
“Chris has that quickness,” Williams said. “He had to learn to play basketball. He's a much better player now and he has a chance to be one of the best to play at Maryland.”
Wilcox said his improvement was no mystery.
“The seniors push me every day in practice,” he said. “They made me work hard and I thank them for that.”
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ALL FOR OKAFOR: One of coach Jim Calhoun's favorite subjects is the drive of freshman center Emeka Okafor, who arrived at UConn equipped with a fistful of advanced placement credits and will be a junior by September.
When he was unable to stop Rolan Roberts of Southern Illinois early in Friday night's game, it left Okafor frustrated.
“He couldn't find a solution to the problem in his own analytical way,” Calhoun said.
Eventually, Okafor solved Roberts, shutting him out for the last 17 minutes.
“He has a tough time admitting he can't do something,” Calhoun said. “He had a B-plus in one course last semester only because he had a paper that had to be perfect and he handed it in late. He's a very unusual person, one of the most driven people we've had.”
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STREAKING SCORERS: Juan Dixon's 19 points for Maryland in the East Regional semifinals extended his streak of scoring in double figures to 51 consecutive games, the longest active streak in college basketball.
The second-longest streak is 48, by Connecticut's Caron Butler.
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NCAA: East region notes
