Huskies Defeat Vanderbilt; Advance to 7th Elite Eight

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PHOENIX, AZ (March 25) --  Junior guard Ben Gordon scored a game-high 20 points and three other Huskies scored in double-figures as the No. 2 seed University of Connecticut men's basketball team trounced Vanderbilt 73-53 in Regional Semifinal action of the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Championship in Phoenix, Ariz.  With the victory the, the Huskies improve to 30-6 on the season while No. 6 seed Vanderbilt concludes its season with a 23-10 mark. 

The Huskies will make their seventh appearance in the NCAA Elite Eight (1964, '90, '95, '98, '99, 2002, '04) with six of those appearances coming on head coach Jim Calhoun's watch.  UConn will face either No. 8 seed Alabama or No. 5 seed Syracuse with the victor advancing to the Final Four in San Antonio, Texas.  Regional Final game time is 4:40 pm (est).

Calhoun is now 6-3 in Regional Semifinal action and 32-14 overall in NCAA Tournament Play and he has reached the 30-win plateau for the fifth time at UConn. ('90, '96, '98, '99, '04)

The Husky defense neutralized Vanderbilt's all-time leading scorer Matt Freije in the first half as the senior forward scored only three points on 1-for-9 shooting including 0-for-4 form behind the arc, and the Huskies built a commanding 45-27 lead at the half. 

However, the Commodores would not lie down and mounted an 18-7 run, which drew the Commodores to within seven, 52-45, with 12:00 minutes remaining in regulation.  Sophomore wing Rashad Anderson answered with a back-breaking 3-pointer just ten seconds later to spark a decisive 8-0 Husky run and Vandy was unable to threaten again.

Gordon was one rebound shy of a double-double and also dished out four assists in the victory.  Junior All-American Emeka Okafor dropped in 12 points and snared 10 boards for the 23rd double-double of the season and 52nd of his illustrious career.  Okafor did not record a block though and this marks the first time Okafor did not block a shot in 51 games.  It is only the fourth time in his career that he has not swatted a shot. 

Senior point guard Taliek Brown continued his strong play in the Tournament with a 12 point four rebound performance.  Brown was also 4-of-4 from the charity stripe.  He now boasts a 100-35 record in his four years at UConn, including an 8-2 mark in NCAA Tournament play.   

Anderson was a catalyst to the Husky offense once again, as he scored 15 points on 5-of-11 shooting.  In a 1:40 second span midway through the first half, Anderson scored eight points as UConn began to distance itself from Vanderbilt. 

The Huskies led 8-7 with 15:00 remaining in the first half, but charged out to a 25-8 lead at the 9:20 mark on the strength of a 17-1 run.  UConn took its largest lead of the half, 45-23, with :50 remaining on a pair of Gordon free throws. 

POST GAME QUOTES
Head Coach Jim Calhoun
We played them for the third year in a row and watching that program evolve, they have done a magnificent job as a basketball team. Unfortunately they ran into a basketball team that on this particular day played great defense. We are going on spurts where we are holding them scoreless for four or five minutes at a time and then being able to make runs out of that with our fast break and I think that has to be discouraging to any team because you spend so much time in the gym practicing and working on your offense. We were able to take away the back cuts; we were able to steal about six passes from back cuts. We adjusted and got out to their big guy shooters, obviously Josh (Boone), everybody did a great job on (Matt) Freije, who is a terrific player. Once again, they had a lot of big guys and we wanted to get them in foul trouble and I think Josh was great in the second half, our defense was stellar. Offensively Ben takes over games and we did a really good job of handling the game. We were really good, I don’t think it would have made much difference of who we played tonight our defense was going to be pretty good. We made our mind up that we were going to start working on back cuts. We started working on back cuts on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. We worked on back cuts and the big guys shooting threes. Our kids did a wonderful job of recognizing Vanderbilt’s offense. Now we get a one-day turnaround where we get to play Alabama or Syracuse. We are glad to have that problem; it is a wonderful problem to have. I’m proud of the kids, I think they did a great job.

On urgency Taliek (Brown) was playing with
I think he wants to leave his name in UConn under special circumstances, we talk about that with all of our kids, that this is a program that hopefully works hard and is excellent and hopefully you want to be a part of that. You want to have your name on the legacy with some of the other great players. Clearly Taliek is going to go down as one of the gutsiest, greediest guards that has ever played for us. If you look at Connecticut over the past four years since 1999. During that four-year period we had at least three championships. Only one group has won the ultimate goal and so I put his name with some of the other guys and that is a great legacy to leave behind. Points come and go and guys score, but meaningful points in big games that equal championships are very special.

On UConn’s big guys
One of the things we have, we are very thin in the back court, we only have two point guards on the team. We have Taliek and Ben (Gordon), but conversely we have four kids at 6’10 who are all long and athletic and we can really cause nightmares because the foul situation except for Emeka (Okafor) really doesn’t get into the equation with us. Most teams don’t have the luxury. Everybody says we are deep, we are deep there, we aren’t deep at the 1,2 guard, but we are exceptionally deep in that frontcourt. I do think it makes a difference, it made a difference Freije was 3-18. It is just a number of bodies that you are able to spread against them and it is a great advantage.

On team’s speed
It changed the game from the opening eight to nine minutes of the game. I just felt at looking at the body language of the other team and they were coming out at us and I could tell that their offense was forcing shots. In the second half we turned it over and we gave them chances to score and it wasn’t anything to do with defense we just gave them chances to score because we turned it over. When we were running full speed in the first half and Ben pulls up and hits two NBA threes and then we shot another three and then got a dunk it is hard to play against it.

Rashad Anderson
On slapping the floor while playing defense and where he got it from
In practice we have a drill called shell drills and coach makes us run a lot if we don’t slap the floor. The first thing he told me when I got to Connecticut was score and play defense.

On the eight turnovers Connecticut committed during a stretch
This was the first time of the season that we kept turning the ball over as much as we did. We can’t come out and play like that.

On his confidence level since becoming a starter
I can play coming off the bench or start. It really doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter, I’m just going to go out and play every time I step on the court.

On making a three pointer after a timeout and if the play was specifically designed for him
It was just a situation where I got open. I just got the shot down.

Josh Boone
On the play of the big men
All of the big men did a great job of contesting shots and getting a hand in their face.

Ben Gordon
On how the team responded after a timeout when Vanderbilt pulled within seven points
We just came out really flat and we knew that we had to turn it around because Vanderbilt is the kind of team that makes a lot of runs. We realized we needed to step it up on defense at that time after the timeout.

On the eight turnovers Connecticut committed during a stretch
Having eight turnovers in a seven minute stretch is bad. We can’t turn over the ball like that. A lot of teams will feed off those kinds of things.

About stepping it up in clutch situations
I’ve been able to step up at key times for my team. Coach puts a lot of rotation on the players because he knows they have a lot of talent. Something I’ve been trying to focus on is trying to help my team win.

On what brings the best out of the team in March
It’s the way the program is built. Coach wants us playing our best basketball in March.

Emeka Okafor
On the defensive efforts of Vanderbilt
I took the shots when I had the chance. They were physical around the basket and I tried to put up good shots.