No. 2 UConn Clinches Share Of BIG
EAST Title With 84-80 Win Over Louisville
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 STORRS, Conn. (March 4,
2006) – Senior Denham Brown (Toronto, Ont.), one of seven Huskies
playing their final home game at Connecticut, scored 17 points and made the
crucial steal in the game’s final minute to help second-ranked Connecticut hold
off Louisville, 84-80, before a sellout crowd of 10,167 at the Harry A. Gampel
Pavilion Saturday afternoon. The win gives the Huskies at least a share for the
2005-2006 BIG EAST Conference title.
The win,
Connecticut’s fifth in a row, improves their record to 27-2, 14-2 in the BIG
EAST. Louisville drops to 18-11, 6-10 in the conference.
Connecticut had
rallied from an early second-half six-point deficit to take a six-point lead of
their own with 7:42 to play on two free throws by Brown. However, the Cardinals
refused to go away quietly, rallying to lead 71-69 on a pair of free throws by
Taquan Dean with 4:01 remaining. The Huskies forged ahead by five, at 78-73 on
the strength of two hoops by senior Rashad Anderson (Lakeland, Fla.).
Yet again, the Cardinals rallied, tying the contest on two free throws by Juan
Palacios with 54 seconds to go. After Marcus Williams (Los Angeles,
Calif.) made two free throws with 48 seconds to go, Brown stole a pass from
Dean, and Williams made four more free throws to salt away the game.
Brown finished with
a team-high 17 points, and tied his career-high with 11 rebounds to continue his
inspired play of late. He was joined in double figures by four teammates.
Anderson, the nation’s leading scoring bench player, scored 15 to register his
23rd double-digit scoring effort of the season. Junior Josh Boone
(Mt. Airy, Md.), held to just two points in three foul-plagued minutes in the
first half, finished with 13 points and six rebounds. Williams finished with 11
points and seven assists. Senior center Hilton Armstrong (Peekskill,
N.Y.), had 10 points and set his career-high with nine blocked shots.
The win gives the
Huskies 16 total titles in the BIG EAST, with six tournament championships to go
along with 10 regular-season titles. The Huskies completed an unbeaten home
season with an unblemished 16-0 record, their first since going 17-0 in
1997-1998.
The Huskies made
half of their field goal attempts (26 of 52), but allowed the Cardinals to
register 18 offensive rebounds. Particularly impressive for Louisville was
Palacios, who finished with a game-high 29 points. He made all ten of his free
throw attempts.
The Huskies will be
the No. 1 seed in the BIG EAST Tournament, which starts on Wednesday afternoon.
The Huskies will play on Thursday at noon, against the winner of Wednesday’s
game between the yet to be determined eighth and ninth seeds.
 POSTGAME QUOTES
UConn Head Coach
Jim Calhoun
"We thought
Louisville…was getting better. Little did I know they were playing that much
better. I thought their perpetual motion on offense was so difficult to guard.
We held them to 35 percent, but by doing so we gave up some offensive rebounds,
and that was caused by their penetration and by them spreading the court out.
They did a great job of setting screens. It just shows you what good players,
and they have good players and a great coach, can do. Rick really has them
playing the best basketball."
"They were well
prepared for us."
"They were in a
mindset. And that comes from Rick [Pitino]."
"I don’t think the
Big East or college basketball or the Committee should feel any embarrassment if
that team goes to the NCAA Tournament. They’ve got good players. They just
happen to be a little bit better than we are. We were home and Denham, some of
our veteran players, Rashad, etc., made some terrific plays down the stretch."
"The Big East
championship means a lot to us….If you can go through 16 games in league and
have to go into the places you have to go, and beat the teams you have to beat….
It’s really tough…This is a terrific league. To come through it 14 and 2, I
couldn’t be prouder of our kids."
"I just said to
them 'I’ve been in a room with some talented teams and some teams that bordered
on greatness, but I don’t know if I’ve been in a room before with so many kids
that have sacrificed so much' … This is the epitome of what a basketball team is
all about. Watching kids grow – Rashad, Denham, Hilton – that’s what college
basketball is all about."
"The story of this
year is who can persevere, and who can hang in there?"
"I’m bursting with
pride about this team."
On Palacios
"He was just
magnificent. He put the ball on the deck, drove from 22 or 23, made threes. He
really was a handful."
On Denham Brown
"It was really
fitting that Denham had such a good game. Eleven rebounds, and he was just a
horse out there as far as handling the ball for us, giving us an extra handler,
especially where Marcus had such a poor first half."
 UConn's Denham Brown
On his playing a great game today
"Right now I’m still not thinking about that.
I’m a basketball player. I need to contribute to help my team win. I think the
bigger thing was to win a championship. It is all appreciation for the fans on
coming out in the cold and helping us get over the slump that we’ve been in."
On if the ball slipped out of Taquan Dean’s hands
or if it was a steal
"Nah nah, I stole that! I’m not going to say it
slipped out of his hands. I didn’t know he was going to pass it, but I saw it
in the air and I knew I could grab it. So I did."
On if game was emotional being his last regular
season game
"I don’t think it was emotional, I think it was
something we needed to fight for, they weren’t going to play dead and give us
the championship, they knew what was at stake it is a CBS game, senior night, if
we win we’re regular season champs. If they win, they’re in the tournament;
they came out and played real hard."
On finding seams in the zone
"They were just keyed on guys, playing more of a
match-up zone than a 2-3, to match the dominance that we had displayed early in
the first half. Boone coming off a poor first half because of foul trouble then
coming out big in the second half, they really needed to come in a guard him so
that opened up a lot of lanes for us."
On if this is as good as it gets for him
"Not really! If I win the championship, I am
pleased. If I don’t win an NCAA championship I’m not pleased regardless of how
well I am doing. It is to make history out here…2 in 4 years at a school of
this caliber…it’s the day and age that we are in right now, 2 in 4 years is
really unheard of."
UConn's Ed
Nelson
"I’m glad I kept myself ready. There were times
in the season when I could have quit, could have just thrown in the towel, but I
always stayed positive, I always remember last year at this time, certain
situations I was needed to step up big and it was just a coincidence it happened
tonight."
On sacrifice
"I’m up there on the sacrifice scale. We have a
lot of great players, I can’t be selfish, I’m on the number one team in the
country, I just have to stay ready and stay ready for nights like tonight."
Was this a big game for you personally
"Definitely, having all of my family here, glad I
was able to get out there and get a good sweat going, get a couple points.
Definitely going out on senior night, it was a great win, I just hope we can
roll it over, a national championship will be better for me."
On transferring
"There were times I have thought, if I stayed
obviously I would have more minutes I would have been twelve more points in
buckets. Overall, school wise, atmosphere wise and family wise I’m happy.
Family is very important to me, they are at every game, I always get to see
them. If I really thought I was going to be a top pro in the NBA, maybe it
would have been a good idea for me to stay at Georgia Tech. I’m going to have a
good career next year, I can’t get down on myself I have to keep playing hard."
UConn's Marcus Williams
On the importance of this game
"I think it gives us a lot of confidence; we can
carry the momentum going into the big east tournament. Everything is there for
us now; we have to capitalize on everything."
On Denham Brown
"He’s been playing great for us lately. He told
me at half time that he was going to do whatever it takes to go out there and
get us a win. He was taking it to the basket hard and the refs had to give him
the fouls. I think at first he wouldn’t give him his calls and then when he saw
he was going to the basket hard and started making jump shots and was playing
defense on Dean good and he just did whatever he had to do."
On getting the ball to Denham
"I know he wants to shoot it. When he starts
doing the things he does, I think a lot of teams are going to start keying in on
him, but we still got Rudy, we still got Rashad so I think it balances it out
for us."
On the type of play
"They just stopped us from running real well and
I think midway through the second half we had a couple fast breaks where we got
the ball to the middle of the zone and just pushed it on a three on two and I
think if we had done that the whole game it wouldn’t have been that close of a
game."
 UConn's Rashad Anderson
On senior day
"It was nice but we wanted to come out and get a
win, bottom line."
On Denham Brown
"I kept telling him, keep shooting and that’s
what happened. He took over the game."
On bringing the trophy into the stands after the
game
"Our student section has been supporting us all
year long and I just wanted to go out there and let them feel the trophy too.
I’m going to miss this place, but life goes on."
On time flying by
"I think it really took its toll on me. Its more
special for me than it was a year ago. As you all know last time, the same game
the same date last year I was in a suite 30 pounds lighter just getting
out of the hospital, so its real special to me."
On BIG EAST Championship
"It was real important. It was one of our goals
at the beginning of the season and now we have two more goals to accomplish."
Louisville
Head Coach Rick Pitino
"That’s an
extremely disappointing loss for us, about as disappointing as we’ve had all
year, because we’re playing such good basketball. And to come away empty handed
like this is a very empty feeling, to say the least. I’m really disappointed in
the loss, but really happy with the way the guys played today. We played well
enough to get a W and we didn’t, and it’s very disappointing."
"When you look at
Florida State and you look at us, we’re pretty much in the same ballgame. They
beat Duke at home and all of a sudden they’re on the bubble. Well, if we beat
Connecticut on the road, we have the same record and it’s now one better and
we’re just as much on the bubble as they are, if not more, because of the
quality of the wins that we have recently. So, it’s extremely disappointing."
"Our pressure can
be really good at times. The problem we have is that we shoot such a low
percentage all the time that we don’t “get it on” enough to fatigue people. The
guys did a really good job of that. We wanted to just try and get on the
offensive rebounds as hard as we could. We have definitely improved our
rebounding in the last two weeks."
"We just tried to
play at all their players’ strengths. Whether it’s Rashad Anderson – we didn’t
play that one play where he got a jump shot – we tried to take away Williams’
left hand, with Rudy Gay we tried to pressure him at all times and jam him. We
tried to do what everybody else does, it’s just that they’re such a good
defensive team. All of a sudden you have a wide open shot – we ran a play
coming out of halftime where Palacios was just wide open for a three and, before
you know it, they weren’t within 10 feet and they blocked the shot. They close
out so well and they’re so long that they cause big problems for you at the
offensive end."
"You have to come
away with a victory. It’s just about winning at this stage of the game. It’s
not about feeling confident."
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