Bad breaks test mettle of UConn
Jim Calhoun expected to spend this season developing his young talent into a team that could defend Connecticut’s second national championship.
Instead, he has spent several days at the hospital bedsides of two of his players, while soothing the fears of their teammates.
Top recruit A.J. Price suffered a brain hemorrhage in October and was in critical condition for nearly three weeks. And most recently, leading scorer Rashad Anderson has been hospitalized all week with a serious leg infection that has affected his breathing and landed him in intensive care.
“His spirits are good,” Calhoun said Sunday before going to the hospital. “Before the game we’ve had some good news about his breathing and that’s been a major problem. Hopefully we’ll have him out in a couple days.”
Calhoun has been spending more time in the hospital than he’d like. He joined Price’s parents every day for 17 days there until the 18-year-old finally came around. Price is back in class but doctors have ruled out any return to basketball this season.
The illnesses have helped bond a team that was clearly in a rebuilding year without the leadership of departed All-Americans Emeka Okafor, Ben Gordon and the school’s winningest point guard, Taliek Brown.
Price was expected to shore up Calhoun’s backcourt. One of the top prep guards in the country from Amityville, N.Y., he averaged 28.5 points his senior year. But none of that mattered this fall when he was stricken. His coaches and teammates just wanted him to walk out of the hospital
“Ever since my injury, the team is tighter. And now with Rashad out, the bond is very tight from the coaches to the last player on the bench,” Price said Sunday. “He’s in the back of everybody’s mind. Hopefully we’ll get to see him soon.”
Anderson, a 6-foot-5 swingman, is one of UConn’s main outside threats. He shot nearly 50 percent in the NCAA tournament last year and was averaging 13.8 points a game before his illness.
It’s just one more bad break the defending champs have to shoulder through.
“This last week, people have been saying, ‘What’s going on at Connecticut?’ It must be in the water or something,” Price said. “If it’s not one thing it’s another. But we’ll fight through it.”
(2) North Carolina 77, (19) UConn 70
Rashad McCants and Raymond Felton had big second halves Sunday to help No. 2 North Carolina earn a 77-70 win over No. 19 Connecticut.
McCants had 11 of his 15 points in the second half for North Carolina (20-3), while Felton had 14 of his 16 points and seven of his 10 assists in the final 20 minutes.
Marcus Williams had a career-high 18 points for the Huskies (15-6).