Singing Vaughn's praises
UConn coach Jim Calhoun is becoming quite the PR man for UC basketball. First he declared Mick Cronin the frontrunner for Big East coach of the year and then on Thursday during the coaches' teleconference, when I asked him to reflect further on Deonta Vaughn's 34-point performance from the night before, he was very effusive in his praise.
"Last night he was worth the price of admission alone," Calhoun said. "He’s a pretty special player. He’s in the top five or six players in this league without question, no doubt. Cincinnati is very fortunate to have him."
Vaughn is currently second in the league in scoring in conference games only, averaging 21.3 points to Luke Harangody's 22.0. In all games, he rankes sixth with a 17.6 average. Seton Hall's Brian Laing, whom UC will see Sunday, is tied with Harangody for the lead in scoring at 18.9, but he's averaging only 15.5 in conference games.
posted by bill koch at 10:56 AM
15 Comments:
at 11:16 AM 
Anonymous said...
-
-
at 12:10 PM 
Anonymous said...
-
-
at 12:38 PM 
Anonymous said...
-
-
at 1:51 PM 
Anonymous said...
-
-
at 2:32 PM 
Anonymous said...
-
-
at 2:34 PM 
Anonymous said...
-
-
at 2:40 PM 
Anonymous said...
-
-
at 2:50 PM 
Anonymous said...
-
-
at 2:53 PM 
Anonymous said...
-
-
at 3:12 PM 
Dave in Omaha said...
-
-
at 3:15 PM 
Anonymous said...
-
-
at 10:24 PM 
Anonymous said...
-
-
at 10:16 AM 
Anonymous said...
-
-
at 10:59 AM 
Anonymous said...
-
-
at 2:53 PM 
Anonymous said...
-
-
Post a Comment*For Calhoun to say that UC has one of the top players in the entire league is not only great praise for Vaughn, it's also a testament to mick's
1) eye for talent
2) recruitment abilities, especially considering when he signed him
3) ability to develop players and improve their skills.
Bill -- Don't know if you ever pass along casual suggestions to Mick, but just in case --- on TV we could see the UC players celebrating as Uconn called that timout around the 5-minute plus mark, after Vaugn's two big threes put them up 12. Even Vaughn himself got a little caught up in it. It seemed in that moment that they were showing overconfidence, that they had lost their edge. I hadn't seen that in any of the other big BEast wins (granted, they may not have gone up twelve with 5 min to go). Yes, Uconn is no slouch, and we knew they would make a run, but perhaps some of those turnovers were also due to lack of toughness/concentration -- i.e., losing their edge.
This of course fits in with the notion of a young team. As this team gains more experience, hopefully they will learn to never lose their edge until the final horn....
bill could you call the "pick and roll play" more often too?
fair enough...to rephrase, i would ask mick if he felt his team had gotten overconfident when it took that lead and lost its edge...
"Bill -- Don't know if you ever pass along casual suggestions to Mick..."
Funny you mention this, because when I was watching the UConn game on Fox Sports Net here in NYC, I definitely saw Mick mouth the words, "Bill....Bill! Should we press now or not?" at least 3-4 times.
Also, I know Bill didn't want to brag the other day when he kindly explained how he approaches his blogs...but the bottom line is, he not only has to blog and write game articles - he is also responsible for coaching UC's big men too.
Vaughn's and Cronin's accomplishments aside...
I think Calhoun's comments show he is a savvy veteran when it comes to feeding the media a quote that will get him covered.
Vaughn was certainly UCs only shot at pulling off a win, but he was much worse off when Adam and Warren weren't in the game. He can't dominate yet. He is improving, though. Thank goodness.
Mick is doing a great job. Let's see how his coaching looks once the rest of the BEast adjusts their scouting reports after these early conference games. I think he has a shot at that honor, but his team is still really inexperience.
Calhoun just may have made it that much tougher for UC by making others take more notice.
2:32, Calhoun wouldn't have the help the other teams to take more notice if UC would have won the game - and they should have!
the smartest thing calhoun said this week was when he told his player to DRAW THE FOUL on Bishop. coaching at its best!
lets not criticize the refs, that would indicate that we are fans. are we fans of the game? are we fans of our youth? the awful state of the college and high school homer refs is known to all and everyone looks the other way. effective cheating. what messag is sent? that cheating is ok. of course this is not a big problem like roids in baseball, that message was that cheating is ok. sooner or later someone is going to open their eyes and find all that sand.
2:50...
please don't post under the influence
I'm sure that the other Big E coaches are well aware of Vaughn...
Also LOL at the suggestion that Bill give Mick a few coaching tips...That's funny
please dont project
"UConn's Dyson, Wiggins suspended for breaking team rules"
This would have been a dandy headline last Wednesday...unspecified infractions apparently.
If you want to give Mick suggestions, then just write to him. He's got a secretary, but if you word it politely and intelligently then he'll get the message.
It's hard to believe Vaughn getting "better" from 20+ points per game, but as a sophomore he WILL get better.
Which is a good thing.
Bill -
just watched the highlights of the Seton Hall vs Providence game - Seton Hall looks very tough!
any preview info on their strebgths?
Bill, any word on when we can expect some dates for the home football schedule?
* Our online blogs currently are hosted and operated by a third party, namely, Blogger.com. You are now leaving the Cincinnati.Com website and will be linked to Blogger.com's registration page. The Blogger.com site and its associated services are not controlled by Cincinnati.Com and different terms of use and privacy policy will apply to your use of the Blogger.com site and services.
By proceeding and/or registering with Blogger.com you agree and understand that Cincinnati.Com is not responsible for the Blogger.com site you are about to access or for any service you may use while on the Blogger.com site.
<< Home