By PAT EATON-ROBB
Associated Press Writer
STORRS, Conn.(AP) -- Connecticut coach Jim Calhoun doesn't know if
he has a better team than the one he took to the Final Four last
season, but he's confident it will be more athletic.
"I like our quickness," Calhoun said. "I think we're going to
play together. I think the ball will move better. But we won't,
I don't think, be able to stop the ball with blocked shots quite
the way we have in the past."
Connecticut, ranked No. 12 in The Associated Press preseason
poll, has led the nation in blocks for eight consecutive years.
But 7-foot-3 Hasheem Thabeet, who averaged 4 blocks per game,
Jeff Adrien and guards Craig Austrie and A.J. Price are all
gone.
It's UConn's biggest loss of talent since 2006, when it sent
four players to the NBA, then won just 17 games and missed the
2007 postseason.
Stanley Robinson, who was a freshman on that team, said he
doesn't think this year's Huskies, which include five freshmen,
will have the same growing pains.
"We're very athletic, and we just have a great chemistry,"
Robinson said. "We have all the right parts. We just need to put
it together. I'm a senior this year, so I've got to be the one
to show them what it's about. You have to walk out on that floor
with a certain swagger, and let people know that you can't be
beat."
Calhoun says the 6-9 small forward could be UConn's best player
but must be consistent. Robinson has been known to make some
jaw-dropping dunks and some head-scratching turnovers. Last
season, he made just 3 of 23 shots from 3-point range.
"You'll see a better Stanley, a more improved Stanley," Robinson
promised.
He is joined by what is expected to be one of the nation's top
backcourts. Senior sharpshooter Jerome Dyson, who led UConn to a
22-1 start last year, is back from the knee injury that kept him
out of the Huskies postseason run. Kemba Walker, whose job was
to come off the bench and speed up the pace of games, moves into
a starting role at the point, with highly touted freshman Darius
Smith as his backup.
"I think we're going to be a lot faster," Walker said. "We got a
lot of guys willing to run, and that's the type of team we are.
We all want to run."
The biggest question marks will be in the frontcourt, where 6-10
senior Gavin Edwards and 6-9 freshman center Alex Oriakhi are
expected to start. Ater Majok, a 6-11 forward with an outside
shot, becomes eligible in December.
Oriakhi (pronounced ohr-ee-AHK-ee) said he knows people are
going to try to compare him to Thabeet or Adrien, and expect him
to keep the team's shot-blocking streak alive.
"I know it's unfair, but I'm always a defensive-minded player,"
he said. "So I'm just going to rebound and block shots and do
what I've been doing. I don't feel I have to live up to Hasheem
or Jeff."
Calhoun isn't predicting another shot-blocking title, 31-win
season or a return to the Final Four. But he's not ruling it
out, either.
"To have a better record would be really a stretch, but to have
a really good record, and be really good by February would not
be a stretch," he said. "We could be really, really good when
it's all said and done."
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