UConn-WVU: How Jim Calhoun's T Landed Huskies in the Big Dance

Considering this game wasn’t your garden variety Big East brouhaha, it was odd that UConn came out so flat. I mean, come on, basically all of the Huskies' tournament hopes were on the line last night.

As Joe Lunardi and NCAA tournament committee members looked on, ready to officially write-off and write-out the resurgent Connecticut Huskies, West Virginia jumped out to a quick five to zip lead, and it looked like the UConn players weren’t all that excited to compete.

Enter Jim Calhoun, evidently a big March to March fan, and his bag of motivational tricks.

Sensing that his players weren’t—ahem—dialed in to the importance of a game that was going to be a physical 40-minute tilt, the crafty ole ball coach decided to get everyone’s attention, including the zebras'. A few magic words to referee Michael Stevens, and Calhoun was hit with a tech one minute into the ball game.

“Suffice it to say I was ready for the game,” Calhoun said. “I certainly didn’t try to do anything of that nature, but I wanted (the players) to know I was ready for the game.”

The technical foul call was a psychological arrow that hit both of its intended targets. The Huskies came out fired up and proceeded to go on a 23-6 run, seizing control of the game they had seemed to be disinterested in just a few minutes before.

The effect Calhoun’s calculated T had on the officiating? The following quote and the fact that Coach Huggins was thrown out of the game late in the second half tell the tale.

“We shot four free throws in the first half and two of those were technicals,” Huggins said, referring to the technical called against Calhoun 47 seconds into the game. “We weren’t trying to foul. They shoot 42, we shoot 23. You can’t win.”

Needless to say, Coach Huggins was nonplussed about the foul shooting disparity. But all is fair in love and Big East conference play.

As for the game itself, other than Calhoun’s Sun Tzu stunt, I thought the Huskies were a bad matchup for what WVU likes to do on defense. Since the Neers play four similarly sized players—call it a collection of four wings and a point guard—they like to switch or change most screens to make it easier on help-side defense. Big to big, small to big switches—it doesn’t matter.

This strategy is usually pretty effective because most teams in today’s game only have one back to the basket post threat at any given time, and the other four players are face-up players. Not UConn. They sometimes have three solid post players on the floor. If you switch and they find a back to the basket player matchup they like, they’ll punish you.

Edwards, Oriakhi, and even Robinson can hurt you with their low block games, so when these three players caught the ball down low against a weak WVU post defender because of a switch, the Neers had to send help. Keep in mind that it’s so much tougher for help-side defense to defend a competent post threat than a face-up guy. A post threat catches the ball behind help defenses. Face-up players catch the ball with help-side defenders in sound position.

Against the Huskies, it didn’t matter if the help was from the other block or from perimeter players digging down to the post. Either scenario was bad medicine for Huggins’ group. UConn dominated the glass when WVU sent help from the other block. When the Mountaineers sent perimeter help, Dyson and Walker waltzed into the lane, which resulted in over 40 free throws, a win for the Huskies, and a likely tournament bid.

This article was written by Kevin Berger of March To March

Follow Kevin on Twitter: @MarchToMarch