Kemba Walker Leads UConn Huskies in Maui Invitational

Kemba Walker is playing at an extremely high level right now for the UConn Huskies.

Without him there is no telling how this team would perform on the court, but yesterday the young Huskies overcame 16 minutes of having their floor general on the bench in foul trouble.

UConn beat Wichita State 83-79 due in large part to one player by the name of Kemba Walker.

Walker was limited in the first half with only two points and spent most of the time watching from the bench.

His teammates responded and took a 33-32 lead into halftime, capped by a Roscoe Smith banked-in three.

This UConn squad took some big steps forward yesterday but still has a lot of work to be done.

The second half was a tale of two stories. Wichita State led by nine on two different occasions. They weren't able to close the door on this UConn team. Walker flat-out couldn't be stopped. He scored 29 points in the second half. He also poured in 15 of his team's final 18 points.

Talk about unstoppable. You would think that coach Gregg Marshall would have put a double or triple team on the star point guard. Guess again. Walker was left one-on-one with the decision to pull up for three or take it to the rim.

Walker is so quick that he can beat almost every defender on the way to the rim. In limited minutes he was 14-of-15 from the free-throw line. A preseason first-team selection in the Big East, he continues to impress on the basketball court.

Last game against Vermont he dropped a career-high 42 points, which also tied for the most by a player in the Jim Calhoun era. Richard Hamilton once scored 28 in a half; that record now belongs to the 29 points Walker put up yesterday in Maui.

Now Michigan State looms for Connecticut. The Spartans are the second-ranked team in the nation. For Walker this is a rematch of the Final Four that only took place two years ago. With everything that has happened with the NCAA at UConn, it seems like it was years ago.

Nobody is expecting UConn to beat Michigan State. The Spartans are more talented and more experienced. With that being said, I still expect the Huskies to come out and fight hard against this team.

Calhoun will learn a lot about his team tonight when they take center stage on ESPN—an early season test that will determine how equipped his team is right now to play with the big boys.

This is a matchup that you don't want to miss.