What you can say is they used a slow cooker to cook Rice, not a Wok. The first half sucked and UConn really didn't do anything on offense until the second half. Anyway the line on this game was UConn by 7 and UConn won by 7, so Vegas nailed it.

With that roster construction, it seems fairly certain that Adams and Mullins will share minutes at shooting guard, while Nowell and Mahaney will share minutes at point guard.

I will not be in Hawaii, but I will not be at work either. I will be home, watching these games.

This is something to watch. Anyone remember the game at Seton Hall last year when Clingan got hurt and the ensuing rim attacks/assaults?
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I am curious what the plan is on playing Adams/Mullins together - whether one of them plays point guard or they go with a 3 guard offense. Mahaney and Nowell will still be on the team next year and perhaps Ball as well. It's a large number of top notch guards.

the Blades said:

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I am guessing Hurley voted for Marquette since coaches can't vote for their own team? I wonder if McDermott is pissed off at that vote?

Congrats to Tyrese Martin, who got a 2 way contract from the New Jersey Nets!

I saw the play, it was a terrible non-call and the failure to flag the DB was heavily criticized by the CBSSN announcers. I am guessing the refs thought the ball was not catchable, but the hold went on for so long, that's very debatable.

Donovan Denies!
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Is Nick Evers going to start at QB?

Lastly I wanted to send out kudos to the guys at Sushi Koya. My buddy and I got to the Casino at 4:20 pm and wanted to have an early dinner at Tao but their dining room was not open until 5 pm. Same story at Michael Jordan's Steakhouse. We saw Sushi Koya was open and there were seats at the bar and ate there. The sushi was fresh and good although not the tightest rolls in world history, and service was on point.

BTW I don't know who the random guy who sang the national anthem was, but that was a spectacular rendition. Not an easy song to sing (and some have failed spectacularly at live events), but he did a wonderful job and hit the high notes beautifully.

I happened to notice Kayla Burton both during and after the game. My buddy also noticed her. She is a very beautiful woman to say the very least, and she is also a former basketball player at Lehigh (her sister Veronica plays in the WNBA for the Connecticut Sun). I quickly realized she was an NBC Boston Sideline Reporter when I observed her going into both the UConn and URI huddles and nobody said anything to her.

Her father was a QB at Northwestern and her mother I think was a collegiate swimmer. Her grandfather played for the Patriots. It's quite an athletic family.

I was there. I thought UConn looked good offensively but they need some work defensively and rebounding the ball, even though they finished the game +1 on the boards. Although they were sloppy with the ball at times especially in the first half, it looked like UConn was pushing the ball up very aggressively and intentionally playing fast the whole game. The objective being to wear down URI with their depth, which they eventually did in the second half.

Aidan Mahaney and Solomon Ball were the players of the game for UConn. Mahaney played some point guard, made excellent decisions, showed a nose for the ball and for making plays with the ball. Ball was very dynamic out there on both ends and he is the one guy I saw crashing the boards really hard in the first half.

My biggest concerns about this team were losing Clingan and not having really good rim protection, and at times tonight the rim protection was weak. Ex UConn center Javonte Brown, who is a 7 footer with a solid body, kind of bullied both Samson Johnson and Tarris Reed Jr. and was a key reason why URI kept this game close in the first half. I have yet to see Samson Johnson effectively defend anyone who has a few inches and a few pounds on him, and that was true tonight as well. UConn is going to see better 7 footers than Brown, including Ryan Kalkbrenner among others. The rim protection probably will never again be as good as it was last year with Clingan, but it has to be better than it was tonight.

The team looked very deep tonight and they did a lot of things well. I am looking forward to seeing how the coaches will develop the team's defensive identity going forward.