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Kevin Ollie passes first test in UConn’s upset of Michigan State
- Updated: November 9, 2012
By: Kels Dayton
It was almost as if Jim Calhoun never left.
Kevin Ollie guided the Huskies to a huge first win. (AP)
In many ways, Calhoun didn’t leave. He was sitting right next to the bench during the game.
But symbolically, figuratively, poetically, Calhoun was with UConn in spirit only. He was powerless, sitting next to radio play-by-play man Joe D’Ambrosio and probably fighting back more curse words than Artie Lang at a formal dinner.
The Huskies were just fine without him.
New head coach Kevin Ollie guided Connecticut to a 66-62 upset win over No. 14 Michigan State in the season’s first college basketball game at the Armed Forces Classic in Germany.
It went about as well as he could have possibly hoped. UConn was intense, scrappy, and hard-nosed. They played with their trademark toughness, jumping out to a 16-point lead and holding off the Spartans throughout the second half. The Huskies took advantage of 16 Michigan State turnovers.
UConn blitzed Michigan State right from the opening tap, racing out to a 20-6 lead. The Spartans briefly took control in the second half, but two threes from Napier and Boatright put Connecticut ahead for good.
Shabazz Napier led the Huskies with 25 points. Ryan Boatright finished with 13 points, 4 assists and 4 boards, and forward DeAndre Daniels did his best Jeremy Lamb impression, finishing with 12 points and 8 rebounds.
Napier pointed to Calhoun as time expired.
“It’s all about these players, because they believed,” Ollie told Katz. “They didn’t go nowhere. They stayed loyal to this program, and that’s what it’s all about.”
Shabazz Napier had 25 points in the Huskies' upset of Michigan State. (Photo: New Haven Register)
And then, in a moment that never would have happened had Calhoun been coaching, the team swarmed him, jumping up and down and patting him on the head. Through just one game, it’s clear that these Huskies love their new coach.
UConn athletic director Warde Manuel gave Ollie just a seven-month contract, and has been vocal in expressing that the program may head in a different direction if the team doesn’t reach its perennially lofty expectations.
But in a season that will end before the Big East tournament (thanks to NCAA sanctions), it’s clear that Ollie has already gotten his team to buy into what he’s selling. Not many coaches could coax a big season from their team under these circumstances.
The Huskies had every reason to lay a season-opening stinker, but instead they fought for their coach. They played hard because they’re Connecticut, and that’s what they do.
Some things never change.
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