HARTFORD, Conn. -- UConn quarterback Johnny McEntee, step aside. There is a new trick-shot king at UConn: Kemba Walker.The junior guard had 31 points, 10 assists and seven rebounds, leading the No. 13 Huskies past No. 9 Georgetown 78-70.
Walker's most impressive -- oh my gosh, did you just see that? -- play occurred early in the second half.
The official play-by-play sheet doesn't do it justice:
MISSED JUMPER by Walker, Kemba 16:45
REBOUND (OFF) by Walker, Kemba 16:41
GOOD! TIP-IN by Walker, Kemba [PNT] 16:41 43-40 H 3
UConn forward Alex Oriakhi had a better description.
"He pumped faked the guy and threw it up," Oriakhi told FanHouse. "I was saying, 'What is he doing?' Then I was like, 'I know exactly what he's doing.' He must have seen a lot of Kobe (Bryant) videos. I'm going to ask him, what was he thinking."
What was Walker thinking when he pump faked from the top of the key, ducked under Georgetown's 6-foot-10 forward Henry Sims and intentionally slammed the basketball off the backboard, basically passing it to himself? Walker then raced down the lane, grabbed his own rebound and dropped it in the basket.
"I saw the lane open," Walker said. "At the time it was the only play available, so I went for it. I never did it in a game -- ever. I'm just happy I made it because like I said, I don't know what coach would have done if I missed."
Coach Jim Calhoun was happy all right. In fact, he was almost downright giddy after the Huskies (20-5) clinched a 20-win season for the 19th time in his 25 seasons at UConn.
"Twenty wins for me is like a .300 hitter," Calhoun said. "I guess I'm old-fashioned, but 20 wins is 20 wins."
Even an old-fashioned, 68-year-old coach like Calhoun could appreciate the show put on by Walker Wednesday night at the XL Center as Walker nearly registered his second triple-double of the season.
"I haven't seen the bank play in quite some time," Calhoun said. "That was him. Obviously he was wonderful."
Mr. Wonderful also has not been fully appreciated in basketball circles, Calhoun claims. Entering the Georgetown game, in Big East play Walker ranked first in minutes played (38.3), second in scoring (20.4) and turnover/assist ratio (3.11), fourth in steals (1.83), sixth in assists (4.92) and ninth in defensive rebounds (4.42).
And, as far as Calhoun is concerned, Walker also should rank first in the Big East and national player of the year voting.
"Kemba was Kemba. He's leading a lot of young people to some awful good places right now at 20-5 and I keep hearing he couldn't be the Big East Player of the Year? No, they're probably right about that. He's probably the national player of the year. I've said that all along."
-- UConn coach Jim Calhoun "Kemba was Kemba," said Calhoun after his star guard played all 40 minutes. "He's leading a lot of young people to some awful good places right now at 20-5, and I keep hearing he couldn't be the Big East Player of the Year? No, they're probably right about that. He's probably the national player of the year. I've said that all along.
"You want instant stuff and he's not allowed to be human. In the Big East, it's not being human. It's being overwhelmed at times by everything that a young team has. He had to carry us so much, he carried us early."
While Calhoun didn't mention any other national player of the year candidates, he probably was comparing Walker to BYU's Jimmer Fredrette.
Walker doesn't have the catchy first name or cult following like Jimmer, but Walker certainly has the game. He's also done it in the league's biggest, baddest basketball league.
Still, Walker downplayed Calhoun's player of the year statements.
"That's my coach, I expect him to say things like that about me," Walker said. "It's not up to him of course. It doesn't matter. I know what I've done this season. I think I did a great job helping a lot of young guys on this team get better. That's the most important thing to me. Whatever happens (in the player of the year voting), happens."
Trailing 37-36 at halftime, Walker scored 21 of his 31 points in the second half. During one stretch, Walker and Jamal Coombs-McDaniel combined for 20 points as the Huskies, who trailed by 10 in the first half, built a nine-point second half advantage.
The Hoyas, who were riding an eight-game winning streak, rallied behind Chris Wright (19 points, 5-of-9 3-pointers) and grabbed a 70-69 lead with 4:01 remaining.
But then Walker -- who else? -- answered 34 seconds later, an instant before the shot clock expired, by driving through the lane for a layup to key a game-ending 9-0 run.
Besides the highlight reel bank off the backboard, Walker made a variety of circus shots in the lane, twisting, turning and tossing the basketball over the taller Georgetown defenders. On one layup, Walker had his back to the basket and banked it off the backboard.
"Once he got in the lane, he was pretty much doing what he wanted," Wright said. "He made plays. He had 10 assists. He was making a lot of plays."
I guess, you could say, Georgetown got Kemba Sliced.
"You see some of those layups, (but) we come to expect of him," Calhoun said.
Besides getting to the 20-win mark, the victory was UConn's fourth in five games against top-10 opponents this year. It was also big for the Huskies, who now begin a brutal closing five-game stretch at Louisville Friday followed by home game against Marquette, at Cincinnati, at West Virginia and home against Notre Dame. All five teams rank among the top 60 in the RPI rankings.
"A giant, giant win in a 100 different ways," Calhoun said.
Walker said it was important simply because the Huskies had fun on the court.
"It was fun to win," Walker said. "I was able to score some baskets, but the biggest thing was my team had fun. That's something we've been trying to preach the last couple of games.
"We're overachievers. We're 20-5. Nobody expected this from us."
Just as none of the Hoyas saw Walker's pass to himself coming. Still, Walker said his shot doesn't compare to the trick shot video by McEntee and a couple of his football teammates that has over 4.4 million views on YouTube.
"I doubt it," Walker said. "They made some difficult shots in the video. I'm pretty sure the shot I made is nothing compared to that. It was just a spur of the moment (play). It was the only thing there at the time.
"I just did it because it was the right play."
Brett McMurphy is a national college writer for FanHouse. Contact him at brettmcmurphy@gmail.com and please follow at Twitter.com/BrettmcmurphY
list of sports lombardi sports nba basketball pictures nba history
No comments:
Post a Comment