Longhorns Corralled by Huskies, 88-74

College Hoops Player of the Day for Saturday, January 23, 2010

The Big 12 is a tough conference, but the Big East is even tougher, proven, in distinctive fashion by the Connecticut Huskies, as they thumped the Texas Longhorns, 88-74, at the XL Center in Hartford.

Texas entered the week ranked #1 in the polls, but since then has suffered two straight losses, the previous one at Kansas State on Monday, where the Wildcats bumped them, 71-62. Five days and another long road trip later, Jerome Dyson and the Huskies took them down again. Dyson led all scorers with a season-high 32 points, hitting 12 of 23 shots from the field, including 4 of 8 3-pointers. Down 42-34 at the half, the Huskies rallied in the second stanza, outscoring the Longhorns, 54-32. Texas drops to 17-2 on the season, while UConn, during a week in which they lost head coach Jim Calhoun to a medical leave and dropped out of the Top 25 for the first time in 36 weeks, improved to 13-6 with their second straight win over interim head coach George Blaney.

Morris Lights Up Bruins as Jayhawks Go 7-0

College Hoops Player of the Day for Sunday, December 6, 2009

Markieff Morris led all scorers with a career-high 19 points on 8-for-11 shooting as the Kansas Jayhawks improved their unbeaten record to 7-0, fending off a UCLA team in obvious rebuilding mode, 73-61 at Pauley Pavilion in LA. Cole Aldrich continued to be a rebounding machine for Kansas, pulling down 12 boards, 6 of those on the offensive end.

The Bruins have not gotten off to a very promising start in 2009, with the loss to Kansas their 5th in just 7 games. Scratch the Bruins from the PAC-10 contender list this season as their talent from the past two years has been badly diluted by graduation and players going to the pros. The Bruins shot just 36% on the night, while the Jayhawks, who led the entire game, were held to a season-low 44%, but still easily prevailed.

NOTABLE: The Connecticut Huskies barely escaped their trip to the Ivy League with a 79-73 win over the 6-2 Harvard Crimson and their outstanding senior guard, Jeremy Lin. Lin scored a season-high 30 points, nailing 11 of 18 shots from the field (2-3 on 3s) and 6 of 8 from the foul line. Nine boards, 3 assists, 3 steals and 2 blocked shots rounded out Lin's memorable performance.

Senior guard Jerome Dyson led the Huskies with 24 points, 14 rebounds and 9 assists. Dyson has carried the Huskies to a 6-1 record, averaging 20 points per game, but even UConn coach Jim Calhoun thinks Dyson - who is playing more than 34 minutes per game - needs help, saying, "we don't have a bench."