time this season -- the only player in the league to be honored more than three times. Napier was selected after averaging 17.5 points, 7.5 rebounds. 4.5 assists, and 2.0 steals in victories over USF and nationally-ranked Cincinnati. He had 17 points, 15 in the second half, to go with 7 assists, 4 rebounds and 2 steals as the Huskies defeated USF in Tampa. He followed that with his sixth double-double of the year, 18 points and 11 rebounds, UConn upended Cincinnati at the XL Center in Hartford. In addition to his five Player of the Week selections, Napier has also been named to the league’s weekly Honor Roll eight times this season. Two other Huskies, junior DeAndre Daniels, and freshman Amida Brimah, have also earned weekly honors from the American Athletic Conference this season. Player of the Week: Shabazz Napier (5): Nov. 25, Dec. 9, Jan. 27, Feb. 17, March 3. Weekly Honor Roll: Shabazz Napier (8): Nov. 11, Nov. 18, Dec. 23, Dec. 30, Jan. 13, Jan. 20, Feb. 3, Feb. 24. DeAndre Daniels (1): Dec. 2. Rookie of the Week: Amida Brimah (1): Jan. 13 GRAND MASTERS: With his first point against Memphis on Feb. 15, in the 79th game of his college career, junior Ryan Boatright became the 48th member of UConn’s 1,000-point club. Boatright joins senior Shabazz Napier as 1,000point scorers on the same team. The last time the Huskies had more than one 1,000-point scorer on the same team was in 2008-09, when that UConn team had four -- Jeff Adrien, A.J. Price, Jerome Dyson, and Hasheem Thabeet. RECORD WATCH: Through 29 games, the Huskies are making a run at a few UConn season records. The record for highest 3-point shooting percentage is 40.8 percent in 1995-96. Currently, the Huskies are shooting 38.9 percent. The UConn record for highest foul shooting percentage is 78.2 percent in 1980-81, which was also No. 1 in the country. Currently, the Huskies are shooting 77.1 percent from the foul line. The highest per game average of three-point attempts stands at 17.3 in 2010-11. UConn’s average so far this season is 18.2. The highest per game average of three-pointers made is 7.4 in 1995-96. Currently, the Huskies are averaging 7.1 three-pointers per game. 20 OFF THE BENCH: With 20 points against UCF on January 11, freshman Amida Brimah became the first UConn player under Coach Kevin Ollie to come off the bench and score 20 points. The last UConn player to accomplish that feat was Ryan Boatright, who came off the bench to score 23 against Arkansas on December 3, 2011, under former Coach Jim Calhoun. Boatright was the 14th player to come off the bench in Calhoun’s 26 seasons at UConn to reach the 20-point mark in a game. The other players in this group were
UCONN BASKETBALL ALL-TIME TRIPLE-DOUBLES Player
Date, Opponent
Shabazz Napier Shabazz Napier Kemba Walker Hasheem Thabeet Marcus Williams Ben Gordon Emeka Okafor Caron Butler Doron Sheffer Donyell Marshall
11/11/13 vs. Yale 14p, 11/20/11 vs. Coppin State 22p, 12/3/10 vs. UMBC 24p, 1/31/09 vs. Providence 15p, 2/21/06 vs. Notre Dame 18p, 12/20/03 vs. Iona 17p, 12/6/03 vs. Army 18p, 12/26/00 vs. URI 14p, 12/30/95 vs. Hartford 10p, 1/17/94 vs. Hartford 23p,
Rashad Anderson (11 times), Brian Fair (9 times) , Ben Gordon (5 times), Ray Allen (4 times), Johnnie Selvie (4 times), Phil Gamble (3 times), Doug Wiggins (3 times), Kemba Walker (2 times), Jamal Coombs-McDaniel (2 times), John Gwynn (2 times), Tony Robertson (1 time), Charlie Villanueva (1 time) and Rashamel Jones (1 time). NON-CONFERENCE SCHEDULE: UConn’s victory over Harvard, 61-56, on Jan. 8 wrapped up the Huskies’ regular-season nonconference schedule for 2013-14 with a 12-1 record. UConn’s only loss to a non-conference opponent this year came against Stanford. Since the 1998-99 national championship season, UConn is 170-27 (.863) against regular-season, non-conference opponents. During that time span, the Huskies have gone undefeated in their non-conference schedule four times. Under Coach Kevin Ollie, UConn is 22-3 against regular-season non-conference opponents. RPI RANK: In RPIratings.com and NCAA RPI rankings through games of March 2, UConn is ranked No. 26 in the country. UConn is 4-5 against teams ranked in the top 50, 5-0 against teams in the top 50-100, and 7-1 against teams ranked 100-200. The Huskies are the second highest-ranked team in the American Athletic Conference, behind Cincinnati (16). Other teams in the AAC, with their RPI through games of March 2: Louisville (29), Memphis (32), SMU (41), Houston (147), Temple (163), USF (186), Rutgers (207) and UCF (208). TOP 25: UConn is back in the top 25 rankings in both the AP and USA Today Top 25 for the week of March 3. The Huskies are No. 19 in the AP poll and No. 19 in the USA Today poll. Starting with the preseason poll, the Huskies spent nine consecutive weeks ranked in the polls and have been in the AP Top 25 in 13 of the season’s 18 weeks. The AAC has five teams in the AP Top 25 this week and six of UConn’s 2013-14 opponents also appear in the AP Top 25 or ‘Others receiving votes.’ The
longest consecutive streak for UConn to
Stats
11r, 12r, 13r, 11r, 10r, 16r, 15r, 12r, 10r, 11r,
10a 13a 10a 10b 13a 11a 10b 11a 11a 10b
be ranked in the Top 25 is 77 weeks, a span from Nov. 1997-Jan. 2001. Consecutive Weeks in the Polls Streak Dates 1. 77 weeks Nov. 1997-Jan. 2001 2. 67 weeks Mar. 2003-Jan. 2007 3. 51 weeks Dec. 1993-Mar. 1996 4. 36 weeks Feb. 2008-Jan. 2010 5. 28 weeks Nov. 2010-Jan. 2012 LAST TIME OUT: UConn upped its record to 4-2 against ranked opponents this season, defeating #11/12 Cincinnati in a defensive struggle, 51-45, on March 1. UConn started the second half on a 9-2 run to take the lead for good. Both teams enduring lengthy scoring droughts, but the Huskies managed to widened the gap to 10 points and held off the Bearcats with foul shooting. Senior Shabazz Napier led the Huskies with 18 points and 11 rebounds, his sixth double-double of the season. Grad student Lasan Kromah added nine points and some stellar defense. SECOND-HALF RALLY: After shooting just 29.2 percent in the first half, scoring a season-low 22 points, and trailing 28-22 at halftime, UConn took over in the second half to defeat USF, 61-56, on Feb. 26 in Tampa. The Huskies, who shot 56.0 percent in the second half, went on an 18-0 run, holding the Bulls scoresss for a 7:00 stretch, on their way to their second victory over USF this season. Senior Shabazz Napier scored 17 points, 15 in the second half, grabbed 4 rebounds and handed out 7 assists to lead UConn. Junior Ryan Boatright had 14 points, 3 rebounds and 3 assists, while senior Niels Giffey had 11 points and 5 rebounds. WALKIN’ TALL IN MEMPHIS: UConn won its first American Athletic Conference road game with an 83-73 victory at Memphis before 18,039 at the FedExForum on Jan. 16. In an exciting game in which the lead changed 13 times and the game was tied three times, UConn took the lead for good on a tip-in by Amida Brimah with 13:08 to play, but the lead was only 75-71 with 1:00
2013-2014 University of Connecticut Basketball Media Notes March 5, 2014 vs. Rutgers UConnHuskies.com