UConn dumps No. 7 Indiana
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Jim Calhoun looked at the scoreboard, hugged his players and never changed his usually rock-hard facial expression. The Connecticut coach wouldn't give into his own emotions.
A day after he suspended two key guards for violating team rules, Calhoun's Huskies turned in their grittiest performance of the season to pull an improbable 68-63 upset at No. 7 Indiana.
In Calhoun's mind, the victory meant as much as any since winning his second national championship.
"To do what we did is certainly the greatest I've had and it's going to get up there since the national championship team beat Georgia Tech," he said. "Quite frankly, they deserve more than a hug from me. They deserve one from the state of Connecticut, from the university, from our fans."
Given the circumstances, it was understandable.
Less than 24 hours before tipoff, Calhoun faced a quandary when he learned Jerome Dyson, a starter, and Doug Wiggins, a backup, had violated team rules. Calhoun wouldn't say what the players did but when he got the details, he decided to leave the players at home.
It appeared the loss of those two would doom UConn (14-5) against an Indiana team that had won 13 straight overall, 29 in a row at home and had the Big Ten's best offense.
But the Huskies did more than just compete. They buckled down, gutted it out with a short-handed lineup and outplayed the Hoosiers in virtually every facet.
UConn dominated the middle, outscoring Indiana 34-16 in the paint and holding a 44-28 rebounding advantage, and when they needed to close it out late, Craig Austrie, Dyson's replacement, made 6 free throws in the final minute.
It was a hard lesson for the Hoosiers (17-2).
They hadn't lost a game since Nov. 24, hadn't lost at home since Feb. 11, 2006, and hadn't shot this poorly all season. Indiana, the Big Ten's best shooting team, was just 8 of 29 from the field in the first half (27.6 percent) and 23 of 62 for the game (37.1 percent).
Even the usual standbys, Eric Gordon and D.J. White, struggled. Gordon finished with 14 points on 5-of-16 shooting, while White had 13 points and 10 rebounds. Armon Bassett led the Hoosiers with 18 points, all on 3-pointers.
"You can spin this any want you want, but we didn't play good enough to win," second-year Indiana coach Kelvin Sampson after losing for the first time at Assembly Hall. "Connecticut was the team that deserved to win."
It sure didn't look that way initially.
Indiana opened with 3 straight 3-pointers to take a 9-0 lead, forcing Calhoun to call a quick timeout.
Then things started to change. The Huskies righted themselves with a 12-1 run that gave them a 19-16 lead with 7:10 left in the first half.
That was followed by a defensive masterpiece.
Indiana scored just 15 points over the final 16:58 of the half, trailed 29-24 at halftime and found themselves in an even deeper hole when UConn opened the second half on a 7-3 run that made it 36-27.
The Hoosiers never seriously challenged again.