University of Connecticut Athletics
Connecticut 59, Northeastern 57
3/16/2010 12:00:00โฏAM | Men's Basketball
March 16, 2010
Recap | Box Score | Photo Gallery 
Connecticut Head Coach Jim Calhoun
"Bill's team had every reason, right, opportunity to try to beat us. We came up with a couple of loose balls and jumped on the back of a guy who's been struggling - Jerome Dyson - late, and got a win. It certainly was not our best performance of the year, but at this point in time..."
"They're a good basketball team. They ran terrific, terrific offense. They set good screens. I've always thought that [Matt] Janning is a terrific player. I really like [Chaisson] Allen. Their big guys are good. And they really ran good stuff. They're hard to defend, to be very honest with you."
"I thought their match-up gave us more problems than it should have. I had predicted that Bill was not going to come in here and just try to play us man to man. And he didn't, unfortunately. I wish he had disappointed me."
"We had to gut out a win. Thank God it was at home."
"We had some good halves by Stanley [Robinson] in the beginning, and certainly by Alex [Oriakhi]. A great second half by Jerome [Dyson], down the stretch."
"As you turn the TV on, you're going to see other games much like this."
Kemba Walker
"A win's a win. We came out with it. That's what we needed."
"We just want to think positive, and play every game like its' our last."
On Jerome Dyson
"He's been struggling. For him to step-up big like that is good for the team."
Gavin Edwards
"We realized that if we didn't start playing it would be the end of our season."
"We kind of gave [Northeastern] confidence. They started getting to the basket a lot more. They started penetrating and creating for each other. That's kind of hard to stop."
On Jerome Dyson
"I knew that he would bounce back. Everybody has a bad couple of games. Jerome had his. You can't write somebody off after they have a bad game. I knew that he would come back and have a great game, and he did."
Jerome Dyson
"I couldn't let it end like that. The coaches were telling me the whole time they needed me to shoot the ball and get to the middle."
"I just tried to be more aggressive. Once they set those screens on the top, I just tried to turn the corner and penetrate."
On the last three minutes
"We just had to man up on the defensive end. They were getting too many uncontested shots and layups. We just had to keep our man in front of us."
"We just have to make the most of our opportunity."
Northeastern Head Coach Bill Coen
"I thought it was a very competitive game at both ends of the floor."
"The war on the glass was tremendous."
"Jerome Dyson stepped up and made some big shots exactly when his team needed it, and that's what great players do. And he certainly is a great player."
"You have to credit UConn's defense. They challenged every shot. They really stiffened up their defense at the appropriate time."
"At crunch time the big bodies came into play."
What happened on your last possession?
"They were well prepared and really didn't let Matt get any separation. In the second half he really didn't get much separation and get a good look...He didn't get a quality look down the stretch."
What did you do during the stretch when your team made seven-straight baskets?
"We did a good job of getting the ball to Manny around the basket. He's a very efficient low-post scorer and our best low-post option. We were kind of riding him for a bit."
