Jerome Dyson had a game high 21 points in the Huskies 76-57 win over Wisconsin tonight. The victory came in the championship game of the Paradise Jam held annually in the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Dyson (3 assists, 6 rebounds) was complimented nicely by Jeff Arden (14 points, 9 rebounds) and Kemba Walker (12 points, 6 rebounds).

UConn also played stellar defense as no Wisonsin player scored more than 9 points.  

The Huskies out rebounded the Badgers 33-22, and shot over 50% in field goals (53.2), 3 pointers (55.6) and free throws (70).

UConn beat No. 22 Miami (76-63) in the semi finals and No. 25 Wisconsin in the finals by a combine margin of 32 points.

Read More

Live from Kansas City (only the best on the Big East Sports Blog), Syracuse has beaten Florida in its first big test in 2008.  The Orange wins it 89-83 led by Paul Harris and Jonny Flynn with 18 points a piece.

Florida struggled shooting the ball from three (for the second game in a row).  The Gators made just one three in their last game against Southern Utah and hit only 7-of-23 vs. the Orange.  Four of those seven makes came from Nick Calathes.  Erving Walker hit the other three, all coming in the second half.

Postgame thoughts from SU players:

Jonny Flynn:

-Jonny called Paul Harris an animal (he had 18 and 11) who was scrapping it out. 

-He made note of how great it was to have two defenses that are reliable.  SU began the game in a man-to-man and got beat to rebounds (It was 20-18 in SU’s favor in the 1st half).  As the game progressed the Orange went to a zone and played respectable there as well.  Jonny mentioned to me earlier this year that if you’d have told him last year SU would be competent at man defense he would have laughed.  So there is progress.

Kris Joseph

-A freshman, Joseph was just happy to be here.  He said it hadn’t really sunk in yet that he’d just played Florida on the road.

-Joseph was really happy in Jim Boeheim’s confidence in Joseph to give him minutes in critical spots and to have faith in his basketball IQ.

Paul Harris

-Without a doubt this was a statement win according to Harris.  He credited a lot of the early success to Andy Rautins.  Andy had been 1-11 from three over the last two games and shot 5-7 from deep in the 1st half. 

-Paul was upset about missed free throws down the stretch.  SU shot just 59% from the charity stripe.  This has been an ongoing issue for SU.

Jim Boeheim madean interesting comment when asked if this was a statement win.  Boeheim said it wasn’t really because it wasn’t so much a win over a Top-25 team as people think.  The SU coach said there really isn’t a true Top 25 anymore.  He said there was UNC and then four Big East teams but everybody else has good players, even Richmond and Oakland – the last two teams SU played and beat.

Props to Danny Parkins from WAER Radio.  Danny spoke with Jim Boeheim after most of the media cleared out of the locker room and asked him about playing Kansas as a rematch of the 2003 title game.  Boeheim shrugged off the questions saying the only games that mattered right now where the ones that just happened and the one coming up tomorrow.

It’s amazing how four days can change a season’s perspective.

The Pirates entered the O’Reilly Auto Parts Puerto Rico Tipoff Class as one of the second-tier teams – a power conference club, yeah, but no Memphis, Xavier, or USC. Grabbing a win would be great, two phenomenal, and then it would be back to life as one of the Big East’s bottom dwellers.

Instead, the Hall left 2-1, with third place honors and wins over a ranked Southern California and a very talented Virginia Tech. Oh, and they scored a couple votes in the AP Top 25.

How’d they do it? First, Jeremy Hazell was phenomenal. He had 15 points in the win over USC, an astounding 32 in the loss to Memphis, and 23 against the Hokies. John Garcia had two more double-doubles. Eugene Harvey returned to form, and the rest of the team fell into line behind him.

It was a great weekend to be a Pirates fan, but it sets up an even better month. The Hall has Delaware, Monmouth, Cal Baptist (still don’t know why), St. Peter’s, IUPUI, James Madison and Fairleigh Dickinson left before they start the Big East schedule. Those are seven winnable games.

Heck, Delaware, Monmouth, Cal Baptist, Fairleigh and St. Peter’s should be guaranteed wins. IUPUI isn’t what they were last year (not easy when your best player bolts for the San Antonio Spurs) and James Madison took this team to the last second in 2007 before ultimately falling.

So, if I’m right, we’re looking at a Hall team that could be anywhere between 9-3 and 11-1 going into the Big East opener against Syracuse. That’s scary, and nowhere near what most folks were projecting

I’ll break the team’s performance down a bit more in the coming weeks, because games are going to get sparse for awhile. But for now, know that Seton Hall could well be one of the earliest surprise stories in this still young college basketball season.

-Skip

Looks like USF doesn’t want to go out without a fight — which is the opposite from many fourth quarters this season.

After forcing a Connecticut three-and-out, and a subsequent shanked punt, the Bulls capped a five play, 48-yard drive with a touchdown. Sophomore Jamar Taylor broke the game’s longest run with a 25-yard scamper to the endzone. USF is up 17-10 with 12:36 left in the game.

A ridiculously uneventful game just got exciting, as the Connecticut Huskies reached deep into the bag ‘o tricks to tie the game at 10 with just under 3 minutes left in the third quarter.

After a defensive holding penalty by USF CB Jerome Murphy gave Connecticut the ball at the Bulls’ 46 (its first trip inside USF territory tonight), the Huskies used a reverse/flea flicker that saw QB Tyler Lorenzen find Ellis Gauldman  for a 46-yard touchdown pass. 

The play capped a 12-play, 87-yard drive that took more than seven minutes off the clock. 

How did USF follow that up? With a three-and out.

There’s 28 seconds left in the first half, and the Connecticut Huskies have gotten on the scoreboard.

The Huskies capped a 12-play, 41-yard drive with a 21-yard field goal. They had second and goal from the USF 5-yard line, but RB Donald Brown couldn’t punch it in, and QB Tyler Lorenzen missed FB Anthony Sherman on third down.

As I’m typing, sophomore WR Dontavia Bogan returned the kickoff 71-yards to the Connecticut 20, where Grothe threw a badly underthrown pass on first down and was intercepted by S Aaron Bagsby on the next play. USF leads 10-3 at the half.

Quick Stats:

QB Matt Grothe (USF): 7/12 107 yards 1 INT

QB Tyler Lorenzen (Connecticut): 5/10 28 yards

RB Ben Williams (USF) 4 carries, 17 yards 1 TD

RB Donald Brown (Connecticut) 11 carries, 36 yards

Time of possession: 

USF-13:46

Connecticut- 16:14

USF drove the ball down to the Connecticut 13-yard line, but stalled in the red zone, settling for a 29-yard field goal.

The Bulls had first and 10 from the 14, but sophomore RB Mike Ford netted one yard on first down, then QB Grothe missed a receiver in the end zone and had sophomore WR AJ Love drop a ball on third down.

The two misses were the first for Grothe on the night, as he is 5-of-8 for 96 yards with 13 minutes left in the first half.

The first quarter has come and gone, and there have been no more fireworks like the quick score USF opened the game with.

Neither team has gotten any momentum since, and have traded punts for the last four possessions.

The USF football team hadn’t led a game since the fourth quarter of the Louisville game — back on Oct. 25. That streak ended just 2:23 seconds into Senior night from Raymond James Stadium.

Sophomore WR Dontavia Bogan returned the opening kickoff 64 yards and set up a five play, 30-yard scoring drive, capped by a three-yard touchdown by senior RB Ben Williams.

USF leads 7-0

Greetings loyal followers. I’m live at Raymond James Stadium, where the USF Bulls are playing their home finale against the Connecticut Huskies.

From all reports, QB Matt Grothe (ankle) will be in the starting lineup for the Bulls — a small sigh of relief for a team reeling after three consecutive losses.

Before we continue with football — kickoff is about 80 minutes away — a quick women’s basketball note. The Bulls beat Coppin State 97-43, and Bulls senior guard Shantia Grace scored a USF-record 44 points, including a team-record eight three-pointers.

USF is 4-0 this season and heading to the Virgin Islands during the Thanksgiving break.