PHOENIX REGION

UConn 72

DePaul 55

BUFFALO – Jim Calhoun believes in omens. Of course, this might have been taking it a bit far.

Five years ago, on his way to his first NCAA Tournament championship, the Connecticut coach saw his team roar through the regional on its way to the gold. And before that, Calhoun missed the Huskies’ first game of that tournament, against Texas-San Antonio, with an upset stomach.

This year? Yep. If the Huskies are going to qualify for the Final Four, they’ll first have to cut down nets next weekend in Phoenix. And last night, Calhoun missed a good eight minutes of UConn’s resounding 72-55 thrashing of DePaul because of – you guessed it – an upset stomach.

“I told my wife I’d spare everyone the gory details,” Calhoun said.

Just as well. The game itself was gory enough. Connecticut (29-6) never trailed and scored the first 11 points of the game. The Huskies roared to a 19-point halftime cushion and barely noticed when Calhoun repaired to the locker room, leaving the team in the hands of assistant George Blaney, the former Seton Hall coach.

“We came out with a lot of fire, a lot of confidence,” said UConn guard Ben Gordon, who scored a game-high 18 points. “We wanted to get to the Sweet 16 in the worst way.”

Calhoun was also pleased with the Huskies’ 10th trip to the Sweet 16 under his watch – although it did have a bittersweet tinge because it came at the expense of DePaul head coach Dave Leitao, who spent 16 years as an assistant under Calhoun. Though the Blue Demons did win their first NCAA Tournament game in 15 years Thursday night, they were completely outclassed at HSBC Arena.

“We knew what they were going to run – and they knew what we were going to run too, of course – but we worked hard and were able to work our way through,” said Calhoun, who did return to the bench in time to exchange a warm embrace with his former aide. “We jumped on them, because we are a very good basketball team. I thought in a lot of ways we put on a clinic in the first half defensively and in transition.”

Leitao wasn’t about to argue.

“I don’t think there’s any question that it’s going to take an unbelievable effort out of somebody to knock that team out of this tournament,” Leitao said. “I’m sure not going to bet against them at all.”