Fighting Fire With Fire

Sporting News, The, Feb 15, 1999 by Ken Davis

Reeling from its first loss and an injury to its best player, Connecticut needed a spark. Coach JIM CALHOUN challenged KHALID EL-AMIN to find the passion burning in his belly. Stanford is still feeling the heat.

The first maniac came bursting through the doors of Maples Pavilion one hour before game time last Saturday and headed straight for the bleachers across from center court.

The sign he carried read: "Fat Boy." He was followed by other members of Stanford's Sixth Man Club, the student crazies who want to be the Dukies of the West.

There were other signs in the crowd. One showed Connecticut guard Khalid El-Amin and the Pillsbury Doughboy under the banner: "Separated at Birth." Another said, "Khalid: One Word--Slim-Fast."

Those were the nice signs, the ones that didn't question his paternity history (El-Amin is married and has two children) or border on obscene. El-Amin, taking jump shots and warming up just a few feet away, looked them in the face and smiled. He has received this type of unpleasant attention before, although not of this magnitude.

El-Amin and his teammates were facing another, more serious challenge from coach Jim Calhoun. It had been that type of week. The first loss of the season, an embarrassing 59-42 loss to Syracuse. Injuries to All-American swingman Richard Hamilton and center Jake Voskuhl. And some long, long practices that carried a strong message from Calhoun.

Most of it was aimed at El-Amin. How did this 5-10, 203-pound sophomore respond? El-Amin produced 23 points, five assists and five steals, leading the Huskies to a stunning 70-59 victory over Stanford while Hamilton, a contender for player of the year, spent a second consecutive game on the bench because of a severe thigh bruise.

After the loss to Syracuse, when the Huskies were without Hamilton and Voskuhl, Calhoun called his point guard to the side.

"Is that fire still in the belly?" Calhoun asked El-Amin, who went 2-for-12 against the Orangemen. "I've done 800 of these. It's still in mine."

"Yeah," El-Amin answered. "It's still there."

El-Amin kept his other thoughts to himself but carried them on the 3,000-mile trip to Stanford.

"I know he didn't mean it bad, but I felt threatened he would say that to me," El-Amin said after the game. "I knew he expected me to play with more enthusiasm. I decided I never wanted to hear him say that to me again."

Even with everyone healthy, the Huskies had been sputtering. There were whispers El-Amin was tired after a hectic summer schedule that included the Goodwill Games and UConn's team tour of England and Israel.

In the four games before the Syracuse loss, UConn had trailed at halftime and relied on its defense to pull out victories. So when Hamilton's 22 points per game went to the bench bemuse of the injury suffered January 30 against St. John's, the Huskies turned to El-Amin for an offensive spark.

"There's no kid who wants to win as badly as him," Calhoun said before the Stanford game. "But I don't think the fire has quite been there. I told him I'd rather he go 2-for-20 than 2-for-12."

Against Stanford, El-Amin was 7-for-19. And he came out shooting. He scored 12 points as UConn shocked Stanford by jumping out to a 22-6 lead. El-Amin hit 6-of-11 shots and scored 16 points in the first half, triggering UConn's defense with four steals that took the tempo out of Stanford's hands on its home court.

Few regular-season victories during the Calhoun era have produced the satisfaction UConn felt last Saturday. The truly memorable victories are ones that come against the greatest odds. This was one of those moments.

The irony is that after this great moment, UConn fell from No. 1 to No. 2 in the polls, despite a 20-1 record and one incredibly impressive victory. The day before the game, Calhoun declared Duke "clearly the best team in the country."

Most college basketball observers conceded the No. 1 spot to Duke after UConn lost to Syracuse on February 1. But is that fair? How much weight should be assigned to the Syracuse loss? And what about the Stanford victory, especially when the odds were greatly stacked against the Huskies?

Those are tough questions.

"They play awfully good defense, and they were very aggressive on the ball," Stanford coach Mike Montgomery said. "UConn is not only athletic and quick, but they're also good. Any time you face a team like that, you're going to have some problems."

Calhoun downplayed the issue of NCAA seeds heading into the game. The media focused on it because UConn and Stanford were considered likely No. 1 seeds, along with Duke and Cincinnati, at the start of last week. Duke was the only team to survive the week without a loss.

A key in the seeding debate is whether Duke or UConn will be placed in the East, where the opening rounds will be played at Boston's Fleet Center and the Charlotte Coliseum. The semifinals and finals will be at the Meadowlands in New Jersey. If Duke wins the rest of its games, the Blue Devils likely will get the No. 1 seed in the East because they have a better RPI and a stronger nonconference schedule than the Huskies.