UConn's Walker is America's best player early on; plus more notes

Because he was in such demand by the media, Kemba Walker was the last man to board the UConn bus following the Huskies' 84-67 win over Kentucky in the championship game of last week's Maui Invitational. Walker scored 90 points in the Huskies' three wins, which included a semifinal upset of then-No. 2 Michigan State, making him the easy choice for tournament MVP. But for all the cheers he heard inside the Lahaina Civic Center, the best ovation was yet to come.

"When he got on the bus, his teammates stood and clapped," UConn coach Jim Calhoun told me on Sunday. "I've never experienced that as a coach. They clapped. But that's the kind of respect they have for him. He works hard, he's tight with the young guys, and he's obviously playing the best basketball of his life."

Actually, Walker, a 6-foot-1 junior guard, is arguably playing the best basketball of anyone in the country. His brilliant run in Maui came on the heels of a 42-point performance in an 89-73 win at home over Vermont on Nov. 17. Walker's 30.0 points per game leads the nation, and he is also putting up 4.2 rebounds and 3.6 assists per game. Most important, he has led UConn, which came into the season unranked and bordering on irrelevant, to a 5-0 start. On Monday, the Huskies moved into the AP poll for the first time this season at No. 7.

Walker's transformation since we last saw him in UConn's second-round NIT loss last March has been remarkable. During his first two years in Storrs, the only consistent feature of his game has been his inconsistency. When he was off his game, his outside shooting vacillated from poor to atrocious. (He made just 27.1 percent from three-point range as a freshman; his overall field goal percentage as a sophomore was 40.3.) And while Walker has always been exceptionally quick, his inability to change speeds and adopt the nuances of playing point guard too often rendered him ineffective.

Walker worked extremely hard to shore up those deficiencies in the offseason. While attending summer school classes at UConn, he worked out twice a day with Ben Wood, the head student manager. "It was all shooting," Walker said. "Last year a lot of people would back up off of me or go under screens, and I didn't have the confidence I needed to shoot well. It was frustrating because I knew that if I could keep defenses honest, we would have had a few more wins."

When he wasn't in Storrs, Walker was hitting the circuit for elite college players -- three different Nike camps featuring Deron Williams, Chris Paul and LeBron James, and then two stints (one in Las Vegas, the other in New York City) practicing against the NBA players who competed for Team USA at the FIBA World Championship. While going up against other college players at the Nike camps, Walker gained confidence from seeing his shooting work pay off. Against the pros, Walker took pride in the way he handled defensive pressure, and he learned from guys like Rajon Rondo how to slow down from time to time to play a more sophisticated floor game.

The result was a steady but steep progression that has been very much in evidence the first four weeks of Walker's junior season. "He would work, then test it out [at a camp], and then come back to school knowing what adjustments he had to make," Calhoun said. "Right now he sees the game at a much slower pace than he did before. He has all kinds of different gears, he has a midrange shot, which we're always telling guys to work on, and he can turn it on and off when he wants to."

He has also embraced his role as the team's leader. It began last June, when Walker called the incoming freshmen to let them know that he was going to be on campus with them all summer, making sure they were working as hard as he was. UConn's freshman class was unheralded by the program's standards (Rivals.com ranked the class 15th in the country), but the youngsters have outperformed their expectations. Against Kentucky, Niels Giffey, a 6-7 swingman from Germany, had 14 points, while 6-foot guard Shabazz Napier hounded UK freshman Brandon Knight into a horrendous 3-for-15 shooting performance. Sophomore forward Alex Oriakhi has also been impressive in the early going. He is averaging 13.4 points and 12 rebounds per game and has already posted three double doubles.

As great as Walker has been, he and Calhoun both understand the hard part is yet to come. After the Huskies dispatched Kentucky, Calhoun was quick to remind them that they are still the same team that trailed Vermont at home by three points, and that fell behind Wichita State in the quarterfinals in Maui by eight points with eight minutes to play. "Nobody in the country is playing any better than Kemba, but I'm not the only person who knows that," Calhoun said. "Everybody who sees him is going to try to keep him out for the game, so we've got to come up with another answer."

He was quick to add, "Although Kemba is a heck of an answer right now."

Hoop Thoughts from the Legends Classic

I had the pleasure of spending two days in Atlantic City last week providing color commentary for HD Net at the Legends Classic. Syracuse beat Georgia Tech to take the championship, while UTEP defeated Michigan in the consolation game. Here are some quick takes on those four teams after watching them on consecutive nights:

• Syracuse has been winning ugly so far this season, but at least the team's winning. The Orange are going to have to develop a blue-collar, Pitt-like identity if they are going to challenge for the Big East crown. Kris Joseph played his best basketball of the season in Atlantic City, scoring a combined 41 points on 13-for-21 shooting in the wins, but it was Rick Jackson who deservedly walked off with the MVP award after grabbing 14 rebounds in the final against Georgia Tech. The Orange also got a terrific boost off the bench in the final from two freshmen, Dion Waiters and C.J. Fair, who combined for 23 points. The bottom line is that points are not going to come easily for the Orange this season. They're gonna have to get it done with dirty work, and that will take some time to develop.

Meanwhile, Syracuse's much-heralded 7-foot freshman center, Fab Melo, was once again a total non-factor. He started against Michigan, but after he let Wolverines center Jordan Morgan beat him for an offensive rebound and putback, Jim Boeheim stuck Melo on the bench and never put him back in. He played four minutes against Michigan and had zero points in 10 minutes against Georgia Tech. You'd expect a guy who was voted Big East preseason Freshman of the Year to average a modest eight points and nine rebounds a game, but those are Melo's total stats through five games.

When I asked Melo after the game if his confidence was hurting, he smiled and said, "Of course." But I liked his positive attitude. "When I was in high school, it was easy for me to score because I was so much bigger," he said. "The defense is the hardest part. But now I know how hard I have to work, and I know it's going to get better. It's just going to take some time."

• Georgia Tech sophomore guard Brian Oliver was sensational in the final. (He is no relation to the Brian Oliver who starred for Georgia Tech's 1990 Final Four team.) Oliver scored a career-high 32 points and made 6-for-11 from three-point land against Syracuse, several of which were well beyond NBA range. But the Yellow Jackets could not answer Syracuse's toughness. Junior guard Iman Shumpert, who did a great job defensively on UTEP's Randy Culpepper in the semifinal, was an offensive no-show in the final. He had 11 points, but he was 0-for-5 from three-point range and many of his points came in the final minutes when the outcome was pretty much decided. Georgia Tech has some good young big men, but they did not provide any kind of low post presence against the Syracuse zone. If the Jackets can't find some way to throw it into the post during the ACC season, I fear it's going to put more defensive pressure on their guards than they'll be able to handle.

• At 5-11, Culpepper is a dynamic athlete and a very dangerous long-range shooter. Yet, UTEP coach Tim Floyd sat him on the bench for the final minutes of the Miners' semifinal against Georgia Tech because he didn't like Culpepper's shot selection. Floyd was still ticked enough the next night that he didn't start Culpepper against Michigan, and he stayed on the bench for the first six minutes. Culpepper handled the demotion with great maturity, and once he got in the game he exploded for 24 points to lead UTEP to a 65-56 win.

I also liked what I saw out of 6-7 senior point guard Julyan Stone, though I'm mystified as to why he has not developed more of an offensive game. If he did, he'd be a surefire pro. UTEP does not have quality big men, but I think Floyd has himself a nice prospect in 6-10 freshman John Bohannon. At 210 pounds, Bohannon gets pushed around a lot in the paint, and like a lot of freshmen big men he commits some silly fouls. But he is coordinated and skilled, and he had 10 points and seven rebounds in just 21 minutes in the consolation win over Michigan.

• It's a shame Michigan let a golden opportunity for an upset slip away in Friday's semifinal against Syracuse -- losing 53-50 -- because by the time Saturday night came around this young team had dead legs. The Wolverines do not have a single senior on the roster, and given how much John Beilein's offense is predicated on three-point shooting, they're not going to beat any good teams going 5-for-29 from behind the arc. Freshman guard Tim Hardaway Jr. came into Atlantic City as the team's leading scorer, but he really struggled with his shooting and shot selection. He made four of his 20 attempts over the two nights. At 6-8, redshirt freshman Jordan Morgan is a tad undersized at center, but he's crafty and uses his body well. He'll be good down the road for this program, but given how physical and experienced the Big Ten is this season, that road is looking pretty long right now.