3. Connecticut
Gifted sophomore Khalid El-Amin has revised his priorities at the point: lead by passing, especially to Richard Hamilton
Posted: Wednesday November 18, 1998 12:18 PM
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The reigning Big East Player of the Year, Hamilton is flush
after healing a broken
foot. Lou Capozzola |
Floating
around the UConn basketball
offices is a photo album of the team's trip in August to
Europe and the Middle East. There are snapshots of players
standing in front of Buckingham Palace, frolicking in the
Dead Sea and strolling along the cobblestone streets of
Nazareth. But none of these pictures bring a twinkle to the
eyes of coach Jim Calhoun quite like the one of squarish
point guard Khalid
El-Amin smiling brilliantly as he sits astride a camel outside
the Israeli city of
Tiberias.
"We go for a camel ride and none of the kids want to
get close to the camels because they're afraid of getting
spit on or bitten,'' recalls Calhoun. "Then here comes
Khalid yelling, 'Follow me.' He jumps on a camel, and sure
enough everyone follows him.
That's when I realized I've got a kid who knows how to
lead."
By leading the charge of the camel brigade,
El-Amin showed Calhoun just how much he has grown since last
season, when he helped UConn set a school record for wins.
All five Huskies starters return, including
6'6" junior forward Richard Hamilton, the top returning
vote-getter for the 1998 AP national player of the year
award. But it is
El-Amin, the
5'10", 200-pound sophomore, whom Calhoun calls his
"most important player."
Although he was named Big East Rookie of the Year last
season,
El-Amin fired away far too frequently (witness his field goal
percentage: 42.4), and his shoot-first, pass-second
mentality often upset the rhythm of the offense. During the
Goodwill Games this summer he asked everyone from Utah
playmaker Andre Miller to
Minnesota coach Clem Haskins about ways to improve his game.
"A good point guard has to think team first all the
time,"
El-Amin says. "Sometimes I
didn't do that last year."
El-Amin's primary job will be to get the ball to the silky
Hamilton, who has fully recovered since breaking his right
foot in July. Named the Big East Player of the Year last
season after averaging 21.5 points, Hamilton spent his
convalescence at home in
Coatesville, Pa., watching videotapes of himself in high
school. "I wanted to stay in tune with my game,"
he says. "When you go
2 1/2 months without playing, it's easy to lose your
focus."
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| STARTING LINEUP |
| POS. | HT. | CLASS | KEY STAT |
| SF Richard Hamilton* | 6'6" | Jr. | 21.5 ppg |
| PF Kevin Freeman* | 6'7" | Jr. | 56.9 FG% |
| C Jake Voskuhl* | 6'11" | Jr. | 7.1 rpg |
| SG Ricky Moore* | 6'2" | Sr. | 44.1 FG% |
| PG Khalid El-Amin* | 5'10" | So. | 16.0 ppg |
'97-98 record: 32-5
Final rank (coaches' poll): No. 7
*Returning starter
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That was a problem last year for
6'7" junior Kevin Freeman, who struggled to play what
Calhoun calls the Marshall Position. Named after former
Huskies Donyell and Donny, the Marshall Position requires
the muscle of a power forward and the quickness of a small
forward. During the team's
six-game overseas tour, however, Freeman showed remarkable
progress. Says Calhoun, "He started to look like he
could be a special
player."
If Freeman can
marshal his talent, the Huskies' starting five will be as good as
any in the country. The
NBA folks seem to think as
much: Three scouts attended a recent practice that consisted of
little more than shooting and rebounding drills. "The
sky is the limit for us,"
says
El-Amin. "If I get everyone involved, we'll be a very,
very nice team."
—Lars
Anderson
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