Who says Notre Dame’s Ben Hansborough is the Big East’s Player of the Year? St. John’s Dwight Hardy, Syracuse’s Rick Jackson, and UConn’s Kemba Walker all deserved mention for the award. But only Walker took matters into his own hands Thursday as he nailed yet another game-winning shot to help upset #3 Pittsburgh in the Quarterfinals of the Big East Tournament.
Despite holding a commanding lead over the Huskies by 12 points in the first half and in spite of a tremendous shooting performance (10-13 FG, 6-7 3 PT) by team leader Ashton Gibbs (27 Pts), the Panthers like so many other Big East teams this season fell victims to the game-changing (and game-winning) abilities of the one and only….Kemba Walker.
Just like his step back game winner against Texas and his floating runner to beat Villanova, Walker once again came through with the game on the line. In scoring 24 against Pitt, Kemba became just the 5th player in the past 15 seasons to score 20+ points in 3 straight Big East Tourney games. Connecticut now faces the Syracuse Orangemen Friday night in the Big East Semi-Finals.
After teammate Jamaal Coombs-McDaniel grabbed Walker’s initial jumper that fell a tad short, Coach Calhoun called time-out to draw up a play. Walker revealed in a post-game interview that Calhoun gave him 2 options on the final play, either drive and kick to Coombs-McDaniel or take the shot himself. Upon in-bounding the ball, Kemba found himself one-one-one with Panthers center Gary McGhee.
Can you say…winning!
Allen Moll has been a lifelong NBA and NCAA College Basketball fan who watches and studies games religiously, and coaches youth basketball in his native nLehigh Valley region of Pennsylvania. Allen also provides content to Bleacherreport.com, Upperdeckblog.com, in addition to being a tenured NBA and NCAA columnist for TheHoopDoctors.com.
