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Injured UConn guard flies in, joins teammates

DETROIT – Injured UConn point guard Jerome Dyson flew in to Detroit early Friday morning and joined his teammates before their open workout at Ford Field.

Dyson, a junior, suffered a season-ending knee injury against Syracuse on Feb. 11. He had surgery soon after and recently has begun the rehabilitation process.

Dyson said he wanted to get the feel of a Final Four even if he can’t participate.

“I’m hoping to get out there and shoot around a little bit, just to experience it and be with my teammates,” he said.

Dyson said his knee “feels good” and that he’s beginning to improve his range of motion and work on strengthening muscles around the joint.

Wildcats tight-knit group

Reggie Redding and Frank Tchuisi can’t agree on Villanova’s best player.

Redding swears it’s him, and Tchuisi is equally adamant he is.

Rebounds? Points? Assists? Oh no, this is much more serious.

“I’m the best in Monopoly,” Tchuisi declared. “I’m the boss.”

The Wildcats are a tight-knit bunch, the entire team living within a few feet of each other on Villanova’s suburban Philadelphia campus. The juniors and seniors live in one dorm, split up in two rooms, while the freshmen and sophomores live in another. When they’re not at practice, they can be found together, playing video games, watching TV or kicking it really old-school with a board game such as Monopoly.

Asked who was the best player, Dante Cunningham was diplomatic.

“Reggie and Frank,” he said. “But Reggie’s always talking about Frank cheating.”

Williams goes with gut on TOs

North Carolina coach Roy Williams figures about 95 percent of his coaching philosophy came from his mentor Dean Smith.

That includes his strategy on when to call timeouts, an area oft criticized after last season’s loss to Kansas in the Final Four.

“You go by a gut feeling,” the North Carolina coach said. “Timeouts to me down the stretch can make (winning) easier, and that’s why most of the time I hoard them.”

Last year the Tar Heels fell behind 40-12 in the first half against the Jayhawks, rallying to within four in the second half before falling 84-66. He said the number of media timeouts – which occur about every 4 minutes in each half – offer plenty of time to correct mistakes without burning up his allotment.

“I’ve been criticized greatly for not calling more timeouts last year in the Kansas game,” he said. “There were seven timeouts in the first half. Every time we left a timeout, we stunk it up anyway.”

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This archive contains all the stories that appeared on the Tucson Citizen's website from mid-2006 to June 1, 2009.

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For all of the stories that were archived by the Tucson Citizen newspaper's library in a digital archive between 1993 and 2009, go to Morgue Part 2

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