STORRS, Conn. — Connecticut coach Jim Calhoun doesn't know if he has a better team than the one he took to the Final Four last season, but he's confident it will be more athletic.
"I like our quickness," Calhoun said. "I think we're going to play together. I think the ball will move better. But we won't, I don't think, be able to stop the ball with blocked shots quite the way we have in the past."
Connecticut, ranked No. 12 in The Associated Press preseason poll, has led the nation in blocks for eight consecutive years. But 7-foot-3 Hasheem Thabeet, who averaged 4 blocks per game, Jeff Adrien and guards Craig Austrie and A.J. Price are all gone.
It's UConn's biggest loss of talent since 2006, when it sent four players to the NBA, then won just 17 games and missed the 2007 postseason.
Stanley Robinson, who was a freshman on that team, said he doesn't think this year's Huskies, which include five freshmen, will have the same growing pains.
"We're very athletic, and we just have a great chemistry," Robinson said. "We have all the right parts. We just need to put it together. I'm a senior this year, so I've got to be the one to show them what it's about. You have to walk out on that floor with a certain swagger, and let people know that you can't be beat."
Calhoun says the 6-foot-9 small forward could be UConn's best player but must be consistent. Robinson has been known to make some jaw-dropping dunks and some head-scratching turnovers. Last season, he made just 3 of 23 shots from 3-point range.
"You'll see a better Stanley, a more improved Stanley," Robinson promised.
He is joined by what is expected to be one of the nation's top backcourts. Senior sharpshooter Jerome Dyson, who led UConn to a 22-1 start last year, is back from the knee injury that kept him out of the Huskies postseason run. Kemba Walker, whose job was to come off the bench and speed up the pace of games, moves into a starting role at the point, with highly touted freshman Darius Smith as his backup.
"I think we're going to be a lot faster," Walker said. "We got a lot of guys willing to run, and that's the type of team we are. We all want to run."
The biggest question marks will be in the frontcourt, where 6-10 senior Gavin Edwards and 6-9 freshman center Alex Oriakhi are expected to start. Ater Majok, a 6-11 forward with an outside shot, becomes eligible in December.
Oriakhi (pronounced ohr-ee-AHK-ee) said he knows people are going to try to compare him to Thabeet or Adrien, and expect him to keep the team's shot-blocking streak alive.
"I know it's unfair, but I'm always a defensive-minded player," he said. "So I'm just going to rebound and block shots and do what I've been doing. I don't feel I have to live up to Hasheem or Jeff."
Calhoun isn't predicting another shot-blocking title, 31-win season or a return to the Final Four. But he's not ruling it out, either.
"To have a better record would be really a stretch, but to have a really good record, and be really good by February would not be a stretch," he said. "We could be really, really good when it's all said and done."