Happily, Boone produces

UConn's sad-looking sophomore center puts smiles on the faces of Huskies fans.

STORRS, Conn. - Josh Boone leads No. 19 Connecticut in points, rebounds, shooting, blocked shots and minutes.

It's a safe bet the sophomore center from Mount Airy is also the Huskies' ace at Texas Hold 'em, because he does it all with a poker face.

"Every day, I ask Josh how's he feeling," UConn coach Jim Calhoun said. "He always says, `OK.' I finally told him, `One of these days, you're going to surprise me and say, `Great!' He's got this woe-is-me look about him. He doesn't expect anything negative to happen, but he looks like a coach. It doesn't look like he's having fun."

Maintaining an even keel helps when you begin the season as a teenager and then find opponents designing defenses to stop you. In recent weeks, Boone has gone from an 8-for-8 shooting night against Seton Hall to 13 foul-hampered minutes against Pittsburgh, the kind of swing that keeps him from dropping his guard long enough to take stock of improvement.

Boone has grown from the least-known starter on the 2004 NCAA champions to the No. 12 selection in the mock 2005 draft on nbadraft.net. Two months ago, he wasn't mentioned on the Web site, so why does Boone always look as if UConn is down one, there are 10 seconds left and he just missed the front end in the bonus?

He is not used to the spotlight and was raised on this question: Did you really do your best?

While Huskies forwards Rudy Gay and Charlie Villanueva were McDonald's All-Americans, Boone wasn't recruited by Top 10 programs until he was prep school-bound. His aptitude for basketball wasn't fawned over in Rosalie Boone's household.

"He and I would go at it over certain grades," she said. "I remember him complaining, `But it's a B!' I have no problem accepting whatever grades he had as long as he assured me that he did his best."

When her son entered UConn, Rosalie Boone moved to a Hartford suburb, closer to their roots in upstate New York. They were living in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., and Oscar Joshua Boone was 8 years old when his father, Oscar Boone III, died of cancer.

The widowed mom took a job as a manager at Baltimore's Sinai Hospital. The suddenly fatherless son withdrew into books.

Boone breezed through R.L. Stine's Goosebumps series for kids, and heeded his mother when she cited the infinitesimal number of players who make it to the NBA. She blanched when South Carroll High wanted to move him up to the varsity as a sophomore. His friends were on JV, and that's where he stayed.

Coming on late

Others were the first option at Cecil-Kirk Rec Center in Baltimore, where his teammates included Gay. At South Carroll, Boone didn't become the focal point until the start of his senior year, when teammate Marshall Strickland, now point guard at Indiana, lost an eligibility battle.

Boone was a first-team All-Metro and scored 1,200 on the SAT, but there were too many buts about his upper body and game. Maryland, for instance, was hot for Hassan Fofana, but Boone's stock soared in summer 2002. He goes 6 feet 10 and 240 pounds now, but was 6-8 and 205 when he decided to spend a season at West Nottingham.

That Cecil County prep school was in the second and final year of a fling in the basketball finishing school business under Raphael Chillious, who is now the coach at South Kent, a Connecticut prep school. Last season, Chillious had Dorell Wright, who's being stockpiled by the Miami Heat. His franchise player two seasons ago was Boone, despite a rocky start.

"The kids who don't shave, but are long and can run and jump, you've got to look at them," Chillious said. "Josh needed to work on his strength and footwork, but he had a great feel for the game. Because he's such a nice kid, I wasn't sure about his willingness to compete. I challenged him at our very first practice, and he almost quit. He had his bags packed to go home, but his mom said no way."

Stepped into breach

By then, Boone was committed to Connecticut, albeit as a complementary catch.

When eligibility issues sidelined Villanueva at the start of their freshman year, Boone grabbed the power forward spot and never let go. He covered Emeka Okafor's back and was clutch in the postseason.

Okafor and Ben Gordon were taken Nos. 2 and 3, respectively, in the 2004 NBA draft, point guard Taliek Brown moved on and the Huskies (12-4 overall, 4-2 in the Big East) remain a team in transition heading into tomorrow's (Ch. 13, 3:45) game at Notre Dame.

Boone began the new year with his fifth straight double double and, at one point, had nearly doubled last season's pitiful free-throw percentage, but was ineffective in losses to Oklahoma and Pittsburgh, the kind of physical encounters that he relished as a freshman.

After filling the openings created by Okafor and veteran teammates last season, Boone finds opponents checking his every move and teammates recruited to an up-tempo system adjusting to pounding the ball inside. He has started all but one game in his Connecticut career and leads the Big East in field goal percentage, but to Calhoun's dismay, Boone remains reticent about piping up and demanding the ball.

"I want to be more vocal," Boone said, "but that's not something I'm used to."

First-rate second season

Josh Boone's production has soared in his second year as a Connecticut starter:

Category Fr. Soph.

Points 5.9 14.8

Rebounds 5.8 9.5

Blocks 1.7 3.0

Minutes 22.0 29.9

FG% .554 .622

FT% .405 .726