Huskies look shaky in the Bahama's win 2of 3;Boatright debut

After winning their opening round game in routine fashion over UNC- Asheville 73-63, the Huskies then had a horrendous second half in a 68-63 loss to Central Florida. In the consolation game they barely beat #22 ranked Florida State in Overtime when Freshman Ryan Boatright (playing in his first game after a six game suspension) was fouled on a 3 point shot at the buzzer and coolly made all three to tie the game. The Huskies then ended up with a 78-76 win in OT when Shabazz Napier made a key three point shot to ice the contest.

UConn comes home with a 6-1 record on the season and will probably drop down to somewhere between #8 -#12 in both polls. I think Coach Calhoun's comment in the post-game interview after the win over Florida State is the most salient assessment of where this team stands right now. "We are a very young team" said Calhoun. How true this is; the eight man rotation consists of three Freshman (Boatright, Daniels, and Drummond), four Sophomores ( Napier, Lamb, Olander, and Smith) and one Junior(Oriakhi). I do think that this team will look very different in March from the unimpressive bunch they appeared to be in the Bahamas.
In he UNC win, Napier and Lamb each had 23 points again scoring more than 50% of the teams markers. Andre Drummond looked the best he has all year and added 9 points and 13 rebounds in 22 minutes of play. The Huskies looked like they were on their way to an easy win over UCF when they went up by 17 points with only 16 left to play. UCF then started alternating zone and man-to-man defenses and UConn suddenly looked completely confused and disorganized as UCF went on a 17-2 run and won going away. Napier looked very confused against the zone and continued to try to penetrate despite turning the ball over 13 times. Lamb went cold and passive and led the team with 15, followed by Oriakhi with 14. The one bright spot was the continued emergence of Andre Drummond who is really beginning to emerge and showed some nice spin moves and hooks around the hoop to finish with 13 points.

The final game against Florida State belongs in a whole different category as the much heralded Freshman point guard Ryan Boatright made an impressive debut. I am not sure if it was the match-ups against a small FSU team or Calhoun was experimenting but he played most of the game in a 3 guard offense with Napier, Boatright, and Lamb on the floor at the same time mostly with Drummond and Olander. Napier finished with 26 in 41 minutes of play, Lamb added 19 in 43 minutes and Boatright had 14 in 33 minutes. Oriakhi, Smith and Daniels played only 10,12, and 15 minutes respectivelly in a puzzling distribution of minutes as the Huskies won in over time. Drummond had 12 points and 10 rebounds in another impressive showing.

It is hard to know what Calhoun is thinking at the current time. I just don't think the Huskies can get away with a 3 guard offense against bigger teams, in addition to the fact that Napier and Boatright have similar games- both excellent penetrators, passers who can shoot the trey. I really did not like the fact that Napier took 18 shots in the FSU game, twice as many as Lamb and more than Smith, Oriakhi, Olander and Daniels combined- this is not a winning formula.
With the addition of Boatright, who is very talented, I think Calhoun will be experimenting with trying to find his best combination of players. Drummond is emerging really fast and his role and minutes will increase. Oriakhi and Smith are playing poorly on offense and are seeing fewer and fewer minutes- with Oriakhi, I think Calhoun is trying to motivate him because I think he will need his size and strength in the Big East play.

After 7 games Lamb is scoring 21.1ppg and Napier is at 17.9; Drummond has upped his averaged to 8.1ppg and is the teams leading rebounder. Despite the fact that Lamb is averaging 21.1 I think he is struggling to take over the role as the go to guy. He was interviewed several times in the tourney and he is very shy and unassertive. Smith, Oriakhi and Daniels have, thus far, disappointed on offense while Olander has been a steady, positive presence whom Calhoun would like to see take more shots. The situation is fluid, a lot of young talent, but this is Calhoun's forte.
You Heard it here First
Steve