Huskies blown out of Tourney by Cyclones, 77-64: Season Summary

In a utter 77-64 thrashing from the Iowa State Cyclones, the UConn Huskies became the first defending National Champions in 16 years to lose in the first round. It took just one play for everyone to see so much of what was wrong with this years team. The Cyclones sensational 6'7" point guard, Royce White, took the opening tap and drove right down the lane for an uncontested dunk. This underscored a season long weakness right in the heart of the Husky defense. The game was a route from start to finish as UConn was outplayed, out hustled and out coached. Shabazz Napier, who played his heart out led the scoring with 22 followed by Jeremy Lamb who had 19 but shot poorly. (6-15 from the floor.) In a season long pattern there was virtually no scoring from the big men, Connecticut was dreadful in their half-court offensive sets, and the defense was mediocre. Alex Oriakhi ended his horrendous season in ignominy as he spent the last 17 minutes of the game on the bench and Andre Drummond continued to look like a "diaper dandy" as he had only 2 points in the loss.
UConn ended the season 20-14, 8-10 in the Big East and with virtually no wins against good teams. This season can be summed up in tw0 words, OVER RATED. All the tv commentators and media have been talking all season long about how much talent this team has which I completely disagree with. A favorite line is that the Huskies have 4 future NBA players.
Jeremy Lamb was a pre-season first team All American in Street and Smith ( College BB's Bible) and I think he does not even merit Honorable Mention. I consider Jeremy Lamb the most over rated player in the nation and I am not even sure he will stick with an NBA team. He is not a good pure shooter and much too passive. In his post-game comments Coach Calhoun agreed that they were over rated and said that we thought this group would play better than they did without Walker, we thought Drummond would have more of an immediate impact and we did not foresee the negative impact Drummond's presence would have on Oriakhi's game. I feel that Oriakhi's very poor touch around the hoop will end him up in Europe. Napier, whose heart and swagger I love, is just not an NBA point guard. Drummond is the only certain NBA player but he would be very wise to stay in college for another year. I think the glow left by Kemba Walker left people in disbelief about how bad this years team was. Even with one minute left in thursday night's disaster, blow hard, uninformed Bill Raftery was still talking about how UConn played so far below their talent.
This type of team revealed Calhoun's most glaring weakness as a coach; he just cannot teach a half court offense. UConn will be severely hampered next year because they are ineligible to play in the NCAA tournament because of poor academic performance over the last three years. In addition, I think they still may be down a scholarship from past recruiting violations. While Drummond and Lamb may have chosen to stay another year, I think the tournament prohibition may push them to go next year or transfer to another program, which Oriakhi is sure to do. So where does this leave Calhoun. I feel that his time has passed and UConn needs an exciting, great young coach a la Iowa State's Fred Hoiberg. The best case scenario would be for Calhoun to take his good-bye tour next year and then gracefully step down.
This will likely be my last post of the year, unless there are some interesting developments in the off season. I appreciate my following and particularly those who actively participated in discussions. Well, I will cope with my disappointment about this year by thinking about my boat going in the water in 6 weeks bringing beautiful fishing days on LI Sound. I think we may be in for a couple of rough years and I hope the program can rebound.
"You Heard it Here First"
Steve

9th seeded Huskies open against Iowa State tonight

The 9th seed (in the South) UConn huskies open their NCAA tourney tonight at 9:15 against Iowa State, the 4th place finisher in the Big 12. the Cyclones were 12-6 in the conference with some big wins late in the year when they knocked off Kansas and Baylor. This appears to be a pretty even match up as the Huskies have an RPI index rating of #32 in the country while the Cyclones are #33.
The winners of tonights game plays the #1 team in country, the Kentucky Wildcats- ouch!
If you are looking for teams that may pull upsets my theory is go with the teams that were playing well at the end of the year. I give Michigan State and their great coach, Tom Izzo a real chance to win it all. Although they are a #1 seed if they play Kentucky a win would be considered a pretty big upset. Other teams that have been hot down the stretch include Indiana, Ohio State, Kansas, Vanderbilt, Baylor and I particularly like Louisville as a dark horse to make it to the final four. Teams that I think that will go home early are Syracuse (loss of Fab Melo, also think Boeheim is a poor bench coach) and Marquette (over rated)
Let the games begin- "You heard it here First"
Steve

Shabazzooks; I will take that Dance Card

A spirited, late game burst by Shabazz Napier sparked a 9 point UConn comeback in the last three minutes of yesterday's tilt against West Virginia to tie the score at 63 and send the game into overtime. Napier scored all of the last 9 points on a combination of steals, coast to coast drives and clutch three pointers during the closing 9-0 Husky run. In not atypical Napier fashion he then committed a very careless foul and fouled out with 2 minutes left in overtime but the Huskies held on for a 71-67 win.
Napier led the Huskies with 26 points, Lamb added 22 and looked more active, Boatright had 10, meaning the entire front court added just 13 points- that is awful!
Once again, I think that announcers and writers are still spell bound by the ghost of Kemba Walker and keep comparing this to last year. West Virginia was 9-9 in conference and is a very flawed team; while they play a very physical game, they are disorganized in the half-court and have no depth- this win is nothing to write home about. ESPN's Doris Burke was particularly off base yesterday and waxed endlessly about the talent of the Huskies. Many of her comments were just so far wrong I don't even know where they came from. For example, UConn was down 7, she said they would not be fazed by the deficit because they are a dangerous team that is explosive and can score points in bunches. The trademark UConn ability to make big runs has been sorely lacking all season long. Runs are generated by a swarming, trapping defense which this team does not have in their repertoire. Hey everyone in the media, guess what- Kemba Doesn't Live Here Anymore!
Get out your tuxedo's Huskies because no doubt yesterday's win insured an invitation to the "Big Dance" Tonight the Huskies will come down to earth as they take on the Syracuse Orange, the #2 team in the nation.
"You Heard it Here First"
Steve

Garbage Disposal; UConn 81-67

Before anyone gets too excited about UConn's first round 81-67 win over DePaul in the first round of the Big East Tournament lets remember a few facts. DePaul finished 16th and last in the Big East this year for the fourth year in a row. DePaul has the worst record in the country against fast breaks and they did come from 24 back to within 11 and 9.
The Huskies were led by Jeremy Lamb with 25 and Ryan Boatright with 19. Nothing I saw today changed my appraisal of this year's Huskies. Beating DePaul is a bit like getting a sultry adolescent to finally take the garbage out once.
Tomorrow the Huskies take on the West Virginia Mountaineers in a game that should provide a stiffer test.
"You Heard it Here First"
Steve

"Give my Regards to Broadway"; Huskies finish 8-10 in League Play

Broadway and Madison Square Garden is where the Huskies will be this week as they try to make their case for an NCAA Tournament bid and where they might end up if they lose early this week to Depaul or West Virginia. In addition, if they end up in the NIT, the final four of that tourney also takes place at MSG.
The Huskies, once again, did not do what they had to do to insure an NCAA bid. Instead, against two of the worst teams in the league, Providence (4-14 ) and Pitt (5-13) the best they could do was a split to end up 8-10 and 10th place in the Big East and 18-12 overall. I think that every announcer who does a UConn game still does not seem to realize that Kemba Walker plays on the Charlotte Bobcats this year and there are no hopes for a repeat run in the Big East Tourney. In addition, the mantra seems to be that this team has a lot of talent and they have played really well at times- really? In fact, I do not think they have played really well at any point this year. There is no leadership, the half-court offense is non-existent, Jeremy Lamb is not a go-to guy, and the vaunted Husky defense is somewhere up in Alaska running in the Itiderod. Teams drive the lane at will, a disgraceful fact against a team that has traditionally made players trying to drive the paint pay with blocked shots and physical play.
In both their horrendous 72-70 loss to Providence and their ragged 74-65 win over Pitt, UConn blew 14 point leads in the second half. Against Pitt Napier led the scoring with 23 and Roscoe Smith had 14 pts and 7 rebounds.
This year has been a very weak year for mid-majors and indepents so the nations's leading brackotologist, Joe Lunardi has opined that 10 Big East teams, including UConn with a 10 seed will be invited to the Big Dance. The Huskies open today against Depaul and then if they advance will probably play West Virginia; their run will end there as they play Syracuse in the third round.
There will be no Big East Miracle Run this year. I think that wins over Depaul and West Virginia will probably get them a bid but a first or second round loss will put them on the bubble.
I am saying that because Joe Lunardi is rarely wrong and thinks they are in, but frankly I think it is a travesty to invite teams in that are below .500 in conference play.
On the plus side, Calhoun is back and Roscoe Smith finally seems to have gotten some confidence back and is scoring some points. Unfortuneately, I think that this years disorganized and leaderless Huskies may go down in the second round of the Big East Tourney against West Virginia and then the NCAA tournament committee will have a tough case to make if they invite them in.
"You Heard it Here First"

You are Your Record; Syracuse 71-UConn 69

I am not nor have I ever been a believer in "good losses". As Jim Boeheim said in a post-game interview " This team always finds a way to win." That is why the Orange are 29-1 and the Huskies are 7-9 in the Big East and precariously atop the bubble. I also do not subscribe to the oft repeated line (Dicky V. was very guilty of this yesterday) this UConn team is much better than their record; No! they have not beaten any of the top 6 teams in the Big East because the truth is this is a mediocre Husky team. I cannot remember a UConn team in recent years that allowed so many opposing players drive right down the lane to the hoop- that is just not UConn basketball. Yesterday was disgraceful as several Orange players drove to the hoop virtually unchallenged. In addition, they do not play consistently with hustle and their half court offense has regressed to virtually no movement off the ball. The loss of scholarships resulting from recruiting violations as left them with no depth on the bench.
Despite this, give them credit for an effort and hustle level yesterday that they have not shown in weeks. They overcame a 17 point deficit to tie the game and had the ball out of bounds down two with 13 seconds left to play. Grandma Moses could have figured out that the Huskies were going to try to put the ball in Jeremy Lamb's hands and when he got the ball Boeheim had him triple teamed so he had to make a desperation pass to Roscoe Smith whose off balance shot was blocked. I think they should have either had Lamb coming off double or triple screens to shoot a jumper or use him as a decoy and go inside. Giving him the ball up top and letting him try to make his own shot was a disastrous strategy.
Jeremy Lamb had a nice game and led the scoring with 19, followed by Drummond with 15boatright with 14 and Roscoe Smith in his best outing of the year with 13.
I do think that it is hard to evaluate how much Calhoun's absense has delayed this team's development- certainly it is a huge factor. Calhoun is scheduled to have back surgery on Monday and we wish him well.
UConn now has two games left - Providence and Pitt; if they win both they are 9-9 in the BigEast and are in the Big Dance. If they split and are 8-10 it would be awfully hard for the committee to justify an invitation to the Big Dance.
"You Heard it Here First"
Steve

hOYa Vay! Georgetown 58- UConn 44

There are no words to describe how horrific the UConn Huskies looked as they registered their second lowest point total (42 in 1998 was their lowest) in their 58-44 loss to the Georgetown Hoyas last night. The Huskies shot 30% from the floor and after scoring 13 points in the first 31/2 minutes of the games they scored just 31 points in the last 261/2 minutes of the contest.

Prior to the game Calhoun announced that Oriakhi and Napier were being removed from the starting line up in favor of Boatright and Roscoe Smith in an attempt to speed up the tempo on offense. In the first 31/2 minutes Calhoun's strategy seemed prescient as the Huskies jumped out to the lead, looked good in transition, and Boatright made three beautiful feeds to Andre Drummond including an alley oop. Unfortuneately, Boatright picked up his second foul about 7 minutes in and as is Calhoun policy sat out the remainder of the half so as not to pick up his third personal. When Napier took over at point the transition game disappeared and the Huskies reverted to their stand around half court offense with the guards firing up bricks. Napier was 0-9 from the floor and finished with 1 point and Lamb was 4-18 and finished with 14. Once again, aside from Drummond, who had another impressive game, with 18 points on 9-12 shooting the remainder of the front court contributed only 9 points and stood around on offense.
When boatright went in to start the second half the Huskies had lost their spark and even the talented Freshman point guard could reignite them. I must say that in my 25 years as a UConnmen's basketball fan I have never felt sicker than I did after this display. Even the ever positive Dick Vitale expressed disgust at the Huskies lack of motion on offense.
So, what gives? In my mind there is a worst case scenario and a best case scenario. In either case, there are two conclusions that to me are incontrovertible. Roscoe Smith cannot and will never be able to shoot. Alex Oriakhi, although playing without any confidence right now, has no touch around the hoop. He has always missed too many chippies and it is accentuated this year because the rest of his game has fallen apart.
Worst Case Scenario - Simply put this teams potential was highly over rated and we were all fooled by their cupcake non-conference schedule. Smith and Oriakhi have little upside, Lamb cannot make the jump to go to guy and the Huskies will finish below .500 in the Big East and are bound for the NIT not the Big Dance.
Best Case Scenario- This young team is taking longer than expected to gel because of two disruptive influences. First, the 6 and 3 game suspensions of Ryan Boatright have delayed integrating him effectively into the line up and the other key players have been slow to adjust to his presence. Second, the addition of the highly talented Andre Drummond and Boatright have changed Oriakhi's role and reduced his minutes. He was expected to improve on last years 11ppg and 11rpg but instead has lost all his confidence and regressed. If he can regain some confidence he can at least become the effective rebounder that he was last year. Smith's role has also been reduced and he is lost but will also improve to provide the effective defense and defensive rebounding that he did last year.
Although Jeremy Lamb has been slow to become the "go to" guy he is only a Sophomore and remember Walker did not become dominant until his Junior year. Perhaps Lamb will grow into this role as the season progresses. Napier, confidence shook will regain his shooting touch and continue to add 12-13ppg. Now that Boatright is back, he will take over at the point and get the transition game going again. He is a great penetrator and passer and when he shakes the rust will score 10-12 ppg. Giffey will shoot more and score 8-10ppg.
Calhoun will realize that his best starting line up will be Lamb and Boatright at guard and Drummond, Giffey and ty Olander up front. To me, using Olander more is pivotal. He is a great interior passer and always looks inside when he gets the ball encouraging the other big men to get more active..When Olander is out the Huskies tend to stand around and watch the Guards dribble and shoot. If all these things happen the Huskies will finish a game or two above .500 and go the Big Dance. I don't see them advancing past the second round but who knows.
Which scenario will we see? that's why they play the games.
"You heard it here First"
Steve

UConnumdrum; Huskies lose to Notre Dame 50-48

As I settled into my front row seat right behind the scorers table with blog follower Mike Davis, we both felt the excitement in the air generated by a full house at the Civic Centre and the news that Ryan Boatright had been cleared to play in today's game by the NCAA. Now we'll see the real Huskies take the Irish apart. It was clear from the opening possession that Notre Dame's fine coach Mike Brey was planning to dictate a slow pace through long offensive possessions and neutralize the Huskies transitional, running game. The Irish, who have won three straight Big East games to improve to 6-3 in conference play, have a very disciplined, experienced team, with four starters who played 37 minutes or more and a balanced attack in which the five starters all scored between 8-13 pts. Compare this to the Huskies whom I can only describe as a team that is currently in disarray. Once again two players scored in double figures led by Lamb with 16 and Drummond with 15; Napier had the worst game of his UConn career, was 0-7 from the floor and scored four points. The frontcourt got even worse for the third straight game; Between Daniels, Giffey, Smith, Olander and Oriakhi the frontcourt (other than Drummond) contributed 7 pts. Boatright had 6 and was steady, although he looked a little rusty after his most recent layoff.
Despite all this UConn managed to leave the floor at the break with a 24-21 lead on the strength of Drummond's strong play inside and their smothering man to man defense. Lamb, who was blanketed for most of the first half came alive for 5 quick points near the half time buzzer. When boatright went into the game after 9 minutes the Husky offense looked better and optimism was restored: then came the disastrous start of the second half. UConn was scoreless for seven minutes while the Irish scored 13 unanswered points to take a 10 point lead. The Huskies finally started trapping and managed to close the gap to the final two point deficit.
Ironically, UConn shot better from the field but the difference was that Notre Dame had 7 treys to UConn's 3 and managed to dictate a slow pace for the entire second half.
So what is the conumdrum? Are the Huskies as bad as they looked today in this desultory loss? Is their frontcourt as hapless as it seemed today? The worst aspect of today's loss was the complete regression to their weak half court sets where the guards dribble aimlessly and there is absolutely no movement off the ball. The Huskies are now 4-4 in the Big East and will surely drop out of the top 25 in both polls for the first time in 28 weeks. I am trying to take heart from how bleak things looked last year at this time but there are some major differences. While this year's team just suffered their third straight loss last year's squad never lost more than 2 games in a row. Perhaps of greater significance is that it is becoming obvious that Jeremy Lamb is no Kemba Walker and is having trouble taking over games when need be.
On Wednesday, the Huskies travel to the Verizon Center in Washington D.C. to take on a good Georgetown Hoya five. Don't lose heart but we may have all been fooled by the Huskies ridiculously easy non-conference schedule.
"You Heard it Here First"
Steve

Uconn loses to mediocre Tennessee team/NCAA/Boatright investigation turns Draconian

Yesterday's 60-57 loss to an 8-10 Tennessee five looked like a duplicate of Wednesday's 70-67 loss to Cincinatti. Once again, 65% of the points (Lamb 23, Napier 17) and shots came from Napier and Lamb, Lamb played 39 minutes, Napier, played 38 and Giffey 35, the game ended with Napier desperately firing up long three's, and there was very little contribution from the front court. The loss of Ryan Boatright, due the NCAA's now bizarre on-going investigation, is completely disrupting the Husky offense. Without a third guard, Lamb and Napier have played virtually whole games, reducing their effectiveness as they become exhausted in the second half. Boatright was not only was providing a much needed 10ppg., but he opened up the offense allowing for more passes inside and his penetrations with the ball more often than not resulted in dish offs to the bigmen for shots. In addition, Boatright is an excellent defender who forced turnovers in the back court- when he sits the Husky defense fueled runs disappear.

The front court continues to be desultory on offense. If it seemed like 14 pts from the back court on Wednesday was bad they outdid themwelves yesterday with a total of 8, points from their five forwards and Centers. Drummond had 6, Oriakhi 2, and Daniels, Olander and Smith were scoreless. Each game the Huskies seem to start by looking inside more but quickly give up; Napier who seemed to be providing Drummond with a couple of alley oops each game does not seem to looking inside at all in the last two contests and is taking far too many shots for a point guard. Daniels, who looked so promising early in the year seems to have lost his confidence and his getting the quick Calhoun hook every time he goes out on the floor and Olander, although coming of an injury seems to have stopped looking for shots. The front court is in absolute disarray.
Sidenotes Joe Nocera had a very good op ed piece in yesterday's NY Times about the NCAA's investigation of Ryan Boatright who has now sat for 9 games. Originally, the press believed that Boatright had accepted payment for a flight while playing for an A.A.U. team; note at that time he had no invovlement with the NCAA and did nothing remotely illegal. It now turns out that an old friend of boatright's Mother gave her the money to fly to one of Ryan's games that she otherwise could not afforded. The NCAA only found this out when her shady ex-boyfriend in an act of revenge reported it to the NCAA. How does the NCAA have authority over someone before they have any official status with them; as Nocera points out, he thought that in the US people were innocent until proven guilty- not, as in boatright's case, the other way around. Nocera will provide more information about the facts of the case in Tuesday's NYT times op ed section.

The CBS Broadcast team of (Jerry?) Randall and Greg Anthony are, to me typical of the inferior coverage provided by CBS and other major networks when compared to The Big East Channel and ESPN. They are both personable with silken voices but have not done their home work on the teams. For example, at one point when Napier took a poor shot off a fast break, Anthony said "I'm sure Coach Calhoun would have preferred that Napier stop and run UConn's motion offense." What motion offense? Even worse when Roscoe Smith entered the game Randall waxed that "Smith was sometimes too passive but at times was an explosive player on offense. " If I were going to feature Smith's "explosiveness" on July 4th the firewords would be pretty dull.
We can only hope that the NCAA shows some consideration of the fact that they are destroying the Freshman season of a 19 yr. old kid and conclude their investigation.

Does anybody but me suspect that Neils Giffey is actually an alias that Pete Doolittle has taken to attain 4 years of college eligibility. The German thing also is a clever part of the ruse.


"You Heard it Here First"
Steve Eliot

UConn misses the Boat(right) in 70-67 home court loss to Cincinnatti

The red hot Cincinnatti Bearcats held off two furious UConn comeback bids in the second half and eked out a 70-67 win for their 7th straight Big East road win. After Shabazz Napier tied the game with the second of two consecutive three point field goals with 10 seconds left, the Bearcats Sean Kilpatrick hit a trey with 2.9 seconds for the three point winning margin. The Huskies sorely missed Freshman Ryan Boatright when Cincy went with their four guard offense and bombed away from three point land; their front court players just could not defend adequately against the ubiquitous Bearcat Guards. For the second time this season Boatright had to sit out pending the NCAA's investigation of undisclosed new information which has emerged about
Boatright's violation of recruiting rules before his involvement with UConn.
The bearcat's were red hot in the first half, opened a 12 point margin and led at halftime by nine. When the Bearcat long range shooters cooled off in the second half after leading 48-37 the Huskies started exploiting the long rebounds after missed shots and went on a 15-2 run punctuated by an enormous Drummond dunk off a fast break, to take a 52-50 lead. However, with Lamb and Napier playing virtually the whole game and Giffey going 34 minutes with Boatright out and Olander injured the Huskies tired and fell behind by six coming down the stretch. For the last three minutes they fouled on every Bearcat possession and Napier hit the second of two dramatic threes to tie the game at 67 before Kilpatrick sealed their fate.
Once again, UConn fell into most of their scoring coming from the backcourt: Napier had a career high 27, Lamb added 14 and Giffey in another fine all around game had 10 on 4-6 from the floor. I would love to see him start shooting more. The huskies glaring weakness of little scoring from the front court was evident as Daniels was scorelss Oriakhi had 2, Smith 4, Olander 4-, and Drummond looking like a Freshman last night had 4- That is a total of 14 pts from the Huskies 5 big men- not a winning formula. This just has to improve for the Huskies to be a consistent threat against top flight opponents.
Interestingly, statistics show that Lamb scores at a much higher rate when Boatright is on the court than he is just paired with Napier. Jeremy has not been looking the part of a "go to guy" in tight games as he still can become too passive.

Sidenote: I have never been a fan of the Bearcat coach Nick Cronin. I see him as part of a new breed of coaches who feel that they can scream and yell at their players with humiliating impunity. After the well publicized brawl between Cincinnatti and Xavier on Dec. 10 Cronin was very critical of his players; I was outraged at his self righteous piousness when I felt that his rages have created an atmosphere in his team that allowed for this ugly fight. Apparently, so did someone upstairs at Cincinatti because he was clearly under orders last night to knock off the screaming and yelling. If you have ever been at any Bearcat games you know what I mean.

"You Heard it here First"
Steve

Alex is (Oria) key to Solid UConn Road Win

Despite Ryan Boatright's sitting out today's game because of a renewed NCAA investigation and Troy Olander's injury limiting his playing time, the UConn Huskies put together their best half of the season to overcome a one point half time deficit and end Notre Dame's 29 game home winning streak, 67-53. The absense of Boatright and Olander's reduced minutes required that Oriakhi ( 24min), Giffey(27 min) and Roscoe Smith (15 min) play more than they have been and all three put in their best performances of the season. Oriakhi, who has been a huge disappointment this season, was aggressive on both ends of the court, scored 12 points and had 7 rebounds. Giffey showed why he remains a potentially versatile contributor with 7 points, including 2 treys and five rebounds; Smith looking like the list last year's version had 10 points and 6 rebounds. Napier had 16 to lead the Huskies and Drummond continued his fine play with 10 points and 13 boards.
The Irish took a one point lead at the break on the stength of 19 points from their backcourt. After the game Calhoun was quoted as saying we "discussed" coming out and taking away the treys at the half time; I'll bet that was a very quiet "discussion". In the second half the Huskies tightened up their defense and had far and away their best ball movement of the season, resulting in many open looks. In addition, the Huskies cut the turnovers to 10 today and had a huge advantage on the boards. A third of the way through the second half the Huskies began to pull away and won 67-53 going away, improving their Big East record to 4-2.
The win raises some complexities for Calhoun and his staff. While Boatright has been outstanding, averaging 10ppg, the combination of using the three guard offense and Drummond's excellence has adversely affected the minutes and play of Oriakhi and Smith and perhaps slowed Giffey's development. I have said, of late, the Oriakhi has to approach last year's effort and numbers if the Huskies expect to make a deep run in the "Big Dance". Calhoun will have some tough decisions to make when Boatright (assuming he does) returns.
I was very impressed with color commentator Doris Burke on today's ESPN broadcast. She was the most knowledgeable and natural female commentator I have heard thus far.
"You Heard it Here First"
Steve

Drummond, Lamb lead Husky Comeback over West Virginia, 74-67

If it is possible to play a "critical" game in January UConn's 74-67 comeback win over West Virginia was it. The Huskies were coming off two very bad road losses to Seton Hall and Rutgers, were 2-2 in the Big East and (as I predicted) dropped to 17th in the AP Poll; even during UConn's mediocre 9-9 Big East season last year before the improbable run to the NCAA championship the Huskies never lost three games in a row. Add to that 36 straight home wins and a loss last night would have been a very bad omen. Instead, stellar play by Jeremy Lamb (who finished with 25 pts.) and Alex Drummond (who finished with 20) helped the Huskies wipe out a 10 point second half deficit and win by 7.

The first half looked like a continuation of the Huskies lackluster play in the prior two games. The Huskies turned the ball over too often (8), the defense was porous and they gave the Mountaineers too many second shots( UWV ended up with 20 offensive rebounds)particularly to the impressive Kevin Jones. Drummond continued to be a bright spot on 4-4 shooting in the first half including a mid-court steal, solo dribbling to the hoop and a thunderous dunk. The Huskies went into the locker room down 33-28.
UConn continued to get outplayed for the first nine minutes of the Second Half when UWV extended their lead to 10 before Calhoun was called for a (I believe calculated) technical. It had the desired effect and triggered a 17-3 Husky run. Lamb took over on offense and scored 17 points after the break, while Drummond added 20 as the huskies won going away 74-67.
I think that Calhoun is beginning to redefine the distribution of minutes in the frontcourt. Oriakhi, who I believe will be a key to how far UConn can go, played more aggressively, was 4-5 from the field and was on the court for 28 minutes. Drummond is improving every game and will evolve into the Huskies second leading score as he sees more and more floor time. Olander will play 15-20 pts a game and when he is in provides the half court offense with a unique look. The first pass often goes to him, he faces the basket looking for (and often making) point producing interior passes. The playing time of Giffey, Smith and Daniels will be minimized. While Giffey has skills, he just doesn't look for his shot enough to be a major contributor on offense.
As the season progress, the Huskies have to cut down on the turnovers and solve their puzzling tendency to give up offensive rebounds if they intend to make a run in the Big Dance.
"You Heard it Here First"
Steve

Nightmare in New Jersey; Don't bla-ney. Rutgers 67- UConn 60

Along with many other pundits I attributed much of the responsibility of UConn's devastating loss to Seton Hall on Tuesday to Calhoun's absence and the lesser intensity of his Associate head Coach George Blaney (thus the play on words in the title of this blog) who was in charge that night. Calhoun returned to the bench last night and the Huskies looked as bad as they did on Tuesday and they completed the "New Jersey Nightmare" with a 67-60 loss to a young Rutgers team and their fiery coach Mike Rice.


The story was the same; far too many turnovers (20), poor guard play, and very little scoring from the frontcourt with the exception of the steadily improving Andre Drummond. Although Shabazz Napier was high scorer with 23 pts his shot selection was awful (5-14 from the field), he had 4 turnovers and only 3 assists. Ryan Boatright had another poor game, was 1-7 from the field and turned the ball over 3 times. Leading scorer Jeremy Lamb was in foul trouble from early in the game, ultimately fouled out and had only 8 points. In a half time interview, Rutgers coach Mike Rice was asked why they were forcing so many turnovers. He said they were pressuring the ball and that the UConn guards were dribbling with their heads down- that my friends is a huge no-no.


The second problem is that aside from Drummond the frontcourt is in disarray. After the non-conference schedule it looked like Calhoun had worked out roles and minutes for his Forwards ,but the stronger Big East schedule has exposed a lot of weakness among Smith, Daniels, Oriakhi, and Giffey. It looks like Calhoun was starting over last night trying to find the right combination. Daniels has stalled in his development, Smith has been a non-factor, Oriakhi has lost confidence and Giffey has yet to show he can contribute points when he plays more minutes. It is a tough time to be re-tooling but that is where this young Husky team is right now.


Expect them to take a major hit in the polls this week and drop down somewhere between 15-20 in the country. The Huskies will try to pull it back together tomorrow night at home against a very tough West Virginia squad.


"You heard it here First"


Steve

Pirates Make Huskies "Walk the Plank" in Newark, 75-63

If anyone thinks the young Uconn Huskies have not missed Jim Calhoun during his three game suspension for recruiting violations, think again: In a stunning defeat ( the game was not nearly as close as the 12 point final differential would indicate) the Huskies sorely missed Calhoun's bench coaching and influence. They were flat, confused by the Seton Hall's 2-3 match up zone and reverted to a lack of movement in the half court offense. Napier and Boatright( in his worst game to date) continually tried to dribble through the zone and lost the ball, creating easy Seton Hall break away's resulting in 13 first half turn overs. The lack of hustle and intensity was shocking as they lost virtually every 50-50 ball and were unable to make the necessary adjustments to get back into the game.

After taking a 12-4 lead, the wheels came off the UConn bus. Seton Hall created many breakaways off steals, particularly by Fuquan Edwin and point guard Jordan Theodore, Herb Pope was effective inside and the Pirates were deadly from three point range. By half-time the Pirates had a 12 point lead and only Jeremy Lamb's 13 points kept it that close.

UConn tried to adjust in the second half by starting with their three guard offense but Napier continued to look completely out of sync (2-12 from the field) and Boatright was tentative and finished with only 4 points. When the three guard attack proved ineffective, Blaney using Giffey, Oriakhi and Smith together on the floor and the Huskies continued to look hapless in the half-court. All in all, a stunning defeat and UConn's worst showing of the season. Lamb led the scoring with 19 and Giffey, in a career high, had 11 in 15 minutes of play.


What significance can we attach to this loss? First and foremost, taking nothing away from Seton Hall and their fine young coach Kevin Willard, I think Calhoun's absense was a huge factor. I just don't think we would have seen the lack of hustle with Calhoun on the bench. In addition, I think that Blaney could just not figure out how to adjust to the Pirates defensive looks and his subbing was baffling. I do not understand why Tyler Olander seems to be getting less and less playing time when he has been one of the most consistent and effective Husky big men this season.


Secondly, in the Big East road upsets are routine and part of the long season; it is just not possible to go through regular season play in a league with five teams in the top 25 (probably 6 after this week) undefeated. It is a long season and last year has to stand as the best possible example of this - March is a lot of games off. In addition, Napier has been struggling with an ankle sprain and he looked like he lacked his usual first step last night.

On the down side, the UConn front court continues to struggle; Drummond is coming on big time but is still a Freshman and can have bad games. Oriakhi has regressed significantly this year, partially because he is losing minutes to Drummond and the 3 guard offense. However, his lack of touch and timing becomes more and more evident to me and I am beginning to believe he has a more limited upside than previously thought. He misses far too many chippies and in the first half an attempt at an interior bounce pass ended up two feet behind a cutting Drummond. To me this was an example of a lack of natural timing and touch.

The significance remains to be seen but you can bet when Calhoun runs practice today the Huskies will have their tongues hanging out before it is over.


Sidenotes: Again, I want to comment on the terrific quality of the Big East Channel broadcasting teams. They are just so much better than the silken voiced, generic announcers on the major networks. They are consistently knowledgeable about the teams and what is happening on the floor. Last night, Mike Gleason did the play by play and Bob Wenzel, former UWV head coach was the color man. His pre-game synopsis was outstanding.

In the past, some of my UConn grad followers have felt I was too critical of Calhoun and did not appreciate him enough. Even a highly decorated, veteran reporter like myself has to be open to learn and change opinions and I have; I really have begun to appreciate Calhoun's ability to motivate and begun to see that he is a terrific game coach.
" You Heard it here First"
Steve

Huskies face stiff Big East Road Game tomorrow night against Seton Hall.

The now 8th ranked UConn Huskies face the Seton Hall Pirates tomorrow night at the Prudential Center in Newark NJ. Game time is 7:00 P.M. and will be broadcast on SNY.
Although Seton Hall is unranked they are 4th in the RPI, compared to UConn's 3rd.
The Pirates are led by two Seniors; 6'8" Forward Herb Pope who is 4th in the Big East in scoring at 18.6 ppg and Senior point guard, Jordan Theodore who is averaging 15.8 ppg and leads the Big East in assists with 7.0 pg.
The Huskies now have four players averaging in double figures; Lamb 18.9, ( 2nd in the Big East) Napier 14.9ppg, Boatright 12.1ppg and Drummond at 10.0 ppg. This will be the third and final game of Jim Calhoun's suspension for recruiting violations.
While the Pirates could be tough at home history is on the side of UConn. since the 92-93 season Seton Hall is 2-25 against UConn and has lost the last 11 games in the series.
I want to welcome Brian Shu back as a follower to the site; a great Husky fan and important contributor to the "comments" last year.
"You Heard it Here First"
Steve