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