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"