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"
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