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
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