In their most desultory performance of the season the UCONN Huskies suffered their third straight loss for the first time since the end of the 2006 season, 68-63 to the unranked Michigan Wolverines. All their glaring weaknesses conspired to turn a tie game with 1:30 left to play into a six point loss. Lack of depth up front, a stultifying half court offense, poor shooting both at the charity stripe(62%) and three point land (1-11), and poor ball handling added up to this damaging loss which will likely drop the Huskies out of the top 25 in both polls.
The teams played evenly for the first three minutes until Jerome Dyson picked up his second foul and sat out the remaining 17 minutes of the first half. Without Dyson the Huskies looked lost as the Wolverines ran their disciplined motion offense and began draining threes. The teams left the floor with Michigan up nine.
One minute into the second half Manny Harris ( the Wolverines leading scorer) missed a jump shot and it came down, uncontested, into the hands of Stanley Robinson. Robinson allowed the ball to slip through his hands; the Wolverines picked up the loose ball and a lay up gave them an 11 point lead, the largest margin of the game. With Dyson and Walker pushing the offense, the Huskies went on a 16-5 run to even the score. Gavin Edwards also looked impressive during the run and ended up 6-7 from the floor with 14 points. Edwards has become a sure handed, consistent contributor up front and it is clear that the Huskies need to get him the ball more often inside. The score see-sawed to a tie with 1:30 left to play. The remainder of the game made the stomachs of all real Husky fans churn. At 1:30 to play Michigan hit a three pointer; with no reliable three point shooters, a game which should have been a one possession contest turned into a two possession game for the Huskies. This created more pressure on Walker ( 2 assists from our point guard) and Dyson to drive the lane for hoops. Dyson went into his dribbling act and lost the ball leading to a Michigan score off a fast break and a 5 point lead Sure enough, with 1:18 on the clock, Walker dribbled away 15 seconds before he committed another turn over. Miraculously, the Huskies remained in the game and Dyson was fouled-yup he missed both shots. On UCONN;s ensuing possession Robinson was fouled and threw up an air ball on his first free throw and made the second. Michigan closed it out by five.
Walker led the Huskies with 15, followed by the improving Edwards with 14 and Dyson with 13. If you re-read my very first report of the season it is all there. It pains me to have to be so critical of the Huskies who I root for passionately but in my role as reporter I cannot let this interfere with my objectivity. When I won my unprecedented third SOTY( ESPN, Sports Illustrated, and National Sports writer Associations "Sportswriter of the year Award" in 2008, the presenter George Vecsey cited my ability to remain objective as a writer and passionate as a fan as one the qualities he most admired in me. It is not easy to balance the two.
News and Notes; I would like to welcome Jason Haymond to the blog site. Jason is a graduate of Hall High school in Hartford and the University of Michigan where he gained notoriety for surviving an entire semester without the benefit of a bed. His good friend Andy Eliot described his athletic pedigree as follows.
"I'd like to introduce a new Husky fan to the blog -- Jason Haymond. Jason is a native of West Hartford CT and an avid Husky fan. In terms of his athletic history, Haymond was a standout lacrosse player at Hall High School (though it is reported that he has not exercised in any capacity since 1996). In terms of his basketball skills, he is known for having good court sense, but poor ball handling skills and an extremely awkward set shot."
sounds to me like the Huskies could use him.
"You heard it here First"
Steve
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3 comments:
I wasn't going to comment, especially since I didn't know what all those big words you used like desultory & stultifying meant(lol). Also it was just too disgusting of a performance to comment about. Thank God the Jets performed so well or I might not have slept at all last night.
However, Oh sage of Husky Mania,I just got the blog posting from you again via email. Now I am totally devistated(how's that for a big word) because the sage has gone back on his word. After so many emails threatening to stop the emails & then saying, I think on Fri, that this was the last email, you sent the posting by email a fewb minutes ago.
If your fans can't follow you then they're not fans & they should be left behind.
Mike
Mike, point well taken, but I did say that the Michigan was going to be the last e-mail post, so that is why I sent it. I do appreciate that you have gone to the effort to become a follower and that was the last e-mail post- during the transition I will alert by e-mail when there is a post on the blog site.
A couple quick notes -- it was a pleasure watching the game yesterday with Steve and observing a famous sports writer work a game. I would also like to take partial credit in helping Steve successfully fight off an unwelcome food coma induced nap that threatened to overtake him during the last 7 minutes of the game. On another note, I have an admission to make. While my first loyalty is always to UCONN, as a Michigan Alum who had the pleasure of having the Fab Five as my classmates, I couldn't help but feel some pride seeing the old Maize and Blue playing well. I'm a huge fan of Beilein -- had he been their coach in 1993, Webber would have never called that infamous time-out.
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