Here is a truism in sports; good teams win close games and bad/mediocre teams lose close games. For example look at the Yankees record last year in one run games; it was something over 90%, while the Mets probably lost 80% of their one run games. This is true in any sort you can name.
Having said that, the UCONN Huskies played their hearts out in tonight's 72-67 loss to Syracuse at the Carrier Dome. They overcame a 16 point deficit in the second half with a 14-2 run(which started when the Orange had to put their court leader Andy Rautins on the bench with his fourth foul) and tied the game at 65 on a Jerome Dyson three with less than two minutes to play. At that point Kemba Walker again demonstrated poor decision making when he took and missed a long three point attempt. Syracuse was fouled on the next possession and made 6 free throws in the last two minutes to put the game on ice. A "good loss" with little meaning. The Huskies were ultimately brought down by their poor shooting, 38% from the field and 25% from three point land. Although Dyson was sensational at times, he shot 33% from the field on 7-21 shooting.
Tonight's game was fast paced, exciting, but ultimately revealed the Huskies strengths and shortcomings. Dyson provided some very exciting moments in the paint: at 14:14 of the first half he took a pass inside and made a rim shattering dunk. At 8:28 in the first half Robinson missed a shot, Dyson got the rebound missed his follow-up, got another rebound and made a gyrating score off the glass. Wow! I continue to be disappointed in the attitude and play of Kemba Walker. He did have one stretch where he made two pull up jumpers in a row rather than over penetrate- he needs to do more of this. His decision making and passing continue to be poor. Although blow hard ESPN color man Fran Frischilla lauded Walker's pass to Dyson on a fast break in the second half "It was great the way Walker waited until the last second to deliver the ball to Dyson (who,by the way was wide open) In fact, it was a very poor pass, delivered both too late and too low. As a result Dyson had to bend to get the ball and was already under the hoop- he missed the shot, luckily he was fouled. Passes from great point guards lead the recipient into good shooting position. In addition, what is with all the chest thumping after one good play and the weird smile when he makes a mistake. In my opinion, this is the behavior of someone who is trying to demonstrate to the crowd that mistakes are unusual for him and he just laughs them off; unfortuneately, this usually goes with someone who has trouble seeing his own weaknesses and tries to cover them up- a recipe for slow learning.
Edwards continues his outstanding consistent play. tonight he had what has become a typical Edwards game 12 pts on 50% shooting from the floor. Unfortuneately, Robinson also had a typical game. He scored 14 pts in the first half including some great alley oops. In the second half he ordered out for Pizza and scored two points when it most counted. Majok continues to show some flashes of talent and aggressiveness that I believe will ultimately make him a very good player.
News and Notes- I continue to feel that SNY has far and away the best play by play and color men in College Basketball. I found ESPN's combination of John Saunders and color man Fran Frischilla lacking. Sauders looked like he needed a nap and Frischilla just makes some pretty uninformed comments. For example, " I like Blaney going more to his bench tonight- Beverley, Coombs-McDaniel and Edwards are getting some time. Fran, HELLO, this has been true all year. With the game tied at 65 Robinson fouled Jackson. Frischilla called it a good foul. Are you kidding me? the game was tied and UCONN has a great defense. In addition, that foul put Syracuse in the bonus situation- it could not havae been a worse foul.
Look for me, with my entourage, sitting behind the Cincinnatti bench in this Saturday's tilt against Cincinnatti at the Civic Center.
"You heard it here first"
Steve
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2 comments:
Steve,
I think you hit it on the head with this one. The Huskies have had a lot of "good" losses this year. I do believe there are good losses. Cornell had one against Kansas & Bucknell had one against Cornell. But CT has had too many this year. I don't think they'll beat Nova or WV & maybe not even ND & therefore won't come close to getting into the Dance. The Big East is tough this year with 4 teams in the top 10 but the Huskies are in the bottom of the pack now & at season's end.
Mike, good observations but my point is that "good losses" are an illusion. Good teams find a way to win on off days and bad teams find a way to lose when games are close. You are right about the Big East, a a lot of good teams, however, not one dominant team. While they will get 8 NCAA bids for the third time, I do not think the winner will come from the Big East.
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