In a disheartening 10 day stretch the UCONN Huskies lost 3 straight Big East games, dropped out of the top 25 in both national polls, fell to 13th out of 16th in the Big East (3-6) and made an NCAA bid a very long shot. All the losses came against lower, mid level Big East teams, which at this point in the season is very telling and in my mind erases the maybe's and ifs- what you see is what you will get in the last leg of the season. With 9 Big East games remaining the Huskies would have to go 6-3 to end up at .500 for the season and get consideration for an NCAA bid; two of the games are against 3rd and 4th nationally ranked Syracuse and Villanova.
Last Sunday, UCONN blew a three point lead with 58 seconds on the clock and lost to Marquette 70-68. Dyson led the Huskies with 18, Walker had 15, and Gavin Edwards turned in another solid performance (9 pts, 14 rebs).
On Monday the Huskies got blown out by an aggressive, 3 point shooting Louisville team 82-69. In a particularly desultory effort the Huskies trailed all the way, several times by 19 points and looked good for one brief stretch in the second half.. Dyson again led with 18, followed by Walker with 15 and Edwards with 13 points. The poor shooting Huskies shot 38% from the field and had 18 turnovers, underscoring season long problems.
At this point in the season it should be obvious to all that the three liabilities I discussed in my first blog of year, short a back up guard, no good jump shooters, and short one banger upfront continue to be the major underlying problem. Coombs-McDaniel has not supplied a much needed 3-point shooter, Donnel Beverley is a weak back up guard and Majok has shown brief flashes of his talent but is too green to contribute this year. Despite his improved play I still feel Stanley Robinson will never live up to his much heralded "potential" and as I predicted will be playing in Europe after one poor season in the NBA.
In sum my loyal followers, I recommend that you get your NIT tickets early if you want to see the Huskies in post-season play.
"You Heard it First Here"
Steve
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4 comments:
So are you saying that both Cornell & Bucknell could make the Dance & not the Huskies???
I know this was hard to write, but I'm glad you did it. I feel strongly that die-hard-ism requires embracing the suffering of the troughs in order to fully enjoy the peaks. Such is basketball, such is life.
The wheel of fortune will ultimatley turn for the huskies, although it will take a while.
Everybody relax. UConn will go 6-3 for the remainder of the regular season. One of the six will come against either 'Cuse or 'Nova. Our end of season SOS will be #1 in the nation (Duke, Kentucky, Texas, 'Cuse, 'Nova, WVU, G'town, etc. - nobody has played a schedule even close to this) and we land comfortably in the dance with a 5 or 6. We have Jim Calhoun. An incredible three Final Fours over the past eleven years. As usual - we will be very relevant in March. Abandon ship at your own peril. Jim Calhoun will return to the helm and the voyage will succeed.
Lackluster win but a win nonetheless. A conference win. Btw, Depaul took Syracuse to the wire last week too. All of this being said, this team desperately misses the great Jimmy C. Too many careless turnovers and allowing too many easy baskets. These are things that Jimmy C. simply would not tolerate. All due respect to George Blaney but this team has fallen into some bad habits.
We need him back and soon. There have been subtle hints in the media that his return may be "sooner than later" how about 7pm Wednesday night at the Gampel Pavilion to meet up with his old buddy Jim Boeheim and the #3 in the nation Orange? Better yet, don't notify the media that he is coming back, just let him walk onto the court (that will someday bear his name) and let's play some Husky basketball.
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