Husky Frosh "Meet the Big East": Pitt 78-UCONN 63

The UCONN Freshman five experienced their first Big East road game against a deep, talented, very well coached Pitt Panther five and took a 78-63 pounding at the Petersen Events Center last night. At the Events center Pitt is 8-0 against top ten teams that come into "their house" and 142-11 overall; it is considered one of the toughest road venues in the Big East. Like all of Pitt coach Jamie Dixon's teams this group plays hard nosed, stifling man to man defense and a beautiful, disciplined motion offense with very balanced scoring. Pitt had four players in double figures led by smooth shooting two guard Austin Gibb's 19 points. Defensively, the Panthers forced the Huskies into a 32% FG shooting night and their big men continually limited UCONN to one shot offensively.
Pitt controlled the game from start to finish and after the first three minutes the UCONN Frosh looked like they were in shock. Calhoun changed to a half court trapping defense and this slowed the Panthers down some. From 3 minutes into the first half, to about 7 minutes left in the game the Huskies kept the deficit between 6-10 points despite poor shooting from Kemba Walker and no scoring support from the rest of the team. Walker started the contest looking tight and trying to do too much and went 3-12 in the first half. He loosened up in the second half and finished with 31 points but had to hoist up 27 shots to get there. No other Husky scored in double figures; Jeremy Lamb had 9 and Alex Oriakhi a disappointing 8 points.
What significance can we read into UCONN's first loss of the season. First, it is not panic time; even the best of Calhoun's Husky squads have only amassed a 1-5 record on the road against Pitt who were heavily favored last night. I think most knowledgeable UCONN fans felt the #4 ranking was a bit high, but I still see this as a very good UCONN team with potentially a big upside.
There were, however, some concerning trends in last night's loss. In my opinion, in addition to Walker only Lamb and Napier (possibly Olander) seemed up to the task last night. Clearly, UCONN's scoring has to be better distributed if they expect to compete atop the Big East. Napier is the real deal and I liked his confidence and ability to run the offense when Walker was moved to two guard. Jeremy Lamb looks increasingly confident at both ends, but his outside shooting is suspect. Roscoe Smith's development continues to be very slow offensively and his shooting has been abysmal. Giffey has made no progress since the beginning of the year and looked eager to get the ball to Walker as quickly as he could last night. I think Olander is competing well but commits some senseless fouls, reducing his playing time; He hits the boards hard and has a nice little shooting touch. To me of most concern has been the increasngly poor play of Alex Oriakhi since his outstanding performance at the Maui Classic. He looks discouraged, is getting beat off the boards and has disappeared on offense. Calhoun, not shy about critisizing players in the press was quoted after last night's game as saying"I don't know if he (Oriakhi) was better sitting or playing. He's not the player right now I think he can be." ouch!but on target.
While it is far too early in the season to ascertain where this team will end up, I think Napier and Lamb will continue to improve and contribute but Smith and Giffey may not be significant factors this year. Oriakhi is a big question mark. He can play much better than he is right now and he is not getting much help up front so this is also a factor, however, he has to turn things around for the Huskies to a major force in March. A typical early season Big East road loss against a tough well coached opponent or a harbinger of things to come? Too early to tell.
"You Heard it here first"
Steve