Water Seeks it's Own Level; West Virginia 67-59

Does this sound familiar? UCONN loses by eight to a Big East opponent in a desultory performance. Their offense is stifled by a tough man to man defense with double and triple teams on Walker when he gets the ball alternated with a match up zone.
- Walker leads the team in scoring but is 8-23(34%) from the floor and takes many poor shots.
- Only one Freshman has a good game (Napier) and other than Walker and Napier no Husky scores more than five points
- The Husky big men (Oriakhi, Oakwondo, Olander, and Smith)score a total of 4 points.
- Oriakhi is horrendous on offense and does not score.
- Smith is scoreless and is beginning to look like a bust
- The Husky offense is helpless against the match-up zone and instead of putting JCM at the foul line the guards dribble aimlessly in circles looking for seams that don't exist.
- Calhoun yanks Giffey and then JCM in less than one minute of play each at their first mistake.

At some point in a season one has to give up the idea that there continues to be a lot of room for improvement and accept that what you see is what you get. And what we saw last night at The West Virginia University Coliseum was, in essence, this years version of the Huskies. One reliable scorer who has regressed as the year has gone on; Kemba has to take some responsibility for his aimless dribbling and forced shots. Five Freshman, each who have shown flashes of talent but none of whom are consistent with the possible exception of Napier; their development is impeded by Calhoun's policy of yanking players after one mistake which I believe is demoralizing. Virtually no inside scoring presence and a very disappointing Alex Oriakhi. A team that is poorly coached in their half court sets and are clueless against match up zones. The result was a 67-59 loss to a characteristically fierce Bob Huggins team. There is no more that can said about last night other than the pre-season pollsters who picked the Huskies 10th in the Big East were actually on target.
What's left? The Huskies end their season at home on Saturday against a red hot Notre Dame team. Win or lose the Huskies are going to the Big Dance, even though they could finish as low as 10th in the Big East if the lose on Saturday. If that is the case the Big East will probably get a record 9 bids and the Huskies will make it based on several key wins and a good strength of schedule. I don't see them winning more than one game, if that, in the Big East tournament and they would have to get red hot to make it past the Sweet Sixteen in the NCAA Tournament.
I would imagine that the Pittsburgh fans ( some of whom read this blog) have high hopes this year. Sadly, the Panthers will eat their annual Big Dance apple and it will get stuck in their throats. The choking sound will reverberate all the way to Weston, Ct.
"You Heard it here First"
Steve