Saturday night was a special night in Storrs. Due to conference realignment, when is the
next time UConn will host a game of this magnitude? I am not saying future games against Memphis,
Cincinnati or SMU won’t be big time conference games – but it is not the same
as Louisville, Syracuse or Georgetown.
The students camped out to get prime-time seats. The players brought gifts to the campers
during the day. By 7:30pm, the students
and the fans started to enter Gampel Pavilion.
All three student sections were filled one hour prior to tip-off. The last I remember that happening – December
2000 against No. 2 Arizona. Dickie V had
some fun with the students. The place
was electric – it was the loudest in years.
The scene was set to make this a special night.
Unfortunately, it was a great road win for
Louisville. In a conference were the top
teams are finding ways to win on the road, it seems to be very difficult to
protect home court advantage. Louisville
lost at home to Memphis, while Cincinnati and UConn won at Memphis. The Huskies find themselves three games out
in the loss column for the top spot in the conference race.
Louisville got their first signature win of the season. They lost to North Carolina, Kentucky and
Memphis earlier this season. I saw the
Cards play Carolina in November at Mohegan Sun.
They looked awful – settling for threes and not playing defense. It is hard to repeat and defend a national
championship, but this Louisville team played with a renewed purpose last
night. UConn did not match the intensity
or aggressiveness the Cardinals played with.
They dominated the glass by outrebounding the Huskies by 15 and they had
40 points in the paint.
I have to give Rick Pitino a lot of credit. He knew his team could not run with UConn. Memphis tried to run with the Huskies last
Thursday and failed. Pitino wanted no
part of that and Kevin Ollie did not adjust.
Very early in the game, UConn looked like deer in the headlights and could
not capture the energy of the crowd.
They played like the team that lost games to Stanford, Houston and SMU.
The Huskies have struggled with a zone all season. UConn settles for a lot of threes – something
you live and die by. Just like the
Stanford game, they do not look for second or third or fourth options. The frontcourt does not flash to the high
post and look to take a shot. They did
not try to open up the low post. The
Louisville zone was a mix between a 2-3 and a 3-2. It was often extended and extremely
aggressive. It was the junk defense you
tend to see the low to mid-majors use during the first couple of rounds of the
NCAA tournament.
Again, DeAndre Daniels decided to follow-up a great
performance with another horrible game.
Daniels scored the first basket for the Huskies on a corner three, but
then quickly got into foul trouble. He
only had three points for the game on one for eight shooting. The talented junior could have been that
frontcourt player to go to the top of the free throw line and take jumpers but
decided to settle for threes. This says
to me that Daniels wants no part of the physical nature of the game.
Again the Huskies had to rely way too much on Shabazz
Napier. Napier scored a career high 30
points. Late in the game, he went into
to the lane for lay-ups and got fouled.
He carried UConn on Saturday night and proved that he needs to be
considered an All-American. Without
Napier, this team will be in trouble.
I am not going to mention much about the
officiating. There were a lot of
questionable calls throughout the game against both teams. The crowd was great with riding the refs
again and again throughout the second half.
You know you will get a ton a fouls against the home team whenever Ted
Valentine is on the court. Remember, he
was involved with an infamous Bobby Knight ejection. However, he was actually the best official on
the court last night. The American
Athletic Conference needs to review the game film and decide what to do with
these officials. You can’t make marquee
games into free throw shooting contests.
Slightly off topic – new Football Head Coach Bob Diaco spoke
to the crowd during the under-12 timeout in the first half. What enthusiasm this guy has! He is going to make UConn football special
and we will be lucky to have him as a coach for the length of his entire
contract. However, he should never speak
at another UConn basketball game again.
He is bad luck and is now 0-2!
Another random thought – the Huskies are 0-2 against
teams with the nickname Cardinal in it, having lost to the Stanford Cardinal
last month in Hartford. And they are 0-3
with games that start at 9pm (Stanford and Houston).
One last thought – Gampel Pavilion is in bad shape. The ceiling tiles are cracked and falling
apart. The problem is getting
worse. What does the University and the State
of Connecticut have in planned to fix this problem? I don’t want to hear build a new arena. Gampel is the best college arena in the
Northeast. The building is only 23 years
old. A restoration project may need to
be done. Also, the bleachers in the
upper levels need to be replaced with chair back seats and expand the rows. With the size of some people, they take up
more than their assigned seat and everyone has their knees into someone
back.
The Huskies get back into action on Tuesday night when
they return to the XL Center against Temple at 7pm. I am sure the Owls will be playing a lot of
zone looking for their first conference win of the season. Hopefully Ollie and the coaching staff can
quickly adjust.
David Borges 
Kevin Ollie 
Ed Daigneault 
Back In Storrs 
