Saturday, March 3, 2007

Backing In

Georgetown 59 Uconn 46

46 points. That’s all this team could muster in 40 minutes. The last game of the year and Uconn has learned nothing. They are still forcing the ball, not holding on to passes, taking early shots, looking around instead of running back and NOT MAKING FREE THROWS.

Poor Calhoun, who has changed his style since the beginning of the year with subbing with every mistake. He now lets players stay in the game longer and doesn’t yell. But it makes no difference. While playing a solid 17 minutes, the cubs managed to squander opportunities on offense. Uconn finds themselves with non-passers dishing the ball. Robinson, Adrien, Johnson and Wiggins are not passers and found themselves in situations that had them in bad positions, creating consecutive turnovers.

Uconn protected the guards from finding lanes off the pick and roll but left driving lanes in post up moves. Which allowed Hibbert a 7 for 12 night with 18 points. Thabeet had a good game to his standards against a legitimate big man and held his own defensively. Adrien is the anchor of the team and did all he could to pull out a win but didn’t get any help from the back court.

Dyson, Price, Wiggins and Austrie shot 6 for 25 with 15 points. Pitiful.

The small forwards did contribute early and helped fuel the offense but disappeared in the second half. Coincidently that was when the drought occurred. Robinson and Johnson went 3 for 6, 6 boards and 8 points.

The bench player of the game goes to Curtis Kelly, who came in and got into the game right away. Even if Thabeet leaves for the NBA, Uconn still has a bright future with Adrien, Mandeldove, Edwards and Kelly. They have also entertained recruiting another 7-footer next year.

Regressing in your last game doesn’t pose well for the upcoming Tournament but we all know that this team doesn’t have a shot even if it gets in. It might be a blessing in disguise. Uconn can ill afford another exodus of players into the NBA. They need experience and leadership if they want to contend for another championship.

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