Game Over

This one was tough to swallow. UConn has had problems defending smaller and quicker teams all year starting with Morgan State, Northeastern, Central Florida, Providence, West Virginia, and now San Diego. Its one thing to be a big team and play big and another to be big but play small. You must enforce your will upon the opposing team, attacking inside, piling on the fouls, and using your size to your advantage. But UConn couldn’t find ways to get their big men involved. The most perplexing problem that UConn has faced all year was in their man to man defense. The pick and roll ate them alive all year, freeing up space for clear looks at the basket and easy driving lanes.

You’d think that if UConn lost this game then San Diego shot lights out from downtown, but they only hit 4 three pointers. It was the mid-range game that carved the pups up. Reminiscent of the Providence and West Virginia game, Pomare playing the role of Joe Alexander and McDermott, carved the interior of UConn’s defense and led to their downfall. Maybe this game would have been different if the cruel basketball gods didn’t inflict a curse upon A.J. Price. Hasn’t he suffered enough. But this team had to much talent sprinkled throughout the roster to easily hand San Diego a loss.

The more I see these mid-majors play these talented NBA caliber college teams, it reminds me of the USA teams versus international squads. Sure on paper USA should be able to put away the less athletic squads they face, but they have problems when faced with teams that have competed together for several years and play fundamentally sound basketball.

While on paper UConn didn’t do that bad offensively. The guards hit 11 of 29 and the big men hit 14 of 24. They weren’t three point happy and made the few they shot. They got to the line 20 times and hit 16 of those. Though they were a little erratic with shot selection, they distributed the ball well and hit the majority of their shots. The loss boiled down to not stopping the other team. Pomare, Jones, and Johnson hit 24 of 46 shots and they took 7 more shots than UConn.

There’s two ways of looking at this season. One is that they over achieved and made it into the tournament or that they underachieved and got knocked out early by an inferior opponent. I believe its somewhere in the middle. They just peaked at the wrong time. Just ask Duke. If the tournament came after the first Providence loss then this team would be knocking on UCLA’s door. They just couldn’t find an answer to anyone defensively and the blame goes across the board. Next year they must find the answer to the pick and roll, which they had none last year, and play with the defender, not trailing after him. Maybe when the three point line gets extended it will help solve this dilemma. Or it could exasperate it, drawing the big men even farther out and leaving tractor trailer size lanes to the basket. Either way, I would like to see UConn utilize the zone more. They need to make teams earn the win by hitting the outside shot and keep the lanes filled.

Credit Dyson in this game. Here is a kid with about one percent confidence in his outside shot and when Price went down with his torn ACL, the pressure to score fell on his shoulders. He did what he knew he had to do, take the ball to the basket. He caused a few offensive fouls, but he kept attacking and was rewarded with fouls, sinking them all down the stretch. Without him this game would have been over with 5 minutes to play.

This loss hurts but not like the George Mason one. Sure this team should’ve beat San Diego and possibly Western Kentucky, but that’s where most people saw the Husky express stop. Unlike the talented team two years ago, this one wasn’t there yet. Now next year, and with the unlikely but still possible return of Thabeet, this team will be expected to make the Final Four. Just hope they don’t meet any mid-majors on the way.