Two steps forward, one step back. That would be the story of the UConn Huskies men’s basketball team.
On Saturday, it looked as though they had turned things around with a rousing win over the Seton Hall Pirates. But after their performance on Monday night against the Louisville Cardinals, any progress they had made is simply gone.
The Cardinals made 11 three-pointers on their way to routing the Huskies 80-59 in front of 21,804 and a nationally televised audience at the KFC Yum! Center in Louisville, KY.
UConn falls to 15-8 (5-6 Big East) while the Cardinals improve to 19-5 (7-4).
Ryan Boatright led the way for the Huskies with 18 points and also had six rebounds, a team-high five assists and four steals. Alex Oriakhi came off the bench to add 11 points, seven rebounds and four blocked shots while Roscoe Smith had 10 points and five rebounds.
UConn’s leading scorer, Jeremy Lamb, was held to just seven points. Shabazz Napier’s poor shooting continued as he was 3-of-11 and ended up with nine points.
On the strength of four three-pointers, Chris Smith paced the Cardinals with 16 points. Gorgui Dieng chipped in with 15 points, six rebounds and six steals while Kyle Kuric had 10 points and nine rebounds. Chane Behanan led coach Rick Pitno’s team with 12 rebounds while adding seven points. Peyton Silva had a game-high nine assists to go along with his seven points.
Judging by the final score of this one, you would have thought the entire game was a blow out for the Cardinals. This wasn’t the case though as the game stayed close for the first half.
Louisville got out to an 8-3 lead and increased it to 11-5 before the Huskies bounced back with six straight points to tie the game up. A Kuric three gave the Cardinals lead again but UConn bounced back with six straight points to take a three point lead with 7:28 to go in the half. The Huskies would maintain that lead over the next two minutes before a Silva three tied it up at 21.
The Cardinals finished off the half on an 8-3 run to enjoy a five point lead at 29-24. They quickly built their lead up in the second half as they opened up with an 9-1 run. The Huskies would work the lead back down to 10 on an alley-oop from Lamb to Boatright.
That would be as close as the Huskies would get though as Louisville used a 20-4 run to take control of this one.
After watching UConn on Saturday, I really thought the ship was going in the right direction. But after watching the effort the players gave in the second half, it’s like Saturday never happened. I’m not going to say everyone on UConn gave up, but it looked as though to me as if some of them had.
At the rate this team is going unless something changes, they won’t make the NCAA Tournament. And if that happens, if your Jim Calhoun, do you even accept an NIT bid.
It will not get any easier for the Huskies next time out as they head to the Carrier Dome for a matchup with the No. 2 Syracuse Orange on Saturday afternoon. Game time is scheduled for 1 p.m. and the game will be broadcast nationally on CBS.
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Notes and musings:
UConn Huskies @ Louisville Cardinals 2.6.12 box score
The starters for the Huskies were Ryan Boatright, Shabazz Napier, Jeremy Lamb, Tyler Olander and Andre Drummond.
UConn shot 35.1% (20-57) from the floor while the Cardinals shot 44.4% (35-72).
The Huskies had just seven assists on their 20 made baskets.
UConn was 3-of-14 (21.4%) on three pointers. On the other hand, Louisville was 11-of-25 (44%).
The Huskies did get to the line 22 times, converting 16 of them (72.7%). The Cardinals were 5-of-8 (62.5%).
Louisville won the battle of the boards, outrebounding the Huskies 45-36.
The Cardinals outscored UConn 32-30 in the paint and 10-8 on the fast break.
The Huskies had 17 second chance points while Louisville had 10.
UConn had 14 points off of 13 Cardinals turnovers. Louisville had 20 points off of 15 UConn turnovers.
Louisville’s bench outscored UConn’s 25-23.
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Photo credit: Getty Images
