A Frustrating, Inspiring, Deflating Loss
The Story: The men’s basketball team lost its fifth straight game. That’s the story as the Huskies moved underwater on the season with a 64-60 loss to Cincinnati yesterday at the XL Center.
Christian Vital led UConn (13-14, 4-10 AAC) with 14 points and seven rebounds and oddly came off the bench. The Huskies have lost five consecutive games for the first time since the 2006-07 season.
FAMILIAR STORY: UConn trailed 50-35 with less than 10 minutes to play before going on a 16-0 run to take the lead. Don’t get too excited. The Huskies didn’t execute down the stretch and of course, allowed Cincinnati guard Cane Broome — the East Hartford native who was snubbed twice by the Huskies on the recruiting trail — to hit a 30-footer with 12 seconds left to put the game away. The Huskies were awful in the first 10 minutes of the second half and very good for the final 10 minutes.
NEW LINEUP: After the loss to SMU, Dan Hurley vowed changes, and the Huskies went with a different lineup, with Brendan Adams and Eric Cobb in lieu of Vital and Sidney Wilson. Cobb played well with nine points and five rebounds and was active inside. Adams’ first career start? He had zero points, zero assists, zero rebounds and zero steals in nine minutes.
WHY DID VITAL SIT? Vital’s omission for the first time in 45 games was a head-scratcher to us as he’s been UConn’s most consistent player. Hurley said there were “a variety of reasons” why he changed the lineup, but did not give specifics, saying only it was a “combination of me not wanting them in there, as well as [them] violating the manner in which you need to carry yourself as a member of my program.” Vital wasn’t sharp but did lead the Huskies in scoring. He’s their best player with Jalen Adams on the shelf.
GILBERT GETTING SETTLED: Alterique Gilbert, who made only his second appearance since missing five games with a shoulder injury, also came off the bench and played 33 minutes. He put it on himself to score with 13 points on an incredibly inefficient 18 shots, though his teammates praised his tenacity and Hurley called him “the leader of this program.”
INSIDE THE BOX SCORE: UConn shot a credible 46 percent in the first half, and despite a furious rally late, shot only 32 percent in the second half. Wilson went 1-of-6 to drop his shooting percentage to 34.3 on the season. UConn was 9-of-28 shooting in the second half and 1-of-8 from 3-point range. It had seven assists on 22 baskets, which is terrible. Cincinnati (23-4, 12-2), which is likely to return to the rankings this week, shot only 41.5 percent but had the 40-30 edge on the boards.
CROWD GIVES A LIFT: It was a fun game. While the Huskies did lose, the 1999 team was in the house for the game and in that 16-0 run in the second half gave the faithful a chance to once against touch their school’s former glory. It was brief, but for about six minutes or so, Huskymania was alive and well.
WHAT DID HURLEY SAY? “The crowd just was awesome and certainly willed us in the second half when we were on the ropes. It was rocking. Frustrating loss. … Credit Cincinnati. They have the culture we want. They have the culture on the court that we want.”
UP NEXT: The Huskies return to action Thursday at Wichita State (13-13, 6-8), which they defeated 80-60 on Jan. 26.
Auriemma Misses Tulsa Win With Illness
The Story: Associate head coach Chris Dailey took the reins yesterday afternoon with Geno Auriemma ill and the No. 3-ranked women’s basketball team rolled to a 68-49 win at Tulsa to claim at least a share of the AAC title for the sixth time in six seasons.
Megan Walker led the Huskies (25-2, 13-0) with 21 points and added 10 rebounds and Napheesa Collier had her fifth consecutive double-double with 12 points and 15 rebounds. All five starters reached double figures in scoring.
WHO’S THE BOSS? It was only the eighth game Geno has missed in his 34 years coaching the Huskies and his first since he took three games off during the Big East tournament in 1997 following the death of his father. While he is expected to rejoin the team before the game tomorrow at Wichita State, Dailey has taken over all eight times and is now 8-0. “Two of the times it was for the conference championship,” she said. “This was for the conference championship, too — the regular season. So, I guess I found my niche.”
#FIRECD: Even though the Huskies held a 22-14 lead after the first quarter, Tulsa took an early 6-0 lead after 1:53 on a pair of 3-pointers by Morgan Brady, who led the Golden Hurricane (11-15, 5-8) with 17 points. That’s when Walker took over, as she made four of her first five shots for 11 first-quarter points en route to her fourth double-double of the season. Only a pair of fouls she picked up early in the second quarter slowed her down.
STILL NO FREEDOM: We learned it’s not just Geno who doesn’t believe in his bench. Dailey mostly snubbed the Huskies’ reserves, with Walker the only starter who didn’t play at least 35 minutes. Olivia Nelson-Ododa scored three points in 14 minutes and Mikayla Coombs played 10 minutes, with Molly Bent, Batouly Camara and Kyla Irwin playing the last 47 seconds.
INSIDE THE BOX SCORE: The Huskies shot a collective 40.6 percent (26 of 64) yesterday, marking their second-worst shooting performance in a win this season. Collier went 5-for-16, Katie Lou Samuelson went 4-for-15, including 2-for-11 from 3-point range, and Crystal Dangerfield went 3-for-8. While Collier passed Rebecca Lobo for 10th on UConn’s all-time scoring list, Samuelson grabbed just eight rebounds, leaving her one shy of 600 for her career.
WHAT DID CD SAY? “Only in Connecticut would you have to grind out a win. We say ‘grind this one out’ [but] we won by [19]. Only in Connecticut would someone struggle and Napheesa had 15 boards.”
UP NEXT: The Huskies will continue their swing through the heart of AAC country when they visit Wichita State (11-15, 4-9) on Tuesday night. UConn won the first and only meeting between the two teams last season 124-43, so we understandably have high hopes for this one.
Morning Reads
SWEET MEMORIES: The excitement Khalid El-Amin showed after beating Duke in the 1999 national championship game has been vastly missing from UConn for a long time. (Hearst Connecticut Media)
RENTSCHLER A WHITE ELEPHANT? Here’s a decent look at Rentschler Field and its issues. We’ll have more to say on this week on this, but it’s safe to say Rentschler isn’t working for UConn or the state. Something has to change here. (Hartford Courant)
ALLEN IN STORRS: Want to listen to Ray Allen speak? He’s perhaps the greatest player to come out of UConn (Kemba Walker is climbing though) and will appear on Sunday in the Student Union Ballroom prior to the game vs. USF. (UConnHuskies.com)
CHAMPION FOR LIFE: Although Saint Joseph fell to Albertus Magnus in the GNAC championship game on Saturday, Jim Calhoun, who may not return next year, emerged from the season with one of his greatest victories. (Hartford Courant)
A LASTING IMPRESSION: Connecticut’s college basketball scene is thriving at all levels now thanks to Jim Calhoun. (Hearst Connecticut Media)
SWENSON ARRESTED: Defensive back Ian Swenson was arrested Friday in connection with an alleged assault at a UNH fraternity last month. (Hearst Connecticut Media)
MURPHY REJOINS DIACO: Defensive tackle Kevin Murphy will transfer to Louisiana Tech, where Bob Diaco is now the defensive coordinator, as a graduate student. (Kevin Murphy on Twitter)
BASEBALL DROPS SERIES: The baseball team dropped to 3-3 on the season after a 7-6 loss to College of Charleston yesterday. The Huskies won on Friday but dropped the weekend set. (UConnHuskies.com)
TOURNEY TIME: The women’s hockey team, which lost 3-1 to Boston University on Saturday, will be the No. 7 seed in the Hockey East tournament and face No. 2 seed Boston College in a best-of-three quarterfinal. (UConnHuskies.com)
SOFTBALL STRUGGLES: The softball team lost all four games it played this weekend, falling twice to Florida Atlantic and twice to Florida Gulf Coast. (UConnHuskies.com)
RALLY FALLS SHORT: The women’s lacrosse team fell 13-12 to New Hampshire yesterday in its home opener. (UConnHuskies.com)
