Christian Vital, Josh Carlton Not Enough vs. Temple; UConn Ready for AAC Tourney

A Valiant Effort, Another Loss

The Story: Temple’s Shizz Alston Jr. outdueled UConn’s Christian Vital on the perimeter, scoring 34 points as the Owls defeated UConn 78-71 in Storrs. It was the first loss for the Huskies at Gampel Pavilion this year as they finished the real home schedule at 9-1.

WHAT WE LIKED: The crowd was engaged, it was senior night, and the Huskies, despite playing out the string, pushed desperate Temple to the brink. There are problems with the Huskies that are frustrating, notably blowing easy layups (Tarin Smith missed three of them point blank), and the free throw shooting ultimately doomed the Huskies. UConn couldn’t contain Alston and gave up too many points considering the lack of firepower on offense, nut we saw pieces of the future play well, notably Vital and sophomore center Josh Carlton.

VITAL SIGNS! We don’t get why Vital is coming off the bench. All we know is he’s the best scorer on the team and when he gets hot, he is impossible to cool off. Vital saved UConn from an early 9-0 deficit with his shooting and was en fuego most of the night with a season-high 26 points on 8-of-13 shooting, including 7-of-11 from 3-point range. Vital takes bad shots, we get it, but he can fill up the scoring column quickly when he is going well. When he plays well, the Huskies usually follow.

SOMEONE GET GILBERT SOME ARMOR: Can we get Alterique Gilbert a bubble, please? Gilbert left the game late in the second half after taking a nasty hand to the face. He was bleeding from his nose and left the floor woozy and needed to be treated at the hospital. Gilbert is as tough as they come but everyone has their limits physically. Gilbert struggled shooting but his point guard play was solid and he was the only UConn player with a positive +/-.

WHAT WE REALLY LIKED: Carlton didn’t come into the season as an offensive weapon. Now, with one game left in the season, he is being double-teamed by a team that has NCAA tournament aspirations. Carlton had a career-high 21 points along with seven rebounds and was a force inside offensively for the Huskies. He has a long way to go, especially with his passing and ballhandling, but he has excellent footwork inside and protects the rim. We are taking Carlton’s stock going into next year and hope he practices free throws and lay-ups and learns to play in a physical environment. If he ups his energy and activity level, watch out.

INSIDE THE BOX SCORE: Why did UConn lose? The free throws are culprit No. 1. The Huskies were 13-of-24 from the line, with 10 of the misses coming in the second half of a close game. The Huskies couldn’t guard Temple’s perimeter players either as the Owls shot 49.1 percent and 58.3 percent from 3-point range. UConn maxed out on offense, shooting 53.9 percent (14-of-26) in the second half. The Huskies benched Eric Cobb for more offense and that hurt their rebounding as Temple held a 37-28 advantage, including 10 offensive boards.

WHAT DID HURLEY SAY? “We lost that one just with the way we started. … The free throwing shooting, obviously, played a huge factor in us not being able to win a close game. Excluding Al going down, if we make free throws, we certainly played well enough to win that game. We played hard.”

BOTTOM LINE: UConn will need a run in the AAC tournament to finish above .500 on the season. That should be the goal for a team that is beset by injuries on a roster that was short on talent to begin with. We have altered our thoughts as the season has gone on and were looking for a positive attitude and progress of young players late in the season. We love what we see from Carlton, and are encouraged by Tyler Polley (13 points) showing some life.

We would like to see more out of Sidney Wilson and Brendan Adams, but these games are good building blocks for next season. Most of all, we would like to get Gilbert through a season without him heading to the hospital for evaluation. Dan Hurley knew what he was getting into here at UConn and not making the NCAAs is frustrating for a school of UConn’s pedigree. The Huskies, barring a miracle run, will miss the tournament for the third straight year. That doesn’t mean this was a lost season of UConn basketball. Far from it. For the first time in years, we feel good about the direction of the program.

UP NEXT: The Huskies (14-16, 5-12) close out the regular season on Sunday at East Carolina.

Will Samuelson Return in AAC Tournament?

The Story: The top-seeded women’s basketball team, looking for its sixth AAC tournament title in as many years, will face either No. 9 seed SMU or No. 8 seed East Carolina in the quarterfinals tomorrow at Mohegan Sun (2 p.m., ESPN3).

WHAT’S UP WITH SAMUELSON? The Huskies won’t need her, but it would be good to see Katie Lou Samuelson, who experienced back spasms a week ago in the win against Houston, on the court tomorrow. They almost certainly won’t need her in the semifinals, probably against either the fourth-seeded Cougars or No. 5 seed USF, but she would provide a boost in the final, likely against No. 2 seed UCF.

Geno Auriemma has said that he’s always concerned about back injuries and wouldn’t rush Samuelson, who missed the regular-season finale at USF on Monday, back into the lineup. The NCAA tournament won’t start until March 22, so if Samuelson were to miss the entire AAC tournamet — and this is just us speculating — she would have nearly three weeks’ rest if she returned for the opening-round NCAA tournament game.

TWO CROWNS FOR COLLIER: Senior Napheesa Collier averaged 20.2 points and 10.2 rebounds over 30 games to finish first in the AAC in both categories. The last player to lead UConn’s conference in both categories was Louisville’s Angel McCoughtry in 2006-07; searching the record books back to 1997, we couldn’t find any UConn player who had done that before.

THE NUMBERS, AGAIN: We love pointing this out, just because of the absurdity of it all: UConn has never lost a game against an AAC opponent, and if it wins the final on Monday, it would run its streak to 120 victories against conference foes. The Huskies also won their 16 conference games by an average of 31.9 points per game this season, though the did win two by just 10 points, matching their second-narrowest margin of victory in conference history.

SCOUTING REPORTS: SMU (11-18, 5-11) lost 79-39 at Gampel Pavilion on Jan. 23 and would have entered the tournament on a high had a loss at ECU on Monday not snapped a three-game winning streak. With the youngest roster in all of Division I — their seven freshmen give them an average age of 19 years — the Mustangs are led by freshman Kayla White, who is averaging 11.4 points per game.

The Pirates (15-14, 6-10), who lost 118-55 at the XL Center on Feb. 6, won their final two games after a three-game skid. They were the AAC’s worst shooters during the regular season, going just 35.4 percent overall and 24.8 percent from 3-point range, and the Huskies turned to four reserves for more than 18 minutes each in the February meeting.

Morning Reads

PEELING BACK THE CURTAIN: The arrest of Khalid El-Amin on charges he has failed to pay child support shows us how much we don’t know about athletes’ personal lives, even if they’re high-profile figures. (Hartford Courant)

SAME MESSAGE, NEW VOICE: A pair of former UConn standouts, Anthony Sherman and Scott Lutrus, and former New York Mets and Boston Red Sox manager Bobby Valentine, spoke to players after the football practice yesterday. (Hartford Courant)

FRESHMEN THE ANSWER ON DEFENSE? UConn could use all the help it could get on defense and freshmen linemen Pierce DeVaughn and Eric Watts are getting long looks during spring football practice. (Hearst Connecticut Media)

TARBUTT TO TRANSFER: Kicker Michael Tarbutt has become the latest player who will use his final year of eligibility elsewhere as he will head to Minnesota as a graduate transfer. (Michael Tarbutt on Twitter)

A WEEKEND IN TEXAS: The baseball team will travel to face Texas State for the first time in a three-game series beginning this afternoon. Jeff Kersten, Mason Feole and Joe Simeone will start the three games. (UConnHuskies.com)

FOUR AT THE DUNK: UConn will play four games at Dunkin’ Donuts Park this spring: two against Cincinnati in April and two against Wichita State in May. (MILB.com)

ONE LAST TIME: The men’s hockey team will say goodbye to seniors Karl El-Mir, Miles Gendron and Max Kalter tonight prior to their finale against UMass. (UConnHuskies.com)