Huskies Avoid Epic Collapse at DePaul
The Story: Despite being up 26 points at halftime, the No. 2-ranked Huskies watched as their lead was cut down to four before holding on for an 84-74 win at No. 16 DePaul last night. Megan Walker and Crystal Dangerfield each scored 22 points while playing all 40 minutes and Christyn Williams had her first career double-double with 13 points and 11 rebounds. It was, in a lot of ways, a hot mess.
BUILD IT UP…: The difference between UConn and DePaul in the first half was stark. The Huskies shot 61.1 percent before the break, all while holding the Blue Demons, who live and die by the 3, to 2-for-13 from behind the arc. They rotated and closed out on DePaul’s shooters, forcing them to jack up bad shots. They effortlessly pounded the ball inside, with Olivia Nelson-Ododa easily exploiting her significant size advantage, and they succeeded from beyond the perimeter, with Dangerfield making her first three 3s and five of seven before halftime.
UConn led 55-29, outrebounded the Blue Demons 29-9 (yes, UConn had as many rebounds as DePaul had points!) and had 16 assists on 22 baskets. Then everyone turned off their TVs, the fans went home and all hell broke loose.
…TEAR IT DOWN: DePaul, which embraced the bold strategy of not playing defense in the first half, decided to do so in the second, and it helped that its shots started falling, too. The Blue Demons pushed the pace and thrived on the transition 3, which UConn just could not stop. How bad was it? Poor Molly Bent entered the game for the first time with less than four seconds to play in the third quarter and Lexi Held drilled a corner 3 in her face off the inbounds pass.
It made five of its six 3-pointers in the third quarter, when it outscored UConn 27-14, then cut the deficit to four points with 7:17 left when Held knocked down another 3. But the law of averages struck again, with DePaul going just 2-for-10 from beyond the arc after that point and the Huskies slowly pulling away. UConn, meanwhile, went back to its bread and butter. Nelson-Ododa, who finished with a career-high 19 points, started getting the ball inside again, and DePaul very strangely fouled just once in the final two minutes when consistently down 10, essentially waving the white flag.
WHAT DID GENO SAY? “The DePaul kids, they’re not going to roll over and go, ‘OK, why don’t we just lose by 50?’ They’re not going to do that, so they started beating us to loose balls, they started getting a couple things that we didn’t let them have in the first half. They got a little momentum and made a couple tough 3s, and next thing you know, that’s how fast it happens.”
BOTTOM LINE: The Blue Demons (9-2) were by far the best team the Huskies have faced this year, and though their longtime strategy of pushing the pace and looking for 3-pointers has never toppled UConn, it almost did last night. The Huskies were fortunate that DePaul stopped making shots after cutting the lead to four points, because who knows what would have happened if it went down to the wire? UConn only got production from five players — Anna Makurat, who had eight points and seven rebounds, quietly had a strong game — and scoring only 29 points in the second half is not going to be a recipe for success against anyone, Wichita State included. All in all, UConn got a scare, and it will be interesting to see how the Huskies respond.
UP NEXT: The Huskies (9-0) will return to Connecticut on Sunday to play Oklahoma at Mohegan Sun Arena for the second time in three years. The Sooners (6-4), who host Drake tonight, have not beaten UConn in 12 meetings all-time.
Huskies Add Four to Future Football Skeds
The Story: The football team added a few games to its future schedules, and while they’re not against the most appealing opponents, that’s life as an independent.
WHO’S ON DECK? The Huskies, who finalized their opponents for 2020 late last month, are moving onto 2021 and beyond. Yesterday, they signed contracts with Army, Fresno State, Ball State and Middle Tennessee State, with only the first of those teams likely to really move the needle. Fortunately, UConn will see plenty of the Black Knights over the next decade: The teams will play eight times over the next 10 years, skipping only 2023 and 2026.
The series against Fresno State and Ball State are home-and-homes; UConn will travel to face the Bulldogs in 2021 before the return game a year later, and then will travel to Ball State in 2022 before the Cardinals return the favor in 2025. Middle Tennessee State, which UConn plays next season, will again play at Rentschler Field in 2021, so the Huskies are probably paying the Blue Raiders a small stipend.
BLAH, BUT BENEFICIAL: Look, this is going to be the cost of doing business in the future. With the Huskies traveling for guarantee games (the guarantees are a big paycheck and a loss), they’ll need to offset those with high-percentage wins of their own. Enter Ball State, which hasn’t had a winning season since 2013 and is (theoretically) a beatable opponent. Middle Tennessee State went 4-8 this season and missed a bowl game for only the second time in seven years; Fresno State also went 4-8 and missed a bowl game for only the fifth time since 2000. The Huskies will draw their share of Power 5 opponents to Rentschler Field, but they’ll also have to play a series of games against middling opponents as well. It’s just the cost of doing business.
THE SCHEDULES: Here’s how they shape up (for years beyond 2022, check out FBSchedules.com):
2021
- Sat., Aug. 28: at Fresno State
- Sat., Sept. 11: Purdue
- Sat., Sept. 18: at Army
- Sat., Oct. 9: at UMass
- Sat., Oct. 23: Middle Tennessee State
- Sat., Nov. 13: at Clemson
- Sat., Nov. 20: at UCF
2022
- Sat., Sept. 3: Central Connecticut
- Sat., Sept. 24: at N.C. State
- Sat., Oct. 1: Fresno State
- Sat., Oct. 15: at Ball State
- Sat., Oct. 29: Boston College
- Sat., Nov. 19: at Army
HUBBARD TO JMU: Guard Stanley Hubbard became the first of UConn’s transfers to find a new home when he wrote on Twitter that he will head to James Madison. Hubbard, who played in four games as a redshirt sophomore, is from suburban Washington and said “family circumstances” were behind his decision.
WYANT IN: The Huskies added another offensive lineman from the junior college ranks last night when Alex Wyant, a 6-foot-6, 300-pound offensive tackle at Orange Coast College in California, flipped his commitment from Fresno State.
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Morning Reads
CLARETT MENTORS HUSKIES: As the men’s basketball team mentors fifth-graders at Naylor Elementary School in Hartford, they, too, are being mentored … by former Ohio State running back Maurice Clarett. (Hearst Connecticut Media)
A NICE START: The Huskies were ranked No. 69 in the initial NET ratings, which are used as a guideline for qualification to the NCAA Tournament. (NCAA.com)
QUITE THE TRICK: Former UConn quarterback Johnny McEntee is set to rejoin President Trump’s White House staff after being dismissed in 2018. (The New York Times)
