First Test Of Bubbleville Passed
The Story: The men’s basketball team looked good early and awful late, but it had the toughness and grit to hold off USC 61-58 at Mohegan Sun Arena. James Bouknight led the Huskies with 18 points, while Josh Carlton rose from dead with nine points and 11 rebounds.
PLAYER OF THE GAME: Let’s go with Carlton, who scored two points in three minutes against CCSU, did not get off the bench against Hartford and then matched up for 29 minutes against a 7-foot future NBA lottery pick. Carlton didn’t start (Isaiah Whaley and Adama Sanogo did), came in as the third big man and took advantage of Sanogo’s foul trouble. Carlton did slim down from a year ago and has more hop in step and quickness. He was in Dan Hurley‘s dog house, but when push came to shove, Hurley went to the senior center in crunch time.
WHAT WE LIKED: The defense was there. It was a good game for 30 minutes before some of the worst offensive play for both teams in the last 10 minutes. What we liked was the toughness and defense as the Huskies controlled USC, holding Evan Mobley to 17 points in only 4-of-10 shooting. The Huskies held USC to 35.8 percent overall and 3 of 19 from 3-point range. Now, USC had open looks that it couldn’t knockdown, but it did hold USC, which is very big and tall, to only 9-for-18 on layups. That’s terrific defending of the rim.
WHERE WAS THE PACE? The Huskies were rolling early on the break and even unleashed a full-court press early, but didn’t force the pace after the first 10 minutes. UConn forced only five turnovers, scored only four points off them and had only five fastbreak points. That’s not the way Hurley wants to play. The halftime score was 39-34. That means the Huskies scored only 22 points in second half.
THE DISAPPEARING BOUKNIGHT? You know how you know someone is good? When that person can score 18 points and grab seven rebounds and you are left wanting more. Bouknight had another stellar start, scoring nine points in the opening minutes, and was explosive early. But he finished the night 5-of-15 and couldn’t get going in the second half. He should have scored in the mid-20s with the Huskies winning going away. The standard is high around these parts!
WHAT DID HURLEY SAY? “We’re a serious work in progress offensively, but, listen, this time of year, until you’re more comfortable offensively, you’ve got to win with your defense, win with your toughness and your grit and your togetherness. To go plus-11 [in rebounding] against a team with that type of size across the board, it just showed how tough we were.”
WOE IS ME: The offense late for both teams was abominable. UConn went the final 4:04 without scoring and went 1-for-11 down the stretch. USC wasn’t much better. It was 1-for-13 late and didn’t score a field goal in the final 3:42.
WOE IS ME II: There were some awful performances for the Huskies. Sanogo had three fouls, one point and zero rebounds in 10 painful minutes. Tyler Polley was even worse. He took three ill-advised shots and had four fouls in four minutes.
INSIDE THE BOX SCORE: The Huskies hit the glass and did work on the boards with a plus-11 rebounding advantage — 42-31. That’s the good. The bad? The Huskies were 9-for-23 on layups and struggled to get to the front of the rim against a pesky matchup zone for USC. Lastly, there was only one dunk in the game total.
NEXT UP: The Huskies will play NC State on Saturday on ESPNews at 1 p.m. in Bubbleville.
Women Schedule Opener For Dec. 12!
The Story: The No. 3-ranked women’s basketball team will play its first game of the season on Dec. 12 when it hosts UMass-Lowell.
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW: This is good news for the Huskies, who had to shut down activities for two weeks due to a COVID-19 outbreak. They lost games against Quinnipiac, Mississippi State and Louisville.
WHAT DOES THE SCHEDULE LOOK LIKE? UConn will open the season on a Saturday, just five days after the shutdown ends, to get the juices flowing, and then jump right into Big East action on Dec. 15 against Butler.
Morning Reads
COMMISSION RECOMMENDS FBS LEAVING NCAA: The Knight Commission, an influential college athletics group comprised of former administrators, has recommended that major college football split from the NCAA. (ESPN)
BIG EAST WOMEN ON FLOSPORTS: Most Big East women’s hoops games will be available on the streaming service FloSports, which charges a ridiculous $12 a month. (FloHoops.com)
CALHOUN IN EUROPE: Old friend Omar Calhoun is still playing hoops in Europe. (The UConn Blog)
NO MEN’S HOCKEY: The hastily green-lighted men’s hockey series with BU, which was scheduled on Tuesday, was called off yesterday because of positive tests at BU. (UConnHuskies.com)
