Marquette, NCAA and Bouknight’s Future
The Story: The NCAA Tournament will pick 72 teams this year, with four teams in reserve just in case COVID-19 takes out a team prior to the tourney. How can the James Bouknight-led Huskies avoid being one of those four? Winning tomorrow against Marquette at 2:30 p.m. is a good start.
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW: With only three games left, there is no margin for error. UConn is 11-6, 41 in the NET Rankings and 32 in KenPom rating. That puts UConn likely in the NCAA Tournament at this juncture, but one loss can really knock it down, making any slip up against Marquette unpalatable. And, just so you know, the Golden Eagles are dangerous. Sure, they’re 11-12, but they had an 18-point lead against UConn earlier in the year (and lost thanks to Tyler Polley) and on Wednesday went down to North Carolina and slapped the Tar Heels around. Anytime a team can slap one of those Tobacco Road teams around, we are pretty happy about it.
THE LUCKY LOSER WINS? The concept of a lucky loser makes no sense in basketball, but these are trying times, so there are no complaints from us. That term is from tennis, as tournaments usually have alternate players around just in case another player drops out. On the drop of a hat, the alternate (who likely lost a qualifying match) is the lucky loser and gains entry into the tournament. Here? The alternate teams will be the last four out or a designated team from a one-bid league. So that’s going to be a thing this year, per NCAA guidelines.
ANY QUESTIONS? YEP! We have a ton of questions and probably don’t want to find out the answers. How will it work? Teams from one-bid leagues — think the Northeast Conference — can select an alternate team from their conference to take the place of their tournament champion if those teams are unable to start. If the knocked-out team is from a multi-bid league — think Big East — the committee is going to rank the last four out one through four and that will be the order of replacement. One other major note: The team that gains access via an alternate selection will slip into the seed. So, if Villanova is a No. 2 seed, and gets COVID-19 and goes home, and UConn is the No. 1 alternate, the Huskies will play as the No. 2 seed. Once the tournament starts, there will be no replacements. So, if a team gets COVID-19 in the second round and beyond, the game will be a forfeit. How will that happen in the Final Four or national championship game? We don’t know. We don’t want to find out, either.
ALL THE TEAMS ARE IN INDIANA: Don’t forget, the entire NCAA Tournament is going to take place in the Indianapolis area, and teams will be quarantined. It’s going to have an AAU feel to it if teams start dropping out and we are sure there will be protocols on how much time the replacement team needs. That team will be staged in the Indianapolis area and like an AAU weekend, games might come together in a matter of hours.
UCONN NEEDS TO TAKE OUT MARQUETTE: UConn is in a good position to get to the NCAA Tournament, and in mocks, it is on that bubble line where it is one of the last four in or first four out. If the Huskies want to spare the drama and torture, imagine waiting in Indianapolis as an alternate hoping another team has to drop out. The Huskies (11-6) have three games left and then the Big East tournament. To us, and all other logic, 13 wins likely causes some heartburn for Hurley while 14 wins likely get the Huskies in. It’s that close. The Huskies are a tourney team, especially with Bouknight healthy, but they have had many games canceled and it is going to be hard to justify a selection if they can’t finish with a top-four conference record.
ABOUT MARQUETTE: What do the Golden Eagles offer? D.J. Carton makes them go at point guard and the 6-foot-2 sophomore is averaging 12.8 points per game and is coming off a solid 17 points, five assists and four rebounds against North Carolina. The Golden Eagles have won two straight games. Dawson Garcia leads Marquette in scoring at 13.8 points per game while Koby McEwen averages 11.2. It’s a balanced attack for Marquette as six players average eight points per game or more.
BOUKNIGHT SHOOTING UP THE DRAFT BOARDS: Speaking of Bouknight, he’s only played a handful of games this year but all we can say is wow. He’s shooting up the NBA Draft boards — at least the media ones — and is looking like a mid-lottery pick. Sports Illustrated’s mock draft has him as the No. 6 pick while the 247Sports mock draft has him at No. 8. He’s gone from a late first-round pick to the top of the draft boards this season. You can see the reasons why. He’s averaging nearly 21 points per game and is doing it with little difficulty. Bouknight can shoot at all three levels (driving, midrange and 3-point), and that is an attractive skill set in the NBA. He’s a plus athlete for the NBA and at 6-foot-5 is good size for a shooting guard despite the sleight frame. He’s ready to make that jump.
BOTTOM LINE: UConn has three games left and need the wins. No more excuses and no more chances. This is as healthy as the team is ever going to be and it’s now or never for the Huskies to make a run and get back to the NCAA Tournament after an eternity of sitting out. The last time UConn was in the NCAA Tournament was in 2016 and it was bounced out in the second round against Kansas.
Huskies Remind Bluejays of Pecking Order
The Story: Freshman Nika Muhl went off for a career-high 19 points to lead the No. 1 Huskies to an 81-49 demolition of woeful Creighton last night. Paige Bueckers finished one assist shy of a double-double, Christyn Williams and Olivia Nelson-Ododa also reached double figures in scoring and the Huskies won their 20th Big East regular-season title.
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW: Creighton scored the first points of the game, UConn went on a 16-0 run in response and the outcome was never again in doubt. (As any rational human expected.) The Huskies would have been up 42-18 at the break if not for a buzzer-beating 3 from Temi Carda as the half expired. They shot 51.6 percent and made a third of their 3-point attempts — on par for them this season — and they scored 24 points off Creighton’s 17 turnovers and overwhelmed their opponents.
U-NIKA: Let’s have a round of applause for Muhl, who matched her career high of 11 points not even four and a half minutes into the game and singlehandedly made Creighton’s guards look silly early. She knocked down a trio of 3s, turned two steals into fastbreak layups and had 15 points by the end of the first quarter. A defense-first guard who is starting to find her game offensively, she has gone from a player who played spotty minutes off the bench in November to someone whom the Huskies are starting to count on.
BUECKERS THE BEST? Geno Auriemma joked on the SNY broadcast at halftime that Bueckers was on strike because she was refusing to shoot, but her scoring wasn’t needed. (Granted, she’s often not needed in 32-point blowouts, especially with two minutes left in the game, but … we digress.) She still finished with 13 points and nine assists, and though her late-season revelation has been crucial to the Huskies’ success, it might be too late for her to be in consideration for the national player of the year. … Or is it?
UP NEXT: The Huskies’ wild five-game road stretch finally ends tomorrow afternoon when they head to Indianapolis to face Butler at the historic Hinkle Fieldhouse at 4:30 p.m. on SNY.
Morning Reads
FUDD’S LONG ROAD: Azzi Fudd may be the best high school basketball player of the last decade. Her path to UConn has been full of speed bumps. (ESPN)
ALTERIQUE FINDS LIFE AT WICHITA STATE: One of the good guys to come through UConn, Alterique Gilbert, is finding his way as a grad transfer for the Shockers. (Hartford Courant)
HUSKIES HOST MAINE: The men’s hockey team will host Maine at Freitas today and tomorrow. Both games will be televised on CW20. (UConnHuskies.com)
HOCKEY EAST TOURNEY BEGINS: The women’s hockey team is the No. 7 seed in the Hockey East tournament and will play No. 2 Boston College on Sunday on NESN at 4:30 p.m.
JONES IS A MANCHILD: We haven’t seen a UConn football game in a long time, but defensive tackle Travis Jones is ready to put his massive size to use, not his mouth. (Hearst Connecticut Media)
SOFTBALL HEADS SOUTH: The softball team is headed to Texas, where hopefully it has warmed up, for the Lone Star Invitational. (UConnHuskies.com)
