Huskies Ready for Canada State; Men Need Shooters (Badly)

Rivalry Rekindled: Huskies Set For Syracuse

The Story: The UConn women will play their second-round NCAA Tournament game tonight when they face off against No. 8 seed Syracuse, whom they beat in the national championship game in 2016 (ESPN, 9 p.m.).

HELLO, OLD FOE: It’s been years since the Huskies have faced the Orange, who advanced following a first-round win over No. 9 seed South Dakota State and are notably not led by the daughter of coach Quentin Hillsman. The longtime Big East foes last met in 2017, when they also played in the second round. A year earlier, UConn rolled to an 87-51 win in the title game behind Breanna Stewart, who had 24 points, 10 rebounds and six assists. If that seems like ages ago, imagine how Syracuse must feel. The Orange haven’t been out of the second round since that title game, and only the cancellation of the NCAA Tournament last year prevented them from the humiliation of missing the tournament altogether. Womp womp.

MUHL HURTING, OPTIMISTIC: UConn offered little update on the status of freshman guard Nika Muhl, who sprained her right ankle in the second quarter of the win over High Point on Sunday. Muhl, who landed on an opponent’s foot, needed to be helped off the court and was on crutches and wearing an air cast when she returned courtside. “If there’s any way Nika can be on the court, she will be on the court,” Chris Dailey said yesterday morning. “I know her, and that’s the way she is.”

FILLING THAT ROLE: It seems most likely that in the interest of continuity, Dailey would turn to Anna Makurat, who started earlier this season, or Aubrey Griffin to fill Muhl’s role. But Syracuse has height, with five of its eight rotation players standing 6-foot-2 or taller (including starting center Kamilla Cardoso, who is 6-foot-7), so Aaliyah Edwards, who had a double-double in the first-round win, may have her minutes and responsibilities increased.

GENO UNFILTERED: Stuck at home after testing positive for COVID-19, Geno Auriemma, who turned 67 yesterday, said the frustrations he experienced watching the game were the same he’d feel while coaching it. “I got up at one point and walked out [and] said, ‘I can’t watch this,’” Geno told Hearst Connecticut Media. Although he doesn’t know how he caught the virus, he said he has lost his senses of taste and smell and that his wife, Kathy, also has contracted it. He’ll miss tonight’s game, of course, but is eligible to return in time for the Sweet 16 game.

WHAT DID GENO SAY? “It was weird, complaining about the same things I would complain about if I was on the bench. The only difference is, they weren’t hearing me and there was nothing I could do about it. I was howling at the moon. There was nothing going on. But it’s funny, when I read Paige [Bueckers’] comments saying, ‘That first quarter, I could feel Coach Auriemma yelling at me through the TV,’ like, damn right I was yelling at her.”

ABOUT SYRACUSE: The Orange (15-8, 9-7 ACC) are led by 5-foot-6 super senior Tiana Mangakahia, who is from Australia and whose story is inspiring. Mangakahia, 25, was diagnosed with breast cancer in June 2019 and chose to remain in Syracuse for treatment rather than returning home. Cleared to return to practice in February 2020 after undergoing a double mastectomy, she was given a waiver to play in October and led the nation with 7.5 assists per game this season. We can’t cheer for anything remotely related to Syracuse, from Saltine crackers to how it destroyed the Big East, but we can cheer for her.

Shooting Blanks: Achilles’ Heel Gets Huskies

The Story: The men’s basketball team had a lot of answers for teams and plenty of depth and athleticism to spare. What it didn’t have was enough shooting, and when it mattered most, their Achilles’ heel ended their season.

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW: It’s obvious that if you don’t shoot well, you don’t win, but for the Huskies, it was starker than you would expect. The biggest loss of the season was by 11 points to Providence. In the other seven games, including the NCAA Tournament loss, their inability to make shots haunted them. In wins, the Huskies shot an average of 46.4 percent overall and 37.1 percent from 3-point range. In their losses? The Huskies shot 37.4 percent from the floor and a paltry 27.1 percent from 3-point range. The brutal part? The Huskies attempted more 3s in their losses than in their wins.

DIVING DEEPER INTO THE 2-POINT STRUGGLES: UConn’s shooting woes when the games went sideways weren’t contained to the perimeter. The thinking is when a team struggles shooting, don’t take 3s, go to the rim. UConn shot 51 percent from 2-point range in their 15 wins. In their eight losses? Gulp … the Huskies shot a minuscule 37 percent from 2-point range. When you factor in only one of those eight losses was by double digits, that inability to make any sort of shot is an issue. Against Creighton and Maryland, the last two games of the year, James Bouknight (10-for-30), Tyrese Martin (2-for-17) and R.J. Cole (5-for-18) combined to shoot 26 percent (17-for-65).

THE IMPORTANCE OF THE 3? We are bullish on the Huskies going forward, but we are going to tell you right now if they don’t get shooters, or the players dramatically improve, they aren’t going anywhere next year no matter how good Adama Sanogo plays. The modern game feasts on 3-point shooting and it isn’t possible to win unless teams routinely hit 10 or more 3s a game. UConn, even as an average volume 3-point shooting team, is going to hoist 20-plus 3s a game. Why? The 3-point shot is the most dangerous and having shooters helps teams space the floor. Did you see Maryland put up a wall to stop Bouknight on every drive on Saturday? That’s because UConn rarely had more than one spot-up shooter on the floor at the same time. Helping off a non-shooter clogs the lane and prevents good offense.

THE CANDIDATES? Here is where we think it gets scary. Tyler Polley is a senior, and even though he didn’t have a great year, he was still the Huskies’ most prolific 3-point shooter. He’s gone. Bouknight was the third-best 3-point shooter at 29.3 percent and he is likely leaving. That leaves Cole at 38.6 percent and Jalen Gaffney at 36.2 percent shooting on lower volume. Those are two shooters for the Huskies. After that? Martin’s suspect jumper is at 32 percent and the rest of the players are non-shooters. Andre Jackson was 2-for-17 from 3-point range as a freshman and every attempt looked worse than the one before it. He’s going to have to join Gaffney and Martin in the gym this summer and get that shooting stroke working. It isn’t just taking long-range shots. It’s also hitting midrange shots, which are even more difficult than spot-up 3s. If the Huskies can’t make teams play them on the perimeter, we don’t care how strong and powerful Sanogo is.

WHERE ARE THE SHOOTERS? Can the recruiting help? UConn has a center entering in Samson Johnson. He’s a non-shooter, but there are two perimeter players in Rashool Diggins and Jordan Hawkins. Diggins is a point guard who looks quick and wiry, something the Huskies desperately need, but he’s known more for his playmaking than he is as a spot-up shooter. Hawkins is a top-50, 6-foot-4, 170-pound shooting guard out of DeMatha Catholic in Maryland. He is the best bet as a scorer and has shown the ability the Huskies are going to lose with Bouknight off to the NBA.

IS HELP ON THE WAY? Where have you gone, Brian Fair, Rashad Anderson, Denham Brown and Albert Mouring? Whenever the Huskies have had success, they could shoot the 3-point shot. UConn is the home of the most prolific 3-point shooter in Ray Allen and players such as Ben Gordon, Shabazz Napier and A.J. Price made their living shooting from the perimeter. We take you down memory lane to remind you that shooting has always been an integral part of UConn’s success. The Huskies have some options in the transfer market, which is sure to be the Wild West in the coming weeks due to the essentially free year players get. Dan Hurley has to find a way to bring in some prolific shooters, or we probably are going to be writing this column again next year.