So much for Huskies to learn from loss

Ring. Ring. Ringgggg. Olivia Nelson-Ododa, this is the rest of your UConn basketball career calling ….

The COVID college basketball schedule has been filled with games against Worry Tech, Chaos State and Excuse-Making A&M.

The pandemic is deadly, and the vaccine is real. Don’t get that confused here. It’s just that so much accompanying COVID pauses and rescheduling has been a game played within the mind.

You may be tough enough to rebound a basketball, but are you tough enough to rebound immediately after two weeks off? You can switch off a screen, but can you mentally switch from a postponement against a cupcake team to a rescheduled game against a Top 10 team? Especially when your own coach may be bemoaning starting times and a lack of practice and contact tracing?

So much angst.

So much carefully picking of opponents when COVID doesn’t give two licks about anyone’s schedule.

In the end, even after No. 3 UConn’s 90-87 loss at No. 19 Arkansas on Thursday night, that was the beauty of the Huskies’ first loss of the season and a string of “worst-since …”

The Hogs and Dogs played. They produced arguably the most entertaining game of the women’s college season.

The nation got to see a wondrous 37-point performance from fifth year-senior Chelsea Dungee, who plays with a quick-strike aggression off the dribble more reminiscent of James Harden than Sue Bird. The nation got to see freshman Paige Bueckers, who has more points than Breanna Stewart and Maya Moore through her first 10 games, nearly single-handedly bring the Huskies back to a win in the fourth quarter.

There was a message sent to anyone worried about trying to guard Dungee one-on-one. A

message to anyone worried about how devastating Bueckers might be over the next four years at Storrs.

The message was the same. Be very worried. Pick up, Liv. Pick up. Because of COVID, Arkansas had an open date. Because of COVID, UConn had an open date. A few text messages exchanged. Voila, a game between two ranked teams announced only eight days in advance. Guitar-playing, fast-break lovin’ Mike Neighbors, part Paul Westhead, part Eddie Van Halen, full-time character, isn’t afraid to play anybody. Even if others may duck and take a pass, Geno Auriemma always has been willing to play anybody, anytime, anywhere.

So 6 p.m. on ESPN 2 at Walton Arena in Fayetteville sounded just about right.

Six Arkansas players — none starters — were held out because of COVID concerns. The crowd was restricted to 4,400, a trifle in the past anytime Geno’s Great Circus came to town. Yet 4,400 was the biggest crowd these UConn players, including seven freshmen, have seen.

Play on.

This was the first time UConn lost to a team outside the Top 10 since unranked St. John’s in February 2012.

The first time UConn allowed 90 points in regulation since Notre Dame in the 2001 Final Four.

The 52 percent the Razorbacks shot was highest UConn allowed since 2011.

UConn’s 23 fouls were the most since 2014.

Save the 38 points by Amy O’Brien of Holy Cross in 1997, Dungee’s 37 were the most ever by an opponent.

A No. 3 team losing to a No. 19 team in men’s hoops happens all the time. A No. 3 UConn team losing to anyone not in the Top 10? It’s once in a generation. Which, of course, brings out the casual kooks, fulltime UConn haters and fan-boy/girl apologists.

My God! This is a horrible loss.

UConn’s dynasty ended in 2016.

Auriemma gets outcoached whenever the score is close.

This game means nothing.

This loss is the best thing that could have happened.

Take the five previous sentences, roll ’em up, flush ’em. Or quote them on a fan site.

Pick up, Liv. Pick up!

I’m tempted to put an asterisk next to all those “worst-since” statistical items. Arkansas is a fastbreak, guard-loaded marvel. They average 85 points. Neighbors loves his teams to fire 3s and pound to the hoop to get to the free throw line. Amber Ramirez hit five threes and a few were from Ray Allen distance. When the Razorbacks are hot, they beat No. 4 Baylor. Teams that play like them also can go cold. Evidence six losses, including four against ranked teams.

Having lost by two to Georgia on a last-second bucket only 48 hours earlier, Neighbors said his team is calloused. Except for the

game at Tennessee, UConn hasn’t had to sweat.

“UConn, they don’t always get a chance to see their own blood, because they’re not in many close games,” he said. “We just felt like if we could keep it close and hang around ... we have been in so many (tight ones).”

That’s why there is no asterisk. You play. They count. You learn. Or you don’t learn. Some years, the Huskies don’t bleed. They have perfect seasons. Some years, like this one, they do.

There were defensive breakdowns galore.

Against a 3-point shooting team, Auriemma pointed out, there’s a tendency to extend your defense because you don’t want to get caught late getting to a shooter. So they didn’t rotate down there fast enough. That hurt.

And this: “Man-to-man, just being able to guard your man, we have to do a much better job. That’s obviously a big area of concern for us.”

And this: “Quite a few times when our big guys came out to help on our ball-screen coverage and their guys just went right around them like they were standing still.”

Don’t have a sure-fire defensive perimeter stopper man-to-man. Were slow a few times getting out to the 3-point shooter from a zone. Allowed penetration for a kick or conversion or a trip to the foul line.

As Auriemma pointed out, that’s why they have practice to fix things. Look, few teams can exploit the Huskies like Arkansas did, and fewer than that will hit 52 percent of their shots. On the other hand, there

are a few teams, and the Huskies aren’t going to shoot 52 percent on 3s themselves on many nights.

Even though the bar at Storrs is a national championship, you have to be real and 2020-2021 has always seemed one year premature for Banner No. 12. The other part of being real is there is no sure-fire favorite.

So. Will Christyn Williams, bent on greatness after a relatively disappointing sophomore season, have the patience to defer when she needs to? She started out 3-for-3 in her homecoming, but hit only four of the next 14 shots, including 0-for-5 from three. She missed a huge free throw with 34 seconds left. At 28 percent on threes, her inefficient shooting doesn’t cost the team in 50 point wins. Games that come down to the end are a different story.

And after grabbing a rebound with 3 seconds left, Williams failed to call timeout immediately and the clock ran down to 0.3. A bad mental mistake, although Evina Westbrook did get a decent look from 3 that hit the back of the rim at the buzzer.

This was a night when it became more apparent that for UConn to get to the Final Four, Bueckers and Westbrook are going to need to guide the ship and help steer Williams toward patience and the hoop when needed.

Bueckers, who had a career-high 27 points coming off an ankle sprain, appears more and more capable of filling the sneakers of UConn greatness. Yes, she does need to shoot more start to finish, but she’ll find her way by March.

Westbrook, 5-for-7 on 3s Thursday, is a different player than two months ago. She’s comfortable, a mature, calming presence, who has found her shooting rhythm.

Which brings us to NelsonOdoda.

It was disconcerting to see her play so passively, without impact. Big games against Georgetown are one thing, but two points and two rebounds (which essentially came off one play in the third quarter on a put-back of her own miss) in 17 minutes? She had three turnovers in the first quarter, getting the ball pulled out of her hands a couple times. It was hard to watch.

Aaliyah Edwards was clearly a better physical presence in the post, battling for six points, six rebounds, including three offensive, in 13 minutes. Yet the freshman is still a baby bull in a china shop, fouling out nine seconds after picking up her fourth. Folks, it’s not as simple as playing Edwards over Nelson-Ododa the next two months.

“Liv knows what she needs to do,” Westbrook said. “She just needs to be more aggressive, be the best post player we know that that she is every time she steps on the floors. Sometimes she can get away from that.”

Not if UConn wants to do something special in Year COVID.