The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Huskies play where they’ve never won
During UConn’s rare, sevenday respite between games this past week, an anniversary occurred — though not a very flattering one for the Huskies.
This past Monday marked the one-year anniversary of the program’s last true road victory. On Feb. 18, 2018, the Huskies won at East Carolina 84-80. Four days later, they got clobbered at Cincinnati, and on March 4, lost at Houston.
UConn is 0-6 in true road games this season, meaning its road losing streak is now at eight games. Over the past two seasons, the Huskies’ overall road record is 2-15.
On Thursday, UConn (13-12, 4-8 AAC) will have one of its best chances this season at ending that skein and winning a true road contest. Ironically, it’s in a building where the Huskies have had some of their worst nightmares since joining the American Conference.
The Huskies will face SMU on Thursday at Moody Coliseum in Dallas (9 p.m., ESPN2). At 12-12 overall and 4-8 in the AAC, the Mustangs are in a nearly identical boat as UConn. Like the Huskies, they are without their best player — Jarrey Foster, who suffered a knee injury in a Jan. 16 loss to Houston and hasn’t played since. SMU has gone 1-6 since Foster’s injury and have lost five straight games entering Thursday night.
In fact, SMU might have UConn trumped on injury bad luck over the past couple of seasons. Of course, UConn is without leading scorer Jalen Adams for at least the next few weeks, and has been without point guard Alterique Gilbert for nearly a month. Coach Dan Hurley said on his weekly radio show on Tuesday night that Gilbert’s status was still uncertain for Thursday night.
UConn beat SMU 76-64 at Gampel on Jan. 10 and has won two of the last three meetings. However, SMU owns an 8-4 overall advantage over the Huskies since the AAC formed in 2013-14, and has never lost to UConn at Moody. The Mustangs are 4-0
against the Huskies in Moody, and the games are never really close — the last three have been decided by an average margin of victory of 21.3 points.
Still, Thursday night may represent UConn’s best chance at a road win — at least to this point of the season. The Huskies will have two more tries after that — at Wichita State on Feb. 28, and at ECU on March 10. Wichita (12-12, 5-7) is in the midst of a rebuilding season, though it has won four of its last five games and is always tough to beat inside “The Roundhouse.” ECU is 11th in the 12-team league at 2-11 in AAC play and, of course, UConn has beaten them in Minges Coliseum before.
Winning a road game or two is important for the Huskies. For one, it ends their year-long struggle and instills some confidence in their younger players that they can, in fact, win on the road. And, if UConn is to grasp at any feint hope at a postseason bid of some sort, it would behoove the Huskies to prove they can win on the road.
The NCAA tournament at this point is a pipe dream, save for a miracle run through the AAC tournament (likely without Adams and, possibly, Gilbert). The NIT doesn’t appear very likely, either. But the best way to make a run at that tourney would be to start winning on the road. Now.