Not much to shout about for UConn men
As both coaches get tossed, Huskies’ problems go on
TULSA, Okla. — Most of the postgame talk was about the ejections, and rightfully so. It’s not often that both coaches are ejected from a college basketball game, so UConn’s Dan Hurley and Tulsa’s Frank Haith spent a lot of time talking about a moment that had little impact on this one.
UConn was beaten long before the 11:19-mark of the second half, when things erupted Wednesday night, and though Hurley would probably prefer to forget his 46th birthday, he’ll likely remember it for a long time.
So the day after, it’s time to dissect another unpalatable defeat for the Huskies, who were dominated much of the game, Tulsa’s 89-83 margin of victory deceivingly small.
The Huskies couldn’t carry over the inspiring play they showed against SMU and at Cincinnati, and are still looking for a road victory, with their next
chance at Central Florida on Jan. 31. UConn is 1-4 in the conference, things looking pretty bleak there. Tulane comes to Gampel Pavilion on Saturday night.
On with some takeaways:
Career night for Horne
UConn has developed a habit of defending a team’s top scorers, and getting beat by a supporting cast member. None of Tulsa’s top players went off, DaQuan Jeffries scoring 14, Martins Igbanu 13 and Sterling Taplin 11, but Jeriah Horne, who was averaging 7.8 points through Tulsa’s first 17 games, came off the bench to score a career-high 27, going 8-for-11. It’s hard to explain. Perhaps certain players just have their break-out games against UConn, but it has been a recurring theme.
Stagnating offense
After some nice ballmovement on their first four possessions, the Huskies sank back into unwatchable offense. Nothing doing inside, a lot of dribble penetration into dead ends and, finally, a lot of settling for 3-pointers. UConn was 9-for-31 on threes, and had only 11 assists. Jalen Adams scored 27, but 18 of those points came after the Huskies fell 17 points behind.
Defending woes
This was probably UConn’s worst defensive game of the season, or at least its worst-looking effort on defense. Tulsa shot 54.5 percent, 10 points above its average coming in. The Golden Hurricane went 5for-13 on 3-pointers — they were averaging 19.2 attempts coming in. That speaks to the number of easy baskets they got against the Huskies, and with only nine UConn turnovers, they were not the result of run-outs. Tulsa’s front court was just too quick for UConn to guard.
Road worriers
UConn’s troubles winning on the road in the American Athletic Conference have become epic. They’re now 0-5 at Tulsa, 0-6 at Cincinnati, 0-5 at SMU and 1-4 at Houston since the league started play. Has the ability to win tough road games become another fading memory? All the games at Tulsa have been during semester break, the Reynolds Center about half full. It shouldn’t be impossible to win there.
On the ejections
We haven’t heard the last of this. The AAC will certainly look into it, and offer some kind of resolution. The officiating blame game is never a good look, but it should be noted that UConn was called for 28 fouls at Cincinnati, the Bearcats 17. In this game, Tulsa took 36 free throws to UConn’s 15. No coach, certainly not one named Hurley, is going to sit still through that kind of discrepancy. Things got out of hand Wednesday night, and both coaches would’ve done well to stay in their boxes. But it seems clear the refs should have been looking to simmer things down, especially with both coaches appearing to get a grip on themselves, not pour gasoline on the embers. Call it misunderstanding, misinterpreting, or mishandling, but when both coaches agree it was handled poorly, the league can’t ignore that.
Dom Amore can be reached at damore@courant.com