New Haven Register (Sunday) (New Haven, CT)
UConn’s NCAA formula? Oxygen + Offense
So now the UConn basketball season comes down to O and O. If that reads like something from a periodic table, chemistry is certainly part of it.
UConn had more to gain than to lose on this Saturday afternoon in Philadelphia. And if James Bouknight remained as stupefyingly dominant through the full 40 minutes as he was in the first 11, the next arrow possession would have pointed directly to Indianapolis.
This way to the 2021 NCAA
Tournament.
Sure, there’s always the chance that the Huskies could stink up the joint in two games against Georgetown (6-10), a game at Seton Hall (13-8) and a home game against Marquette (10-12). Yet after Bouknight stepping back and draining threes, driving to the basket like he owned the Big East, hitting six of seven shots — the only miss a 25-foot heat check — no one was thinking about UConn laying an egg against the Hoyas.
A win at No. 10 Villanova would have been the ultimate resume builder and a win over Seton Hall followed with a nice run in the Big East Tournament would have been the icing on the resume. Now that the margin of error was erased with the
NCAA tourney picture. The Huskies don’t have much room for error with just four Big East games remaining, however, and may have to make some noise at the league’s championship tournament at Madison Square Garden.
Meanwhile, Villanova (14-3, 9-2) showed it isn’t about to relinquish its Big East supremacy so easily.
“We’ll be better, by the time the Big East tournament rolls around,” Hurley promised. “Hopefully, we get a chance to play (Villanova) again.”
If that happens, the Huskies hope not only to have Bouknight in better shape, but also to have other players step up. No one else really did that on Saturday.
R.J. Cole was the only other UConn player in double figures with 10 points, but was ineffective in the first half after picking up two early fouls and shot just 2-for-10 for the game.
“That kind of took away the possibility of us getting that second scorer that we probably needed,” Hurley said of Cole’s early foul issues.
Some of the other candidates also struggled. Tyrese Martin snared 11 rebounds but missed all four 3-point attempts and finished with nine points. Adama Sanogo had limited touches for eight points, Jalen Gaffney had a quick five-point spurt off the bench but nothing else.
Andre Jackson fouled out with two points and three rebounds in 16 minutes. Tyler Polley scored three points in 25 minutes, Isaiah Whaley two points in 21 minutes. Akok Akok played just four minutes and took just one shot.
“We’ve got to get more contributions,” Hurley said. “We’ve got to get a better flow to our game.”
“We were just a step slow offensively,” Bouknight added. “Coach emphasized that we can’t make that many mistakes. We made too many mistakes.”
Villanova led 34-32 at halftime despite Bouknight’s early brilliance. UConn briefly re-gained the lead a little less than five minutes into the second half after Cole tied the game with a 3-pointer, then Bouknight hit one of two free throws for a 40-39 edge.
Jeremiah Robinson-Earl followed with a pair of free throws, but Sanogo countered with an inside hoop. That would be the Huskies’ last lead.
Collin Gillespie scored on a baseline drive, RobinsonEarl hit a pair of foul shots and the Wildcats gradually pulled away. A Gillespie 3-pointer with 3:18 left put ‘Nova up 10. The Huskies got back to within five after a Cole 3-pointer and a Sanogo inside hoop, but Gillespie countered again with a 3-pointer with 91 seconds left.
“That iced the game,” said Hurley.
Gillespie finished with 20 points, though those late 3-pointers were his only two of the game. The 6foot-3 senior gaurd with national-championship
pedigree killed UConn all day with “brutal backdowns” on the low post that are tough to guard with the threat of him kicking it back out to 3-point shooters.
Robinson-Earl added 17 points and 11 boards, and Justin Moore and Jermaine Samuels chipped in with 11 points each in a typically well-balanced Villanova scoring attack.
Neither team shot the ball overly well from either the 3-point or the foul line. UConn turned the ball over just 10 times, but Villanova just eight.
“Gillespie’s 3’s were huge, he was tremendous,” Hurley said. “Robinson-Earl was tremendous. Credit to those guys. Just really mature, and they didn’t make a lot of mistakes.”
The good news for UConn: Bouknight’s elbow came out of the game fine, something that looked questionable at one point. And there is still time to make a late-season NCAA tournament push.
Just not a whole lot of time
“We don’t have much of a runway,” Hurley noted, “to get our act together.”