UConn men limp to finish line
Storrs — The mere mention of UConn finishing the regular season with a losing record would have been considered crazy talk back in November.
The Huskies were ranked 18th and picked to finish second in the American Athletic Conference preseason poll.
Then bad losses and injuries began to pile up. And the season took a rocky turn.
With a 67-47 loss to No. 18 Cincinnati Sunday on Senior Day at Gampel Pavilion, UConn fell to 14-16 overall, 9-9 in the AAC. The Huskies ended the regular season with a losing record for the first time since the 1986-87 season when they went 9-19 in Jim Calhoun's first year in charge.
"It's been difficult for everybody, this
whole state, being 14-16," coach Kevin Ollie said. "But three weeks ago, we were playing for third place in our league.
“So I just really thank these guys for persevering, continuing to play and continuing to believe. We've had a lot of setbacks. But it gave some guys an opportunity to play.
"It's definitely made me a better coach and made me a better man . ... A lot of times you feel like you want to break down and not give it your all but you stand up and be a man and be a coach and be a player. You go out there and give it your best no matter what you have.
"I think all this pain can be recycled, and that's the nutshell of it. .. You go through things and you learn from them and you've got to get better." ... Nobody wants to go through a season like this but we have another season coming up this week and things can be erased. We can still go play ourselves into the NCAA tournament."
Tourney starts Thursday
A deep run in the AAC tournament starting Thursday in Hartford is a long shot. The Huskies are 0-6 against SMU, Cincinnati and Houston, the top three teams. As the No. 6 seed, they'll face No. 11 South Florida at 8:30 p.m. Thursday in AAC firstround play.
They're physically beat up and riding a season-high tying four-game losing streak.
On Sunday, they played without starting forward Vance Jackson (concussion), leaving them with seven scholarship players.
Sophomore Jalen Adams (four points) hasn't been the same player since spraining his left ankle on Feb. 25 in a loss to SMU.
"He's limping a lot," Ollie said. "It is hard for him to push off. It didn't even look like he was going to play today but we figured we'd give it a shot, but he's hurting."
The Huskies never led and lacked the toughness and offensive firepower to defeat the Bearcats (27-4, 16-2), one of the stingiest defensive teams in the country.
Cincinnati overcame a rough shooting game (36.4 percent) by controlling the boards (44-33) and limiting UConn to a season-low 31.3 percent.
The Bearcats turned 17 offensive rebounds into 17 second-chance points.
"They beat us up on the offensive rebounds," senior Rodney Purvis said.
When Purvis led a comeback charge late in the first half, scoring 11 points in a 14-5 run to cut a double-digit deficit to five (26-21), there appeared to be some hope.
But Jacob Evans III and Troy Caupain buried consecutive 3-pointers and the Bearcats took a 33-23 lead into the break. Clark bullied his way inside for 13 points and 10 rebounds by the break and finished with 17 and 14, respectively.
UConn went just 8-for-30 in the first half against a tough matchup zone.
It was more of the same in the second half, which started with Cincinnati's Kyle Washington grabbing an offensive rebound and Kevin Johnson sinking a 3-pointer.
The Bearcats gradually pulled away, leading by as many as 23 points. It was UConn's most lopsided home loss of the season.
Seniors lead the way
The senior trio of Purvis (15 points), Kentan Facey (eight points, 10 rebounds) and Amida Brimah (11 points, six rebounds) led the Huskies.
"You hate for them to lose on Senior Day, but our season is not over," Ollie said. "Everybody will forget Senior Day if we go out there and win the AAC tournament."
It was an emotional pregame Senior Day ceremony. Purvis, Brimah and Facey all received their framed jerseys.
There also was a surprise — a video message from Facey's mother.
"I was a little emotional," said Facey, who's from Jamaica. "It was a surprise. It wasn't aware that that was going to happen." g.keefe@theday.com