UConn men finish regular season at Houston
They left on a regular-season ending road trip to Texas on the heels of a feelgood win.
How long the feeling will continue for the UConn Huskies depends on the outcome of Sunday's difficult road test at No. 25 Houston today (4 p.m., CBSSN) at H&PE Arena, temporary home of the Cougars at Texas Southern University.
Happy days haven't lasted long during this rocky season. Blowout road losses by an average of 24.5 points followed each of their last four wins, erasing any momentum gained. They haven't won two straight mid-January.
UConn is counting on Wednesday's strong all-around performance during a win over Temple as being an encouraging sign of things to come.
"It's always good to start playing your best basketball toward the end of the season getting ready to go into the conference tournament," junior Jalen Adams said. "We know how crucial that is for our season. So we're just really focused on figuring it out and getting the right pieces and clicking at the right time."
Sunday's outcome is unlikely to change the seeding position for either team in the upcoming AAC tournament, which starts Thursday in Orlando, Fla.
UConn (14-16, 7-10) will be the No. 8 seed unless it stuns Houston and both Tulane and Temple win on Sunday, which would lift the Huskies to No. 7. The eighth-seeded team opens tournament play at noon Thursday. Odds favor SMU being their first round opponent.
Houston (23-6, 13-4) already has secured a first-round bye.
Maintaining momentum is more important than any of the above scenarios for the Huskies. That will be challenging considering their track record against top 25 competition. They're 0-7 versus ranked teams this season. They've also managed just two true road wins, both against AAC teams in the bottom three of the standings.
The Cougars are cruising, winning seven of their last eight games while dismantling opponents by an average of 19.4 points. A bear to play on both ends of the court, they can apply pressure with both their lethal offensive attack and disruptive defense. They rank sixth in the nation in field goal percentage defense at 39.3 and convert 46.8 percent from the field, second best in the AAC.
They're also unbeaten at home (14-0).
Emotions will be on Houston's side, as it hosts Senior Day, honoring four players including AAC player-of-the-year candidate Rob Gray.
For the Huskies, Sunday's game will be more about how they play than the outcome.
Coach Kevin Ollie will take a repeat of Wednesday's effort against Temple.
UConn buckled down on defense, limiting the damage from the 3-point line where the Owls went 6-for-31. It also shared the basketball on the offensive end, received contributions from a variety of players and displayed a strong finishing kick down the stretch.
"We just know when we execute the right way, share the ball and we're making shots, we can play with the best of them," Adams said.
Assists are up and turnovers down in recent weeks, with UConn recording more of the former and less of the latter in four of the last six games. That only happened five times in the first 24 games. It's a sign of unselfish play. "We've just got to continue to play this way," Ollie said. "You see 16 assists and 10 turnovers (against Temple). That's the ideal game for us." g.keefe@theday.com