The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Improved Alleyne a ‘problem’ for opponents
HARTFORD — Whether or not Tuesday night was Nahiem Alleyne’s best game with the UConn men’s basketball team is debatable.
Whether his half-court shot that banked in at the halftime buzzer was luck or skill is also up for question.
What may be inarguable, however, is that Alleyne delivered the quote of the year following the Huskies’ 87-72 manhandling of No. 10 Marquette.
NO. 21 UCONN AT NO. 23 CREIGHTON
Saturday, noon (FOX)
Scanning the box score while discussing teammate Tristen Newton’s school-record second triple-double of the season, Alleyne noticed Newton’s dozen assists and compared it to the work of the UConn women’s team’s pass-happy point guard.
“Twelve dimes?,” the junior guard said in wonderment. “He was like Nika
Muhl out there.”
The UConn men’s blowout of Marquette was as thorough as some of the UConn women’s team’s greatest hits. And while there was a lot of credit to spread around, most notably Newton, it was the performance of Alleyne that had Dan Hurley as excited as anything.
“You give us a guy like Nahiem that gets back to his old form,” the UConn coach said, “that’s going to be a problem for the other guy.”
Alleyne knocked down a trio of 3-pointers, including that half-court heave, and finished with 13 points, the most he’s scored since transferring from Virginia Tech to UConn last summer.
It was the fourth time Alleyne has scored in double figures this season but the first since he scored 11 against lowly LIU on Dec. 10. Alleyne had nine points and played some tough defense a week later in the Huskies’ Big East opener at Butler, but since then hasn’t contributed a whole lot.
In the dozen games pri
or to Tuesday night, Alleyne had scored exactly 27 points — 2.2 per game. He went scoreless in three of those games and never scored more than six.
A 38.7 3-point shooter in his three seasons at Virginia Tech and the only current Husky to shoot better than 40-percent in a season (40.8 percent as a sophomore at Tech), Alleyne shot just 28.5 percent (8-for-28) from distance over that 12-game span. Even his defense, a highlight earlier in the season, had become suspect.
“I just keep the same routine every single day,”
Alleyne said. “I know I haven’t played as well as I’ve wanted to, but I’m just keeping consistency, same routine, just being ready for the opportunity.”
It hasn’t just been Alleyne. Most of UConn’s bench struggled over the past month or so, during which the team at one point lost six of eight games and dropped from No. 2 to No. 24 in the country. Joey Calcaterra hasn’t been the 3-point shooting whiz of the first couple of months. Hassan Diarra hasn’t brought the same energy off the bench as a back-up point guard. Even 7-foot-2 freshman Donovan Clingan, the MVP of the Phil Knight Invitational in November, has seen his production dip a little
over the past few weeks.
“When we’re all clicking together, this team is dangerous,” Alleyne said. “If everybody sticks together, defensively, the sky’s the limit.”
But Alleyne, who averaged 11.1 points per game as a sophomore and 9.6 last season with Virginia Tech in the ACC, may be the biggest key. Hurley clearly expected more from Alleyne this season, and he got plenty on Tuesday night. Perhaps there is more to come.
“If that starts happening,” Hurley concluded, “that’s a problem for the other people.”