Central Florida 68, UConn 63: Huskies still have some growing up to do

by Kevin Meacham on Nov 25, 2011 4:46 PM EST in UConn Huskies Basketball

UConn's 16-game winning streak came to an end Friday afternoon, as the Huskies blew a 17-point lead and lost to the Central Florida Fightin' Jordan Progenys, 68-63, in the semifinals of the Battle 4 Atlantis. UConn falls to 5-1 overall, loses for the first time since last season's regular-season finale against Notre Dame, and loses in a tournament game for the first time since the 2010 Big East Tournament.

Good on UCF for taking the game from a UConn team that hasn't been overwhelmingly good early in the season. As if we needed any further reminders, this isn't Kemba Walker's team anymore.

Depending on your own personal level of optimism, today's loss was either a painful way of helping this young group grow up, a warning sign for the future, or completely irrelevant because the construction of the Huskies' roster will look very different 24 hours from now.

If you're in the first group, you'll note that Andre Drummond and Alex Oriakhi played a splendid first 30 minutes of the game, completely controlling the Knights on both ends of the floor. The two combined for 16 points, 8 rebounds and 5 blocks in the first half, and were crucial to the Huskies racking up a 50-33 lead with just over 12 minutes to play. You'll also note that, even as UConn limped to a an 11-points-in-12-minutes finish and their first loss of the season, it came against the zone, a typical Jim Calhoun bugaboo. They'll work on that, for sure, and hopefully come time for the Big East schedule, the offense won't be reduced to "everyone taking 18-footers early in the shot clock". In this camp, this game will be looked back on as an anomaly by mid-January, and order will be restored perhaps as soon as tomorrow.

If you're in the second group, you'll posit that Jeremy Lamb was fairly disastrous on both sides of the ball (5-16 from the field, 2-9 from 3; getting beat by Marcus Jordan on drives to the hoop time after time), that the Huskies shot 2-18 from 3, that Shabazz Napier turned the ball over 7 times, that when they absolutely needed a bucket, there was no one who could take charge, impose his will and get to the basket effectively (Drummond scored UConn's only two field goals of the last 7:38, both on putbacks). You'll make the case that even with the frontcourt playing a bit better, the Huskies are about as good as Jerebazz Lambpier is on any given day (today: 7-for-23, 2-13 on 3s, 10 TOs). These also fall under the "growing pains" category, but consider that this is not a very good UCF team - they lost to Florida State by 23 a few weeks ago - and it could seem like there's quite a gap between UConn and the upper tier of the Big East.

And if you're in the third group, everything that has happened up to this very moment is irrelevant, because UConn has been an incomplete team since Nov. 10. That changes tomorrow, when Ryan Boatright becomes eligible. By all accounts, Boatright should be able to step in right away to give Jim Calhoun some options with the backcourt. You could make the case that Napier and Lamb have had to carry too much of the load, and Boatright taking 15-20 minutes from them (and getting Lamb off the point guard hook, where he is not as effective) should be helpful. If you're in this camp, you would've hoped UConn could get through its Charmin soft first six games (UCF's the top-ranked KenPom team they've faced, at 102).

I think all three camps have their merits. This WILL be a different team with Boatright; it WILL be a different team with another five weeks of playing together. And it's also kind of frightening that a team like UCF managed to run UConn off the court for the last 12 minutes with an exceedingly simple gameplan. (The loser of the Florida State-Harvard game is almost certainly better than UCF.)

I am still very confident that this will be a championship-caliber team come March; I was also pretty sure that the Huskies were wildly overrated at No. 4 in the polls this early in the season. We now officially know that the second part is true; beginning tomorrow, we'll hopefully start to see progress towards the first part.

Tweet Comment 5 comments | 0 recs |

Do you like this story?

Comments

At the risk of sounding non comittal

I am about 60 percent in the first camp, 30 percent in the third camp, and only 10 percent in the second camp. They were up 17 in this game, had their way with them when they wanted to, and lost because they let their guard down. I think it’s too early to think this is anything more than a bump in the road, a wake up call, and that’s that. The amazing run from last year tends to obscure the fact that Uconn ran into a few of these games last year, even early on. I believe they were down at the half against New Hampshire at one point. They have a lot of talent and a new rotation of guys and Calhoun is doing his usual early season pull guys quick, send messages with the starting lineup sort of thing. I think they will be fine and, actually, could look at this as a “message received” moment.
And, like you said, this is going to look different with Boatright. I will be fascinated to sees how his addition to the rotation affects games. I think, just by giving a rest to Napier and Lamb, he will help out immensely and, let’s not forget, this is suppose to be one talented kid. He is more highly touted than Shabazz.
The 10 percent part of me that is very concerned however has to do with the fact that this team has looked completely unimpressive so far this year and has had significant lasses in effort. Last year, even when they played poorly, it didn’t seem that they took long stretches off. This year, they have let teams back in simply by not playing hard and that concerns me. It also concerns me that Shabazz seems to want to play the part of Kemba but I’m not sure it’s inherently in him. It’s almost like he’s acting like a leader rather than it coming naturally. That might be a harsh comment and, granted, there is only so much you can glean by watching on TV, but Kemba had a way of raising not only his own game but other people’s as well, as have all the great leaders at Uconn over the years. I have to see Shabazz get more people playing well to believe he’s automatically the next in that line of leaders.

by huskymania on Nov 25, 2011 6:12 PM EST reply actions

I'm just not sure how much Boatright will be able to handle.

Totally agree that he’s going to help, if only by allowing Bazz and Lamb to rest a bit more. But I’m not sure he really cures all that ills this team even if he is as good as a lot of people believe he is (which remains to be seen).

Big game tomorrow (in terms of games that won’t really mean anything in the long run anyway).

by UConnBlog Justin on Nov 25, 2011 7:34 PM EST reply actions

I agree but.....

I think it is a big positive just in terms of his presence. Bass and Lamb definitely need more rest and when Bazz is out there is no true ball distributor or handler. If Boatright is simply mediocre, he will help…….and hopefully, he is a little more than mediocre……but no doubt, he doesn’t solve all the problems and I really think hustle on every play is a major factor as to why this team has imposed it’s will on ever team it’s played this year, but has always found itself in a tighter-than-needs-to-be game (obviously losing today).

by huskymania on Nov 25, 2011 8:52 PM EST up reply actions

I'm Glad Boatright comes back today

If just because then everyone can stop looking to him as the mid-season savior. The past mid-season saviors who were going to turn everything around include: Enosch Wolf, and post-copper-stacking Stanley Robinson (who’s shot didn’t come back until the NCAA tournament).

I’m excited to see what Boatright actually brings to the table, not view him as an empty vessel to fill up with the cures for all the teams ills. I do think back-court depth, and the ability to keep Lamb off the ball, can only help at this point.

by CJ17098 on Nov 26, 2011 11:26 AM EST reply actions