To be entirely honest, I started composing this "recap" with about 10 minutes remaining in the second half today. As I'm writing this, UConn is leading 56-38, showing no signs of letting up and frankly, I'm bored.
UConn needed this game, and they got it, thats about as far as I can go for "analysis." Simply put, Rutgers is a horrible basketball team. In the first half, UConn was clearly the better team, though it could be tough to tell by how much. In the second half, of course, UConn came out with an explosive start and put the game away, outscoring Rutgers 27-13 in the first 12 minutes.
What has killed UConn this year is not so much the close losses, but rather the losses to teams that the Huskies should have beat (Marquette, Providence, Cincy x2). In that sense, this game is a marked improvement and a clear step in the right direction. Its nice to see the momentum carry over from the Villanova win, and hopefully that will continue into Monday when UConn takes on West Virginia.
There were a few nice bright spots: the team shot very well from beyond the arc, controlled the boards in the second half and Donnell Beverly added some nice production off the bench. However, not all was well. UConn (especially Dyson) is still turning the ball over far too much, and if they cannot control the ball better on Monday, they will lose (I should note that Kemba Walker did do well in this department, as he has in the last few games, lets hope he keeps this up).
In the end though, this was just UConn taking care of business. It was an 18-point win over a team that they should have beat by 18 points. It is nice to have the win, because without it UConn's slim tournament dreams might be done, but the real work still lies ahead.
Oh, and the stat of the night? Stanley Robinson scored in double-figures for the 33rd straight game. For someone we usually kill for being inconsistent, that is very, very impressive.