UConn’s season is officially over. The Huskies fell to Arizona State on Wednesday night in the first round of the NIT.
Ryan Boatright (shoulder) didn’t suit up, his collegiate career ending this past Sunday with a loss to SMU. In his stead, Rodney Purvis continued his strong finish to the season, contributing a team-high 19 points and adding four rebounds, three assists and five steals.
Daniel Hamilton added 16 points and seven rebounds. And Terrence Samuel handled most of the point guard duties with Boatright out. The sophomore matched a season-high with 35 minutes played, scored ten points and handed out a career-high six assists.
In the context of the season, Wednesday’s game felt wholly unimportant. The Huskies — as they’ve done often this year — played a lethargic brand of defense for a long stretch of the second half. Arizona State ballooned their lead to 16 with 18 minutes to go. UConn mounted a comeback, eventually tying the game, but failed to hit a shot over the final 2:42 as their season came to a disappointing close.
There’s not much point in dissecting this game individually, but it was fairly emblematic of UConn’s season. They looked bad. They looked great. They looked lost. They looked found. They went down, came back, and ultimately came up short.
We’ll bury you with postmortem articles over the coming days and weeks. And we’ll try to find a way to have some UConn-related fun this offseason. For now, take solace in the amazing stretch of winning that UConn fans have enjoyed over the past two decades, and send Ryan Boatright a thank you tweet.
We’ll see you soon.
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