This season’s UConn team has made a habit of exceeding expectations. The individual performances of Shabazz Napier and head coach Kevin Ollie have earned talk of conference awards. Unwinnable games – abroad vs. Michigan St., at Notre Dame, home against Syracuse – have ended with Husky victories.
Through it all there has been one goal that really mattered to the Huskies, a regular season conference championship. With no hopes of tournament play, UConn players have made no secret their desire to upset the status quo by etching their names into the Big East history books – forcing the conference that turned their backs on them to acknowledge their incredible accomplishment. After Villanova soundly defeated UConn at home one week ago, most assumed the opportunity for a title had vanished.
Yet, with four games to play in the season, UConn finds itself two games out of first place. They are tied with Notre Dame (9-5). Four others lead them both. It would take an incredible series of timely defeats of the conference elite to yield a chance for UConn to catch up, but if this Husky team has taught us anything, it’s that nothing is impossible.
Here’s how it needs to go down.
- UConn needs to win out. This one is non-negotiable. The Huskies will take on first place Georgetown this week. Should they win, they will be one game back in the standings. Their remaining games – at Cincinnati, at USF, and home against Providence – won’t be easy, but without a victory against Georgetown, UConn’s chances at a title are virtually none.
- Notre Dame needs to help out. The Irish are tied with UConn in the standings at 9-5. They also have four games remaining but only two that concern the Huskies. They play at Marquette on March 2nd and at Louisville to close the regular season on March 9th. They need to win at least one of those games to hand another team their 5th conference loss.
— For this exercise, let’s assume they beat Marquette — - Marquette needs to beat Syracuse. That game will take place on Monday in Milwaukee. A Syracuse loss would hand them their 5th in conference and drop them into a tie with UConn.
- Syracuse needs to beat Georgetown. That’s probably easier said than done considering the Hoyas rolled Cuse in the great white tundra on Saturday. However, assuming UConn can beat Georgetown, this loss would be their 5th in the conference.
- Someone needs to beat Louisville. At DePaul. At Syracuse. Home vs. Cincinnati. Home vs. Notre Dame. If Louisville loses any of those games, it will be their fifth conference loss.
To boil this down in much simpler terms, Georgetown needs to lose twice (including Thursday to UConn). Syracuse, Louisville, and Marquette all need to lose at least once – luckily for the Huskies, all of those teams will have ample opportunities to taste defeat. Notre Dame is relevant only in that they play two of the teams ahead of UConn. And finally, the Huskies cannot lose.
The road won’t be easy, but it is theoretically possible for UConn to give one last middle finger to the powers that have wronged them this year and head into the offseason with a share of the Big East regular season title.
