UConn snuck past a plucky UMass-Lowell squad on Sunday, 88-79, despite playing almost no defense. At all.
With center Amida Brimah out with a testicular contusion — possibly a long-lasting side effect of this play — the Huskies defense looking completely hapless, allowing UML to shoot 50 percent from the floor and 12-30 from three-point range. Jahad Thomas had 19 points, five rebounds and seven assists from the power forward position. Jahad Thomas is 6’2” — in other words, the same height or shorter than every UConn starter.
Fortunately for UConn, it made up for the lack of defense with it’s own impressive offensive showing. For the second game in a row, the Huskies topped 60 percent from the floor, finishing 32-50 (64%) on Sunday. Rodney Purvis was phenomenal, leading the team in scoring with 28 points. Daniel Hamilton had a typically stuffed stat line of 12 points, 11 rebounds and seven assists. Omar Calhoun kept his hot hand from last week with another 14 point performance and Sterling Gibbs seemingly got his shooting stroke back, scoring 15 points including a pair of first half three-pointers.
Ultimately, there’s only so much you can learn from playing a team like UMass-Lowell. One thing that would be fun to learn is, why even play UMass-Lowell? If you’re in the market for a terrible UMass team to stick on the schedule, how about, you know, UMass?
But whatever.
The one concrete thing we learned on Sunday was how much value Amida Brimah truly brings this team on the defensive end. Without him manning the paint, the guards had no one to make up for their mistakes. In the first half, UML was 8-10 from two-point range. They were getting around UConn’s guards and getting easy looks from close range. In the second half, the Huskies seemingly sank in to prevent easy two-point shots, but consequently failed to switch on screens or rotate fast enough to close out on three-point shooters. UML was 7-15 from three in the second half as they made the game way too close — it was a six point game with 1:27 remaining.
Coach Kevin Ollie declared Brimah day-to-day going forward. If there’s any health risk at all, it would be wise to let him rest through Christmas. UConn will play Central Connecticut on Wednesday in a game that should be hilariously-attended. Central is one of the worst teams in the country (their only win is over this same UML team), and maybe letting Brimah take another game off will aid UConn’s guards in stepping up their own defense.
But, if it wasn’t before, it is now abundantly clear how important Brimah will be as the season wears on. He is a transcendent shot-blocker who single-handedly can alter an opponent’s game plan and it would be nuts (wink) not to appreciate that after Sunday’s game.
Up Next: UConn takes on the aforementioned CCSU Blue Devils on Wednesday Dec. 23 in Hartford. The game starts at the impossibly stupid time of 12:30pm and can be seen on ESPNU.
