Loss Exposes Flaws, But Hope Shines Through

The Huskies depart sunny Puerto Rico with new questions, a 3-1 record, and a disappointing second-place finish in one of the less-glamorous preseason tournaments. With many fans already throwing in the towel on a young season, I thought I’d try to put some of the pieces back together for those of us who’d like to continue watching basketball this season.

Count me in the “not that worried” camp. Yes, this was an incredibly frustrating game because of how many times we shot ourselves in the foot. The WVU press was effective, but we made a lot of stupid plays that led to easy turnovers on the other end, and at the end of the day, we lost this game because we couldn’t hit a jump shot from anywhere on the floor. The same thing happened last year in the Stanford and Houston losses. They created open looks, but they couldn’t hit them, which manifested most glaringly as a 3 of 17 night from long range, not to mention making only 9 of 18 free throws.

There’s been a fair amount of consternation in Puerto Rico about the officiating (certainly questionable at times), the floor (slippery enough to result in a lot of players falling over), and the rims (incredibly unforgiving). The first two are difficult to quantify, but the last one might have some legs. Cumulatively, this tournament saw teams shoot 67.6% from the charity stripe, a number that would have ranked in the 32nd percentile last season. It’s hard to imagine that all eight teams just showed up and became mediocre at free-throw shooting, so it certainly seems possible that the rims had something to do with it. Three-point shooting, which would be even more affected due to the added power needed to make shots from distance, clocked in at a miserable 28.2% for the tournament, which would have ranked in the 2nd percentile last season. All in all, a pretty ugly shooting week for everyone.

As the Huskies aren’t looking to play any more games in Puerto Rico this season, the shooting woes that plagued them in this game should be an anomaly. Furthermore, provided Rodney Purvis’ injury isn’t serious, and that Omar Calhoun and Rakim Lubin will be allowed back on the team after violating an undisclosed team rule, the depth issues that UConn struggled with last night should be short lived as well. So let’s forget about last night and move on to what we’ve learned:

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Amida Brimah isn’t about to be a lottery pick, but his foul rate has dropped by nearly 70% from last year, allowing him to play 26mpg so far. That’s good news, since Phil Nolan has sucked out loud, to the tune of 6 points, 2 rebounds, and 11 fouls in 34 minutes of play. I can’t imagine he’s going to continue to play this poorly, if for no other reason than he was better than this last year and he would seem to have the improved physical tools necessary to play center more effectively. To his credit, he had his best game against the Mountaineers, with 4 points and 2 boards in 10 minutes of play. And if that sounds like damning with faint praise, he racked up another 3 fouls in those 10 minutes, which has continued to limit his ability to stay on the court.

Speaking of foul rates, Kentan Facey has dropped his by an absurd 171% from last year, allowing him to play 25mpg. As Brimah’s height doesn’t appear to be helping much with rebounding (only 16 in 104 minutes of play), Facey’s ability to stay in the game will be tantamount, as he appears to be the team’s most talented rebounder, with 28 in 100 minutes of play. His work on the offensive glass kept UConn in the game against WVU, and he showed a very nice touch around the basket on putbacks. Between Facey and Daniel Hamilton (26 rebounds in 130 minutes), it seems that the forward positions may largely mitigate the rebounding issues that Brimah is having.

So with Brimah providing some nice post offense, and Facey and Hamilton being better than expected, the only thing left is for the perimeter players to continue to function well and the bench to do a better job. If Texas looks at this game and thinks that UConn is going to be a walk in the park, they’re going to be unpleasantly surprised.