A decisive (if somewhat uneven) win over Memphis didn’t move UConn into the top half of the field, but it has the team feeling very confident going into the NCAA tournament. Drastically overwhistled by overmatched officials, the game saw the Huskies pull away early and fight off multiple second-half challenges from the Tigers. Five Huskies finished in double figures, led by Sterling Gibbs and Shonn Miller with 13 apiece. Foul trouble plagued UConn throughout, as they ended the game with Amida Brimah, Phil Nolan, Steve Enoch, and Shonn Miller all carrying four fouls. To avoid accusations of bias, the officials began calling invisible fouls against Memphis, as well.
Following the game, Kevin Ollie’s boys found out that they’ll be heading to Des Moines, stuck in the dreaded 8/9 game in the Kansas bracket. The seeding is a disappointment, and while no AAC teams were inexplicably left out of the bracket this year (Tulsa got in?!), there still appears to be a great deal of favoritism to major conference programs, as teams like Syracuse, Wisconsin, Oregon State and Notre Dame all got surprisingly good seeds, given relatively mediocre resumes.
There’s little else to say about this: The American remains an impediment on Selection Sunday. The league improved this year, and saw four teams in despite SMU’s postseason ban, but a comparable team to UConn in a power conference is probably a 6 or 7 seed this year.
Or not. The Big Ten saw both its regular-season champ and its tournament champ under-seeded by at least a line. So, I don’t know. I’m tired and it’s been a long few days. Go Huskies.
