A quick start, then 4 dead minutes at the end of the half followed by a good jump out of the gate in the second half. Later Villanova went to a zone and that challenged our weakness - hitting outside shots.
The three themes that killed us were allowing open threes after collapsing the defense, poor outside shooting and offensive turnovers. I thought we rebounded and blocked shots well.
Josh looked more fluid today - perhaps his haircut helped? Gilbert played better but CV took over the turnover machine. First half story was 10 UConn turnovers and 5 assists. Our senior guard Vital had 4 turnovers himself. Villanova was 6 for 11 from the 3 point line while UConn shot 16%. The last 4 minutes of the first half was a black hole.
Bouknight wasn’t strong with the ball. We also missed Akok numerous times when he beat his man down court.
Samuels and Gillespie killed us the second half along with good foul shooting. They are more polish and poised than our players. Turnovers consistently take us out of the game at critical times.
We battled hard but mentally did not execute. You can’t often beat good teams with 17 turnovers. We need shooters. Another missed opportunity.
I suppose Hurley will say this is year 2 of a rebuilt - being competitive against a good team but lose late in the game. However, we need to start actually winning games.
At this point, you can almost write the script for the Coach Hurley press conference. To his credit, he did acknowledge the fact that the ill-advised rifle pass from Al toward Akok down the stretch was a huge mistake that just can't be made. Without Polley, we don't shoot well. Hurley has said it repeatedly....when you struggle to score but work hard on defense, you are going to be in games but suffer some brutal, brutal losses. That is where we are right now.
My favorite part about the press conference was at the end when he looked up and said, "You better get us now".... He knows they are close.
As for the remaining 14 games, the goal needs to focus on playing some sort of postseason basketball. Beat Temple, UCF, South Florida, Tulsa at home. Beat Tulsa, East Carolina, and Tulane on the road. That's 17 wins. Pick up one more (Cinn, Houston, Memphis at home, SMU on the road...we get to the NIT. That would be fun and a real help to the program going forward.
