After winning five games on five consecutive days, the Huskies are Big East Champions. They took the title with a 69-66 win over Louisville on Saturday at Madison Square Garden.
As it begins post-season play Tuesday at Madison Square Garden in the Big East Tournament, the Huskies men’s basketball team continues to flash its potential with both the resiliency and mistakes of a young squad.
After storming back from a 10-point deficit against Notre Dame to take a five-point lead Saturday afternoon on Senior Day at Harry A. Gampel Pavilion, the Huskies fell short by three points, to end the regular season with their fourth loss in the last five games. The loss dropped UConn, 21-9 overall and 9-9 in the league, to ninth place in the Big East and into a first round game as the No. 9 seed against No. 16 seed DePaul at noon tomorrow in New York City. The winner will advance to the second round on Wednesday against No. 8 seed Georgetown with the opportunity to move into the quarterfinals against No. 1 seed Pittsburgh.
Hall of Fame coach Jim Calhoun said his team’s difficult schedule, largely against top national teams both in and out of conference, accomplished his goal of getting the Huskies prepared for tournament time.
“We had a 21-9 year. Given the lack of experience, not getting as consistent play as I’d like, given the difficulty of our schedule I think we did a terrific job,” he said. “That season’s over; now it’s post-season play.”
Calhoun pointed to the inability of his big men to rebound effectively and consistently in recent games. Against the Fighting Irish, junior Kemba Walker led the team in scoring (34 points), as well as rebounds (six). Sophomore center Alex Oriakhi and senior center Charles Okwandu combined for five rebounds.
Oriakhi said he and Okwandu will need to put forth a harder effort on the boards going into the Big East and beyond. “I can get more aggressive. This team needs me and Chuck to step up,” he said.
Walker, a leading Player of the Year candidate in the conference and nationally, said that in New York the Huskies need to refocus on the team play that has helped his younger teammates to play well throughout the season.
“When we don’t rebound we tend to lose. We’ve just got to rebound the basketball. We’ve got to get everybody on the same page,” Walker said, adding that he was pleased to see growth and increased maturity from his young teammates as the season progressed.
“I thought we had a great season. We had some wins where we showed a lot of maturity, and some losses where we couldn’t finish down the stretch,” he said. “I’m extremely happy to see guys get better over the course of the season. … There were times when some of the young guys stepped up and helped me out. It was even better to see that happen.”
The Huskies earned a 20-point win on the road at DePaul earlier this year, led by Walker’s 31-point effort and 11 points from Oriakhi and 13 points from freshman forward Jeremy Lamb. In mid-February, the Huskies took a 78-70 victory from Georgetown at the XL Center in Hartford, again led by Walker (31 points), Oriakhi (10), and sophomore Jamal Coombs-McDaniel (23).
The Huskies lost at Pittsburgh, 78-63, in the first conference game of the season in December for the team’s first loss of the year after a surprising series of victories at the EA Sports Maui Invitational in Hawaii. UConn won the tournament after beating Michigan State, ranked No. 2 in the nation at the time, and Kentucky, ranked No. 8.
As post-season play begins, No. 16 UConn is among eight Big East teams ranked in the Top 20, including No. 4 Pittsburgh, No. 8 Notre Dame, No. 11 Louisville, No. 12 Syracuse, No. 15 St. John’s, No. 17 Georgetown, and No. 19 Villanova.
“It’s a new chance and opportunity for us,” Calhoun said. “We haven’t been very successful in [the Big East Tournament] the past six years. It hasn’t predetermined what happens, because two years ago we lost and also went to the Final Four. It ends up being a new season. You see, in the Big East Tournament and the NCAA Tournament, teams get rolling and good things happen.
“We’re not a desperate basketball team. We’re a team that’s going to keep on playing after this,” Calhoun added. “Winning is very important. I still haven’t met a good loss in my career, and that’s a lot of years. I like to win and learn from that, as opposed to lose and learn from that.”
The first round of post-season honors for the conference were announced on Sunday, with Walker named to the All-Big East First Team. Lamb and guard Shabazz Napier were named to the All-Big East Rookie Team.
