The Huskies let a golden opportunity slip through their fingers in South Bend, falling to the Irish 58-50. This was a sad and sloppy effort, which is hard to understand when so much was on the line. The Huskies had 17 field goals to 15 turnovers in what very well may have been an at-large big elimination game. The Irish came into this one allowing teams to score 71.7 points per game at a .441 clip. How did the Huskies fare against the vaunted Irish defense? 50 points on .354 shooting. Sweet.
If you think that Jerome Dyson has been drawing the ire of the Husky faithful recently, you ain’t seen nothing yet. 10 points on 2-14 shooting and 5 more turnovers. This was as bad as I’ve seen the senior play. It’s pretty clear that his late season slump in his head, and that it’s a wrap. The next good decision he makes will be his first…he looked lost out there. You never want to point to one guy, but his performance totally hogtied the Husky offense.
Kemba Walker scored 15 points on 5-12 shooting, and didn’t commit a turnover, but he wasn’t at his best either. He notched just two assists and acquiesced to Mr. Dyson’s style of play far too many times. If there is one thing we’ve learned this season it’s that the offense runs better with the ball in Kemba’s hand, with him driving and getting to the line. He only took 4 foul shots tonight…not good enough.
Stanley Robinson literally took the night off. He takes halves off all the time, that’s nothing new, but a whole game? 6 points on 2-4 shooting in 35 minutes. 4 shots in 35 minutes? He snapped his 30+ consecutive games in double figures streak. My word…
Gavin Edwards scored 10 points on 4-6 shooting, and grabbed 11 boards. Newsflash, when Jerome Dyson is going all 2-14 on it, and Stanley Robinson is picking dandelions in right field, feed Edwards the ball. The kid draws fouls, makes foul shots, and more often than not, makes the bucket. Edwards’ .608 field goal percentage is third best in the Big East…yeah, 6 shots a game is plenty.
Wednesday’s loss guaranteed the Huskies a sub .500 conference record, and bounced UConn off of the bubble and into the frying pan. The Huskies, believe it or not, still have a shot, albeit it a long one. It’s more of an indictment on this year’s tournament field and bubble than anything else; teams just haven’t distinguished themselves. But make no mistake, the Huskies are a longshot at this point. We can hope and root for a turnaround, but we shouldn’t expect one…not with this group.
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{ 13 comments… read them below or add one }
I still can’t believe that anybody doesn’t see what the problem is.
I’ve been saying it for 4 years. I’ll say it again now:
Too much Dyson. Not enough Walker, Stan, and Gavin. And others.
Who knows. They surprised us once with a 3 game run. Maybe they have another one left in them.
Dyson is like a slip knot – the more he bears down, the worse it gets.
It’s really shocking to me that JC hasn’t figured out the connection yet – the more Dyson has the ball, the worse we do.
The announcers last night said it – when Stan scores more than X points, we’re 12 and 4. When he doesn’t, we lose a lot.
Frank it is hard to disagree with you. The problem is Dyson was supposed to be the man and now it is late to have others to try and find that role. No emotion and it can’t be walker every night. Stan was a no show, Dyson no show, we actually had Beverly tryting to make a play late in the game. Roller coaster Year. Lets win Saturday and just play with no care in the bigeast tourney. We aren’t even pushing the ball any more. I need a combination of the old Walker and the new one. No turnovers tells me two things. One he is making smarter decisions and two he is not trying to take chances that will allow fast break points. I would rather him have 10 assists and 4 turnovers trying to do something. Half court sets need to go to Edwards first then back out side for players stepping into shots and we need to run run run. Frank I agree with Stan but he needs to come and play and want the ball and demand the ball. His stock went down last night. How can we take nights off when we should be playing every game like it is our last. Well soon enough it might be. Saturday is a must win or we are giong to have to win five straight and I don’t see that happening with this group.
Guest is Jim hopkins
Dyson clearly gets the knock for last night, but Robinson and his 4 shots are right behind him. Taking a night off at this stage of the season is inexcusable…and make no mistake, he took the night off. Like I said, lets hope for a turnaround, cause we are fans, but we certainly shouldn’t be expecting one.
Dyson is a LOSER! He has been for his entire career. All the guy does it commit turnovers and take bad shots. The team will be better off without him. He is easily the most unclutch Husky to ever don a uniform. Whenever we need a big performance he is absent. I will not miss him at all. I’m glad he is leaving.
Don’t hold back Rob, say way you really mean! Ouch….
Well, you’re right. The seeds of the problem were sown a long time ago. It would be really awesome to get AJ’s take on Dyson. AJ would be the guy who could give you the most informed opinion.
Time is almost gone. Regardless of what everybody says, we’re 1 or 2 losses away from Dyson being the only guy in about 25 years of UConn ball to have played 4 years and never been in a UConn uniform for an NCAA tourni win.
Throw in the – “ANY” – postseason tourni win and you might have to go back a lot farther.
I really don’t know how people look at this kid’s style of game and don’t think – “boy, give me Doron Sheffer any day.”
Put Sheffer or R. Moore or any other very solid guard we’ve ever had in for Dyson and we’re a great team.
It’s not provable, but the evidence, to me, seems overwhelming.
By the way – Stan didn’t get shots because – 1. Stan didn’t demand the ball more. and 2. We didn’t run plays for Stan.
I’d say the mix was heavily in favor or 2. The way you get a guy into the flow is not by giving the ball to All-Alone-Jerome and then saying – “Stan, run off a screen and IF you’re open we’ll get it to you.”
It’s to say – “Stan, post up at 10′, and Kemba will get the ball to you.”
Somebody wrote – “think of how tough Dyson is – the guy lost teeth his freshman year.
I don’t know. I think that really shows how incredibly dumb he is. The dude wasn’t wearing a mouth guard when he got his tooth knocked out. Dumb. I think it permeates his play. After all, if you’re dumb enough to put your teeth on the line because you don’t like to wear a mouth guard (why not?), then you’re likely not in the top echelon of BBall IQ.
The Dyson teeth play was an effort play…can’t cut on the kid for that. He hit the deck going for a loose ball…
Yeah, I mean does every player wear a mouth guard? Laying it on a bit thick Frank.
I think pretty much every player wears a mouth guard.
Not cutting the kid on the effort play – I remember it.
Cutting the kid on the fact that he’s a crash to the rim type guy – if there’s anybody out there who needs a mouth guard, it’s him.
You know things are bad when the fan base (or one of the fan base) is analyzing mouth gear.