So here we thought words like “embarrassing” and “outtoughed” were a thing of the past for the UConn men’s basketball team. The Huskies, after 14 games, were lost in a giddy world of analytics and win probabilities and their nation of followers was preoccupied with the AP poll.
But KenPom ratings and AP rankings can’t predict what a team will look like when the heat is turned up on a night like Wednesday, in a place like Providence. Conference road games rattle and trip up even the best teams, and UConn did not look like the No. 1 or 2 or 4 team in the nation, but rather the second best team on the floor in the Amica Mutual Pavilion.
Quite frankly, the Friars were more tenacious and UConn was not ready for it.
“They played with a desperation that, in the second half, we didn’t match,” coach Dan Hurley said. “It was an embarrassing loss. We pride ourselves on our culture, and to beat us you’ve got to .... we generally lose one-possession games and this is now back-to-back games where we’ve really caved in, so we’ve got a lot of work to do.”
No arguments there. UConn, after winning its first 14 games, its first three in the Big East, has lost two in a row on the road, at Xavier on New Year’s Eve by 10, and at Providence, 73-61. If an athlete’s bravado won’t allow them to say their confidence is shaken, it falls to an observer. To the eyeball test, the Huskies have looked like a tentative team these last two games, beaten to too many loose balls and not aggressive enough in attacking the rim. Sure, the discrepancy fouls called (48-29) and free throw attempts (63-28) in these last two road games has been wide, but UConn’s guards aren’t driving the lane and its big men, Adama Sanogo particularly, are trying to be crafty at the rim, avoiding contact. The Huskies only took 19 free throws Wednesday, but they also made only 10.
The Huskies’ guard play was lacking in these hostile arenas, the lack of a steady point guard, a question mark at the start of the season, was one of those things hidden by the barrage of 3-pointers falling in nonconference play. It has been exposed lately, and suddenly UConn doesn’t look so deep. Tristen Newton, Hassan Diarra, Nahiem Alleyne and Joey Calcaterra were a combined 4-for-23 against the Friars, and Andre Jackson was 1-for-7.
There you have the doom-and-gloom scenario with UConn (14-2) returning to Gampel Pavilion Saturday to play resurgent Creighton (9-6), a team in a deeper crisis a couple of weeks ago that has now won three in a row, and a program UConn has yet to beat in five tries since joining the new Big East.
“We weren’t tough enough,” Jordan Hawkins said. “Collectively, we’ve lost our identity. We’ve got a big one Saturday, so we’ve got to find it quick. Our confidence can’t be shaken, we just have to remind ourselves what got us here. We’ve got to do what we did the first 14 games. Get our identity back.”
It would have been naïve to expect the Huskies to keep doing what they were doing. Teams were bound to spot weaknesses and begin exploiting them. The first three conference wins were all tougher than anticipated, and with each win the pressure mounted, and so did the intensity opponents were going to bring.
Providence (13-3), on an eight-game win streak of its own, the defending conference regular season champs, took it off the charts before their unruly packed house. When Jackson picked up two early fouls, Hurley had to sit his best option for guarding Bryce Hopkins, who torched the Huskies, scoring 27, going 13-for-15 from the line.
“He was the best player on the court,” Hurley said. “And it wasn’t particularly close.”
For the moment, the magic is gone, the swagger with it, the visions of March glory replaced by the reality of a January crisis of confidence. But then, this is life in a major conference. Ask Duke, routed at NC State Wednesday, or top-ranked Purdue, which was taken down by Rutgers earlier in the week. The Big East is as much a minefield as any conference.
In the heart of hearts, everyone had to know that. The road to UConn’s championships in the past contained nights like these, conference road games like these. Championship teams fix, correct, counter-adjust, get back on track and, yes, remember what worked for them and rediscover their identity. All UConn did at the PK Invitational, and throughout November and December is not wiped away; the resume and all it took to build it is still there, just not so relevant at the moment.
The X’s and O’s, the analytics and the bracketology will take care of themselves. Right now the Huskies have to get that look back with their season at the halfway point, at a crossroads.
“We’ve got to get back to the way we were, the same mindset,” said freshman Donovan Clingan, who emerged from the fire at Providence with 12 points, 11 rebounds and four blocks. “I’m not saying it’s not fun, but it was a lot more fun when we were winning 14 in a row. We have a very good team. We’ve just got to find our way again.”
