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Just when it looked like the UConn Huskies were going to earn a huge home win over the Texas Longhorns, Jonathan Holmes buried a three with two seconds left to give the visitors a huge early season win. Making matters worse for UConn, star point guard Ryan Boatright had to be helped off the court with an ankle injury following the play, leaving his status in doubt going forward.
This would have been a massive win for the No. 24 Huskies, who were coming off their first loss of the season. However, the No. 7 Longhorns, who led most of the game, were able to find just enough to earn a big road win. For UConn, back to back losses will see them drop out of the top 25 and leave them with quite a bit to work as they look to find their identity and defend their national championship.
It is no surprise that UConn is still learning who they are, as they lost four of their top five scorers from last season. In this game, young players like Daniel Hamilton, Terrence Samuel, Amida Brimah, Kentan Facey showed flashes of what they are capable of mixed with reminders that they still need time.
The Huskies were without both Rodney Purvis and Omar Calhoun in this game, two guards who are expected to play significant minutes when healthy. In the mean time, Hamilton continued to a solid job as Boatright’s sidekick, recording 13 points, 7 rebounds, 2 assists, and 2 steals. Facey did what he does with 4 points and 8 rebounds, but both players had some defensive struggles with Holmes, who had 13 points and 8 boards. Both Hamilton and Facey are still developing as defenders at this level, and learning experiences like this one will be beneficial going forward.
More concerning were the struggles of Samuel and Brimah, who both played significant roles on last year’s team. Brimah had three blocks, but he only scored four points on 1-7 shooting. More importantly, Brimah managed to grab just two rebounds, an unacceptable number for a starting center who stands 7 feet tall and played 30 minutes.
For his part, Samuel only had two points and no assists, and he made several ill advised drives into the lane that were essentially turnovers. Samuel provided his usual strong defense, but he has to be more under control offensively and do a better job distributing, especially if Boatright misses time.
Right now, the Huskies are essentially Boatright and a lot of potential that isn’t there yet. Boatright had 24 points and 7 rebounds and led the comeback, but the team around him is still learning to handle their high pressure roles in big games. UConn has two home games against Yale and Coppin State coming up, both of which should be cakewalks. UConn needs to use these games to figure out their offensive identity and develop secondary scoring options before their showdown with No. 4 Duke on December 18th.
This loss showed both how good UConn can be and how far they still have to go, and there are definitely some major issues to fix offensively. They shot 30.4% from the field and 18.8% from three against Texas, and it’s impressive that they defended well enough to be as close to winning as they were.
If they can get their offense working, UConn has the talent to beat top teams. However, it looks like it’s going to take a little more time for the young Huskies to raise their games.
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