During the halftime break in Tuesday’s game against Georgetown, I joined many other Husky fans in eviscirating the team. After watching the team play an ugly 15 minutes of basketball after a great start and go into halftime down one, I attacked the team’s lack of discipline and asked where the player’s passion was. Little did I know that UConn was going to play one of its best halves of the season.
After going into halftime down 26-25, the Huskies got it together on offense early in the second half. In the last 13:51, they outscored the Hoyas 30-16 and went on to win 70-57. The win improved UConn to 11-6 and 8-6 in the Big East, and insured the team would firmly stay on the bubble for the NCAA tournament. Georgetown dropped to 7-11 and 5-8 in conference.
After inconsistent first halfs, the duo of Cole and James Bouknight were outstanding in the second half. The pair each scored 14 points in the half, with Cole shooting 7-9. The redshort junior had his best all-around game of the season, scoring 17 points and disching out steven assists to go with six steals. Cole did not commit a turnover. Bouknight finished with 20 points on 8-17 shooting and grabbed 10 rebounds for his second consecutive double-double. UConn shot 56.3% in the second half.
The Huskies had an outstanding start to the game and went into the first TV timeout leading 12-2. After that, everything changed. UConn went into a shooting funk for the remainder of the first half and went scoreless for seven minutes at one point. It missed a number of open shots and second-chance opportunities, while also rushing contested shots. The Huskies were reckless with the ball and ultimatelly committed 11 turnovers in the opening 20 minutes.
While UConn rebounded and defended very well, Georgetown was able to get the ball inside and reach the free throw line, making nine of 11 shots at the charity shots. Timothy Ighoefe made a 3-pointer on the Hoyas last shot of the half to put them up 26-25 going into the locker room.
After their poor offensive play in the second half, both teams started the second half playing well on that end. Led by Cole and Bouknight, UConn began to move the ball and shoot well and attacked the rim. Georgetown did the same, with the Huskies defenders out of position on multiple posssessions. With 10:54 remaining, the squads were tied at 44.
From then on, it was all UConn. While the Huskies struggled from behind the arc, they hit shots from everywhere else. Cole was the catalyst, knocking down jumpers and tough shots in the paint while also creating good scoring opportunities for teammates. After being quiet for most of the first half, Bouknight was much more aggressive in the second half and made some spectacular plays, including a dunk off an alley-oop pass from Cole. Almost everyone else got in on the action at points, and UConn continued to dominate the boards and handled the ball better, committing just three turnovers in the second half.
The Huskies were much more disciplined on defense in the second half. They continued to challenge shots behind the arc and defended the paint better while mostly avoiding fouling. UConn also benefited from Georgetown missing a lot of open shots. The Hoyas would ultimately finishing the game having shot just 35.8% and 4-19 from three.
UConn finished the game shooting 45.5% despite going just 2-11 from three. In addition to the 37 combined points from Bouknight and Cole, Sanogo and Whaley had strong all-around games. Sanogo had eight points and seven rebounds (three offensive) along with two blocks in 21 minutes, and Whaley had seven points and rebounds (six offensive) and two blocks in 21 minutes. Martin had eight points and five rebounds. Andre Jackson and Jalen Gaffney continued to struggle. Jackson went scoreless in 13 minutes and committed three turnovers, while Gaffney scored just three points and did not have an assist in 10 minutes. Qudus Wahab had an excellent game for Georgetown, earning a double-double with 18 points and 10 rebounds.
The Huskies ability to win 50-50 balls and impressive effort when going after loose balls is reflected in the game’s rebounding and turnover numbers. Despite Georgetown having the best rebounding numbers in the Big East entering the game, UConn won the rebounding battle 46-30 and recorded 18 offensive rebounds to the Hoyas nine. Five players grabbed at least five rebounds for the Huskies. They had eight steals and helped force Georgetown to commit 15 turnovers, with five of its players recording multiple turnovers.
The win moved UConn up to 35th in the KenPom rankings, and they are now 32nd in the rankings as of Thursday night. If the team can win all its four remaining games this should gurantee them a berth in the NCAA tournament, and three wins should be enough, especially if the Huskies can win one or two games in the Big East tournament.
Here are my observations on the win against Georgetown:
Cole takes on a aleadership role
While Cole avoided the ball-handling and sloppiness issues that many of his teammates experienced in the first half, he still struggled to shoot the ball, going 1-7. Cole missed open shots frommidrange and also rushed shots. It looked like he could be on the way to having a similar performance to his showing against Villanova, where Cole went 2-10 and had just two assists.
The R.J. Cole that appeared in the second half was a completely different player. Cole went 6-8 from the field for 14 points and dished out four assists. He used his pull-up jumper to catch defenders off guard and beat defenders at the rim despite the height disaprity between him and the Hoya guards. Cole was able to find teammates inside and on the perimeter for good scoring opportunities, and avoided waiting until late in the shot clock to start running the offense. Most importantly, Cole clearly took on a leadership role on the floor, helping to lead conversations in the huddle and constantly communicating with teammates on offense. Hurley said after the game that he was proud of Cole’s play, and it was clear his teammates were as well.
A few weeks ago, Dan Hurley pulled Cole out of the starting lineup to insert the message that ne needed to improve his play and effort level. Since then, he has been a different player. Cole has averaged 16 points and recorded a 21-4 assist to turnover ratio over the last four games while adding nine steals, and seized the starting role back from Gaffney. He has run the offense at a quicker pace and helped to take advantage of fastbreak opportunities, and it’s clear that he and Bouknight play very well off of one another. Cole established himself as the team leader by holding a player’s only meeting after the loss to Providence in which the team discussed how each player could fill their roles better, and he has only built on that leadership role since. It took a while, but Cole is finally meeting the expectations for him coming into the season.
UConn returns to controlling the boards
The Huskies have been a very strong rebounding team over the course of the season, and are currently second in the Big East in offensive rebounds per game (12.5) and third in total rebounds (36.9). However, they had not been quite as effective on the boards recently, and had not won the rebounding battle in most losses. With Georgetown as the best rebounding team in the Big East, it was essential that UConn beat the Hoyas on the boards to gurantee a win.
The Huskies didn;t just outrebound Georgetown: it obliterated them. They had 46 rebounds to the Hoyas 30 and snatched 18 offensive boards. The players did an excellent job of boxing out and outhusted Georgetown’s players to many long rebounds, especially on the offensive end. Even if UConn’s rebounding prowess did not lead to many second-chance points (nine), it allowed them to control the tempo and get great fastbreak opportunities. The guards got in on the action as well as the bigs, earning 21 boards. The team’s rebounding numbers reflected their hustle and aggressiveness throughout the game. UConn will need to continue to control the boards to go undefeated the rest of the regular season.
UConn has their best defensive performance in a long time
Georgetown is not a great offensive team, far from it. However, the Hoyas entered the game playing much better defense than early in the season. They scored 78 and 81 points in their wins against Butler and Seton Hall, and had put up more then 70 in four of their five previous games. UConn quickly ended the team’s offensive resurgence. The defense did an excellent job of challenging 3-point shots and altering ones around the rin, and frequently got back on defense even after committing turnovers. By doing so and then avoiding silly fouls in the second half, the Huskies eventually wore down Georgetown. While they struggled to stop Wahab, they did an excellent job on the team’s other top players. Jhavon Blair shot just 1-5 from three and finished with just nine points, and Jhamorko Pickett went just 3-12 from the field. The Hoyas missed a lot of open shots, but UConn still deserves praise for its defensive effort.
Sanogo and Whaley return to owning the paint
At times this season, Sanogo and Whaley have been a very effective duo. In the three games leading up to the matchup with Georgetown, however, they each had played very inconsistently. When UConn needed them to step up against Georgetown, they met the challenge.
Sanogo had not played up to the level they established in late January and early February in the aftorementioned games, scoring a combined 14 points and averaging four rebounds while dealing with foul trouble. Against the Hoyas, UConn fed him the ball more and Sanogo took advantage, working around multiple defenders on his way to eight points on 4-7 shooting. The freshman did an excellent job on the boards in 21 minutes, grabbing three offensive boards and seven in total. He was able to anticipate rebound opportunities well and consistently beat Georgetown players to balls. Sanogo also earned two blocks, and did a better job of avoiding foul trouble than normal, picking up just three. If Sanogo is able to stay on the floor, he is capable of having strong games against the remaining schedule. Sanogo played well in the Huskies first game against Seton Hall.
Whaley was still blocking shots at a great rate before Tuesday’s game, but the senior had only scored five or more points against one opponent (Xavier) and recently had not had big rebounding games outside of the win against the Musketeers. Like Sanogo, Whaley had also struggled with foul trouble. Against Georgetown, he was extremely effective on both ends of the floor. Whaley was outstanding on the offensive boards, recording six, and had seven total. While he missed multiple putbacks, Whaley still finished with stevn points on 3-6 shooting. He also finished with two blocks, and helped alter many shots. Whaley was all over the place and played with a ton of energy every moment he was on the floor, and it was clear his teammates were feeding of of this. If Whaley continues to play with that some level of passion, he will have a big impact on the team even if he doesn’t score a ton of points.
HUSKY NATION 