After the final buzzer of the UConn men’s 70-63 upset NCAA tourney loss to No. 12 New Mexico State last Thursday, I wasn’t angry. Rather, I was just numb. How could the fifth-seeded Huskies allow Teddy Allen to completely take over for the Aggies from start to finish, especially in the final minutes? Why did the offense look so rudderless in the first half and not have any Husky play well from start to finish? Where were the adjustments by Dan Hurley and the players on both ends? These are just a few of the questions I had as the game went along and it started to look like UConn could lose in March Madness for the second consecutive year as a higher seed.
Entering the game, my idiot self thought that there was very little chance the Huskies lost to NMSU. Their strengths (rebounding, shot-blocking and defense in the paint, scoring at the rim) was strong, while vulnerabilities like poor ball-handling and 3-point shooting were more than capable of being exploited by UConn. While I knew Allen, the Western Athletic Conference (WAC) Player of the Year, would be a handful to stop, I believed that there wasn’t enough scoring punch around him and that the defense would have a lot of options for guarding Allen that could cause him to play inefficiently. Even if the Huskies struggled on offense themselves, I thought at best it would be a close, low-scoring win. From there, I believed the team had a very good shot at winning their second-round game. Silly me.
I never imagined Allen was capable of scoring 37 points against a power conference defense that had played at UConn’s level. I knew the “6-4” guard was an excellent shot creator who could beat defenders inside and was money at the free throw line. However, Allen also was a poor ball-handler whom was seen by many as a liability on defense during the regular season. With the Aggies having only one other high-level offensive player (Jabari Rice), I thought that Allen would likely wear down under the Huskies pressure and have little chance of single-handily carrying NMSU to a victory. Allen completely rose to the challenge and then some, and haunted my dreams for the next few days.
After missing his first six shots of the game Allen caught fire for the remainder of the game after Andre Jackson picked up two fouls. The super senior proceeded to go 10-16 overall and hit all 13 of his free throws, ultimately finishing with 37 points. Jackson and none of his teammates were able to stay in front of Allen both inside and beyond the arc, where he went 4-7 despite normally struggling from deep. Allen hit some circus shots and did an outstanding job of drawing contact, especially by using pump fakes and drawing defenders off their feet. Allen drew fouls on two missed 3-pointers in the second half, including a devastating late call on Sanago. Allen scored the final 15 points of the game and justified the cockiness he showed. Meanwhile, Dan Hurley inexplicably shied away from calling defenses to keep the ball out of Allen’s hands at least briefly, from a simple double-team to a box-and-one or 2-1-2 zone. Allen’s success helped open up more opportunities for the Aggies shooters, who shocking went 7-10 on 3-pointers.
The energy and aggressiveness the Aggies showed offensively in the first 20 minutes was completely absent when UConn had the ball. It opened the game 3-11 from the field, and after two 3-pointers by Tyler Polley put the Huskies up 12-8 midway through the first they did very little offensively the remainder of the half. UConn rarely attacked the basket in the first, with Tyrese Martin in particular missing his usual toughness.
With Jordan Hawkins on the bench due to not being cleared for the game because of concussion issues, the team was unable to stretch the floor even more than usual as the strong NMSU defense sagged off of Jackson and Isiah Whaley and encouraged the pair to shoot from the perimeter, where they went 1-5 on threes. This script, which was followed in the last stretch of the season by opponents, resulted in Adama Sanago mostly being bottled up by Johnny McCants and his fellow bigs. Sanago had just nine shot attempts and was inconsistent, scoring 10 points on 4-9 shooting. UConn was outrebounded 17-10 and had just one offensive board in the first half as NMSU did an excellent job blocking bigs out and benefited from a Huskies offense that was largely spread out.
UConn eventually allowed the Aggies to go on a 12-2 run and take a 10-point lead into halftime, and eventually fell behind by as much as 14 (38-24) at the beginning of the second. The Huskies offense was mostly strong for the remainder of the second half and even tied the game a few times behind R.J. Cole, who was outstanding in the second and finished with 20 after a slow start. In the end, however, their inability to slow down Allen and the big deficit was too much to overcome and NMSU became a bracket buster. UConn finished the game shooting 43.1% and 7-23 from deep.
There was a noticeable lack of adjustments on both ends of the ball during the loss, especially on defense. On offense, Hurley continued to stick with Whaley instead of Polley as his starter at forward. While I understand the idea of starting Whaley in case he was needed to defend Allen, he did not do so in the opening minutes and the Huskies again got off to a poor start on offense, which Polley’s inclusion in the starting lineup could have mitigated. While I will give the Aggies, who usually struggle with ball-handling, credit for avoiding turnovers (they had just 11), UConn still could have done a better job of pushing the tempo on offense off of missed shots, as NMSU generally plays slow on both ends. Finally, I believe Hurley did not make enough use of his timeouts on offense, particularly when Cole was trapped along the sidelines in the final minute, leading to a turnover.
It was on defense that the lack of adjustments by UConn and Hurley stuck out most. I already mentioned the failure to adjust defenses to cover Allen when both Johnson and Martin struggled to, but Whaley could also have been assigned to cover Allen at times in addition to using double-teams or zones. The Huskies could have also pressured more or briefly abandoned the hard hedge for Sanago so that he could have been more available as a shot-blocking threat. At the same time, Hurley could have given Akok Akok a little more floor time to act as a 3-point threat and possibly get blocks from the weak side. In the end, Hurley did not seem to have a variety of options if UConn couldn’t defend Allen 1-on-1 or the Aggies began hitting 3-pointers. This was in contrast to Arkansas coach Eric Musselman in the second round, who said he constantly switched defenses to stop Allen and held him to 12 points in a 53-48 NMSU loss.
As I will discuss more in a second article, UConn has nothing to be ashamed of. A 22-8 regular season record and semifinal berth in the Big East tournament was a good step forward for the program, and teams are unfortunately inexplicably upset in the NCAA tournament all the time. But Hurley now has an established habit of losing close games at UConn, a deserved reputation as inflexible and the possibility of the program stepping back next year due to a young team and the possible departure of Cole. Two things are sure: The offseason will be crazy, and the fanbase will became extremely restless if the Huskies don’t start winning in March beginning in the next season or two.
HUSKY NATION 