Things aren’t going well for the UConn basketball team lately. Saturday it was Marquette’s turn to beat the Huskies, sending them to their fifth loss in seven games.
Jimmy Butler was the hero, knocking down a 12-foot fadeaway with 2.8 seconds left to give the Golden Eagles a 70-68 win.
Here are a few comments from the XL Center after the latest flop:
– After Jerome Dyson’s long three with 54 seconds to go, UConn seemed to be in control.
“It definitely did,” Dyson said.
Of course, then came Darius Johnson-Odom’s up-fake.
“And then I went and pissed it away letting the offensive player get me up in the air and drawing the foul,” Dyson said. “Most of that goes on me. It’s staying down on the defender; the coaches tell us that all day in practice. ‘Stay down. Don’t try to block shots.’ That’s something I have to hang on myself. I come down and make a big play, and make a bad one on the other end.”
DJO (that’s apparently what they call him in Milwaukee) made all three from the line with 41 seconds to go. He’s actually the “worst” of the Marquette regulars from the line (64 percent) and had an 0-for-2 trip earlier in the game but made those three when he had to.
– Butler’s shot was big but UConn had a chance to put itself ahead. The Huskies got the ball with 41 seconds left and didn’t call timeout.
Kemba Walker drove the lane and threw up an air ball. And that came with 21 seconds left in the game and 15 left on the shot clock.
“There was a little miscommunication between me and a coach,” said Walker, referring to assistant coach Andre LaFleur. “I thought he said to ‘Go’ but he actually said ‘No.’ ”
Why not call timeout?
“We had been having real good luck with the ‘down’ play. They were having a lot of trouble guarding it with both Jerome and Kemba,” acting head coach George Blaney said. Blaney also said (obviously) that he wanted Walker to wait longer before making his move.
– UConn’s final play, which was something of a desperation, ended when Gavin Edwards’ pass was deflected by Johnson-Odom.
“Everybody knew I wasn’t supposed to take the shot so they were denying the people that were supposed to get the shot,” Edwards said. “I wasn’t really fooling anybody catching the ball.”
– The Huskies believe they shouldn’t have even been in the situation they found themselves in (a close game and having to make a big play)
“This is why we lose all the time. Same reason,” Walker said. “We take too long as a team to get it going. That’s why we’ve lost all year, to tell you the truth.”
Blaney seemed to agree.
“It’s been a case of that all year with this team,” Blaney said. “They seem to play moments. They don’t seem to play full possessions. It’s the hardest thing to understand and it’s something that we have not had an answer for.”
– Louisville is up next Monday night.
“How to do you bounce back? It’s what you have to do,” Blaney said. “(Sunday) is a basketball day. And Monday is a big-time game against Louisville. If you’re not ready for that, you shouldn’t be playing. If you can’t bounce back from that, you shouldn’t be playing.”
– UConn didn’t exactly dominate the paint despite a huge height advantage.
“I was looking around at one time and their tallest person was 6-5, and the next person was 6-1,” Edwards said. “We definitely should have been able to take better advantage of the size difference. I really don’t think we did that.
“It should have been absolute domination down low.”
- Neill
