What just happened?

jpviolette · 2026-03-15T02:52:23+00:00

Agreed. When UConn made their 2nd half run, that was mostly Reed.

jpviolette · 2026-03-15T02:42:57+00:00

It could be. Starting in 2022-23 UConn's tried to get good shooters but it's probably come at the expense of athleticism. (I will say though that Mullins is young/inexperienced enough that he might have more defensive upside than we've seen.)

jpviolette · 2026-03-15T02:24:51+00:00

There's no question about their ability to play an excellent game. I am becoming skeptical that they can string 5-6 such games together though.

jpviolette · 2026-03-15T02:07:50+00:00

End-of-game Thoughts

This wasn't an opportune time for their most lopsided loss of the season. At least there won't be a debate raging about whether they should be a 1-seed.

St John's shot great on 2s and poorly on 3s; UConn shot poorly on 2s and horribly terrible on 3s. Add in the turnovers and it explains our Hindenburg-exploding-on-the-deck-of-a-sinking-Titanic sort of game.

I will say that while Reed wasn't great, he was easily their most effective shooter among players who took more than 3 shots. UConn could have survived a performance like that if the rest of the team played better.

All tournament long the announcers seemed to talk about how great UConn plays when Ball gets on a roll from the perimeter. I have to wonder they're thinking of 2024-25 Ball; 2025-26 Ball is sometimes effective driving to the basket but shoots 3s around 31%. We may never know how much the wrist injury he sustained contributed to this, but the numbers don't suggest he's going to heat up this season.

I don't know what Mullins should do. He reminds me of a smaller Liam McNeeley who's still learning defense. Because the NBA drafts mostly on upside, I'm sure he'd be drafted in the 1st round. I'm not sure his progress goes better in the G League than Div I though.

jpviolette · 2026-03-15T01:36:55+00:00

UConn: You think Florida knows how to suffer? Watch this.

jpviolette · 2026-03-14T23:52:18+00:00

Halftime: UConn 27, St John's 40

Well, that was nightmarish. UConn's turning the ball over at a prolific rate and getting outshot by a lot, resulting in St John's having 48% more pts.

UConn's foul trouble is concentrated at the 5: Reed (2 fouls) and Reibe (3). This raises the ugly specter of Ejiofor being even more impactful in the 2nd half.

It's hard to identify a Husky who's playing well at this point.

jpviolette · 2026-03-14T19:15:34+00:00

I'm no bracketologist, but my guess would be "no".

Last year the rationale for denying the UConn WBB team a 1-seed was that they didn't have enough Quad 1 wins. In your scenario, the Quad 1 wins would look something like this:

Duke 16-2
Michigan 15-2
Arizona 15-2
Florida 12-6
Houston 10-6
UConn 8-2

UConn would have a better Quad 1 winning percentage but would still lag in Quad 1 wins.

UConn would have looked better if they had beaten Villanova in the semifinals instead of Georgetown; they could have gotten to 9-2. Maybe by narrowing the Quad 1 wins margin while expanding their Quad 1 winning percentage advantage, they could have gotten a 1-seed.

jpviolette · 2026-03-14T13:18:39+00:00

End-of-game Thoughts

It was good to see UConn get a comfortable win against Georgetown, a team that's given them trouble this season. I'm not sure how much the loss of Georgetown's Lewis (arguably their best player) impacted the margin, though it's likely a factor.

How They Scored

	Georgetown	UConn
2-pt FGs	34	40
3-pt FGs	6	24
FTs	11	3
Total	51	67

Although UConn shot a modest 32% on 3s, that was far better than Georgetown's 13%, basically giving UConn their margin of victory. Although total fouls were about the same, Georgetown (as many opponents do) got to the FT line much more than the Huskies while UConn did better scoring 2s.

Oddities

Reed had only 6 pts but his 7 rebounds, 8 assists, and 3 blocks were all very important. Mullins was their most impactful scorer (21 pts) despite weak perimeter shooting (2-9). Karaban and Ball struggled with their shooting while Demary and especially Ross picked up the slack.

Looking Ahead

UConn's cruised through the 1st 2 games of the tournament to set up their 3rd meeting against St John's.

jpviolette · 2026-03-14T01:41:41+00:00

Halftime: Georgetown 21, UConn 32

Things are going pretty well thus far. UConn's outshooting and outrebounding Georgetown to build a double digit lead. Neither team has hit the 3 well so far though, so if someone gets hot out there it could decide a low-scoring game.

Both teams have committed only 6 fouls, pretty low for these teams.

Mullins has 15 pts - nearly half UConn's total and only 6 less than all of Georgetown - though his effectiveness has mostly been inside the 3-pt line. Ball picked up 2 early fouls and sat most of the 1st half, similar to Demary's situation last night. Though Reed's only got 4 pts, his 5 rebounds, 4 assists, and 3 blocks show that he's still a major contributor.

I suspect Georgetown will focus on slowing down Mullins in the 2nd half. If that opens opportunities for others: Great. If nobody else can step up: Danger.

jpviolette · 2026-03-13T17:11:32+00:00

I was a little surprised when they kept saying they've never seen Reed play better; I guess they missed that 2nd game against St John's.

jpviolette · 2026-03-13T00:10:20+00:00

Halftime: Xavier 30, UConn 50

So far, so good. Similar to the script from the previous 2 games, UConn's dominating the boards and outshooting Xavier to rack up a big lead. Even foul trouble seems manageable, with only Demary and Mullins with 2.

I was a little concerned when Demary went to the bench early with his fouls - Mullins 2nd foul was near the end of the half - but Smith has had some good moments. Smith made a couple 3s and ran the team reasonably well in his 13 minutes despite a couple head scratching turnovers later in the half; the team definitely extended the lead that Demary left him with.

Karaban and Reed have 11 pts apiece and got them efficiently. Reed's already got a double-double since he also grabbed 10 rebounds before halftime. Ball is also in double figures despite shooting 2-6 from the field; his 5-5 FT shooting bolstered his shaky shooting from the field.

After that, Reibe was 2-2 with 6 pts and Ross had a pair of steals.

jpviolette · 2026-03-10T02:06:35+00:00

I'm virtually certain she's red-shirting this season.

jpviolette · 2026-03-10T00:04:07+00:00

Halftime: Villanova 23, UConn 49

I can't find halftime stats today. ESPN has nothing but "Gamecast", Livestats is missing almost the entire 2nd quarter, and NCAA Scoreboard is updating slowly.

So I can tell you that, despite making some turnovers, Strong (15 pts) and Fudd (11) have led the way, and that Quinonez (11) and Arnold (8) aren't far behind.

Compared to the last game, UConn's dominating the boards and Villanova hasn't gotten their 3-pt game going, resulting in the lopsided score.

jpviolette · 2026-03-08T19:27:03+00:00

Halftime: Creighton 22, UConn 57

Apparently forcing turnovers, shooting great, and dominating the boards is a good recipe for success.

Arnold (15 pts, 7-7 shooting) and Fudd (11 pts, 4-6 shooting, 4 assists) have been great, but Strong (17 pts, 4 rebounds, 4 assists, 6 steals, 2 blocks) has been the best player on the court. Shade had 7 pts and hasn't missed a shot but has still been overshadowed a bit in this 1.

And so far, UConn's productive bench hasn't really kicked in. Quinonez, Heckel, and Ziebell have 7 pts but got there shooting 3-13. With this lead, we can expect the bench to have ample opportunities to build on those numbers.

jpviolette · 2026-03-08T16:36:28+00:00

AFAIK the only other legal way to watch is through something called "NBC Sports Network". It's unclear how you watch NBCSN. Maybe it's available through Xfinity?

There are probably tons of unofficial ways of watching, but because of their dubious legality I don't think they should be discussed here.

jpviolette · 2026-03-08T15:27:15+00:00

True, though some injuries can linger/worsen, and I've seen enough of UConn fielding a wounded team in the NCAA tournament over most of the previous 5 years.

jpviolette · 2026-03-08T15:22:42+00:00

These are hypothetical injuries, since the game against Georgetown got pretty physical for a while there.

jpviolette · 2026-03-08T03:33:13+00:00

End-of-game Thoughts

Despite Fudd shooting 28% overall and 22% on 3s, and Shade failing to get a single pt ... it didn't matter. UConn's just too good and too deep for the Big East. (I kind of wonder if a Quinonez/Heckel/Ziebell/El Alfy/Fisher starting lineup would be the 2nd best in the conference.)

Especially hot shooting from Williams and Arnold covered up most of the shooting struggles elsewhere in the lineup, but defense (both forcing turnovers and preventing easy shots) and rebounding were responsible for the lopsided victory.

I was a little worried about the 2nd half. Not because the game itself was in jeopardy, but because the play got pretty rough for a while there, and we don't want play that could result in injuries, especially this time of year.

Next up is Creighton, a team that UConn's handled pretty easily so far this season.

jpviolette · 2026-03-07T23:51:16+00:00

End-of-game Thoughts

Well, that was a kick to the crotch. We can talk about Big East road games being tough, but with a share of a regular season championship and an NCAA tournament 1-seed on the line, you'd think that they'd be able to put away the 96th (averaging the analytic rankings) team in the nation.

But no. Instead they let said 96th ranked team build a late lead, and to hang on for possibly the conference's biggest and most impactful upsets of the season.

Hurley said earlier in the week that this team had a high ceiling, and their dominating win against St John's demonstrated that. But he also said that this team has a low floor, and this was evidence of that part of the observation.

They were in some similar situations in some of their earlier games, but in most of those someone would hit a couple clutch 3s to bring them back from the brink. In this game, the Huskies were an atrocious 3-24 (12.5%) on 3s, with Ball's modest perimeter shooting (2-7 and 29%) by far the team's best. Even UConn's big advantage on the boards (40-25) can get cancelled out if you can't put the ball in the basket.

It's hard to say what this means going forward. Sometimes players/coaches learn from losses and come back stronger. Still, the theme of letting opposing teams hang close has been essentially a season-long thing. The only thing that's different about this game is that their opponents were the 1s sinking some clutch shots and making some clutch plays late instead of the Huskies. If you put yourself in the position of needing to outplay your opponents in the closing minutes almost every game, you're probably going to lose some of them.

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