It's going to be a wide open tournament come March. UNC, Pittsburgh, Wake Forest, Duke, and now UConn have all lost games while being the top team in the nation. If Oklahoma can win at Texas this Saturday, they will likely become the 6th team to be #1 this season. Memphis has a shot at being the 7th team ranked #1 as they shouldn't lose until the Dance, and all the teams between them and #1 have very tough schedules due to the conferences they play in.
An 8th team could also end up ranked #1 when it matters most, in April, if one of those 7 teams doesn't win it all in March. But I think the latest #1 to lose will be the team to beat come March. Even in defeat, UConn showed me something tonight. They showed me a champions swagger.
I was lucky enough to have tickets to the game tonight against Pittsburgh in the first row behind the tunnel where UConn players enter and leave their locker room. I was sitting closer to the court then former UConn quarterback and the all time sack leader among NFL quarterbacks (running out of the endzone yourself counts as a sack on yourself, right?) Dan Orlovsky. But I could see every facet of the game, including players faces.
During a UConn run in the second half that resulted in a 5-point lead for the Huskies, Kemba Walker showed me something. Just after Walker made a layup to give UConn its first lead since 2-0, while he was about at half-court getting back on defense with the crowd getting louder and louder, he started clapping as well as yelling something at the Pitt point guard. He had the champions swagger, which is a good sign for UConn because he is going to have to step up in a major way this season due to the Dyson injury.
(Quick note about Dyson. A few minutes into the game he came out of the tunnel on crutches and dressed incredibly sharp. At the half, with UConn down three, I could see his face as he was going into the tunnel. He was pissed that UConn was losing and he couldn't do anything about it. You could see it. I'm sensing a huge year from him next year. He has the fire in him, I saw it tonight. If UConn doesn't win this year, I will always think back to what could've been...)
UConn will get better. They were just starting to really play well together when Dyson went out, and it will take a few more games for them to get their complete rhythm back. I feel that Walker is going to step up in Dyson's absence. He was a McDonald's All-American and this past summer he was named the MVP of the U-18 FIBA Americas Tournament. I also haven't seen anyone faster then him on the court in any game UConn has played this season, and I can't remember a player that was so quick in my recent cllege basketball memory. It also helps that UConn one force that no one else in the nation can match: Hasheem Thabeet.
Anyways, Thabeet did get dominated statistically by DeJuan Blair, as Blair had a 20-20 game, and Thabeet fouled out after only 23 minutes with just 4 points and 5 rebounds. The block Blair had on Thabeet with under a minute to play was the game. But that might have been the only time he stopped him cleanly.
Especially when I go to games, there are certain times I just watch a certain player. You can see things in person that you can't see on TV, like the swagger I was talking about with Walker. So on some of the plays I decided to just watch Thabeet. The thing I noticed more then anything was the fact that Blair was just holding Thabeet. There aren't any clips of Thabeet on offense being held by Blair, but trust me, it happened.
I know Pittsburgh is a physical team, I can respect that. But playing physical has to come within the rules. Once Pitt realized what they were going to get away with anything, they started doing everything. Fields realized he isn't fast enough to get past Walker or AJ Price on offense, so he started using his off arm to push off and get space to operate. Blair was doing the same thing with on Thabeet, lowering his shoulder and using his off arm to push Thabeet back. He even admitted as much in his post game interview, admitting he put his shoulder into Thabeet.
Here, watch the highlights if you don't believe me. It's ok, I'll wait.
http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/recap?gameId=290470041
OK fine, if you're going to let that kind of play occur, you have to keep it consistent. You're telling me that was ok, but somehow Thabeet deserved to get whistled for standing his ground on defense on his fourth foul. So what, Thabeet was just supposed to let Blair get all the way under the hoop from the get go? That foul took UConn's best player out of the game. If you're going to let them play, then let them play.
Also, watch the play where Blair gets elbowed in the face. Maybe if he hadn't run in and pushed Stanley Robinson in the back then he wouldn't have gotten that blow. Also, after Blair got hit in the face, UConn ended up with the rebound and a 5-on-4 possession as Blair stayed on the Pitt end. Somehow though, the ref called a timeout for Pitt so they could replace Blair on the court.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought a ref could only stop a game for an injury when the team with the injured player has the ball, unless the player is in the way. Then, to top it off, after UConn scored a full strength basket, the refs stopped the game again to let Blair back in the game.
Also, I feel like Thabeet's first foul, the one where he gets flipped over Blair, should have been a jump ball. When Thabeet and Blair first grab the ball, there is no body contact, but the way in which Blair pulls the ball down, he flips Thabeet over him. I guess you kind of have to call a foul there, but I feel a jump ball was really the way to go, especially since it would've kept the ball in the Panthers' possession.
Also, when Blair gets an and-1 to tie the game at 56, he clearly pushes off of Jeff Adrien and Adrien has a pretty light foul on Blair. Then, those killer threes that Levance Fields hit to close out the game should have both been offensive fouls. Watch the person setting both picks on Walker. In case you didn't realize it, a screener's feet are supposed to be set for it to be a legal screen.
I'm not mad at Blair, he realized what he could do and he did it, he is an incredible talent, and he is clearly unstoppable when he gets so many liberties. I love watching him play because he is a beast, well, unless he's playing against my beloved Huskies.
But trust me, even in a home loss in mid-Febuary, UConn showed me something. In a better officiated game UConn walks away the victor. In a game that was supposed to be a showdown of two of the best big men in the country, one had to spend nearly half the game on the bench due to foul trouble while the other was allowed every liberty.
Jeff Adrien and Stanley Robinson also played terrible games on the offensive end, killing the entirety of the UConn offense. UConn runs a very solid inside-out combination, but with Dyson out for the year, and the Huskies' bigs doing nothing on offense, they had no chance. UConn will be there in March though, once they adjust to life without Dyson and when they play 5 on 5 ball, not 5 on 8.
But it wasn't the players complaining about the refs. It's just me. They still had a chance to win the game, even after Fields' devastating 3's. Walker stole the ball and cut the lead to four. After a stop, Robinson had a chance to cut the lead to 2 but he missed the front end of a one and one. He makes those, UConn just needs to make one stop and they have a shot to tie or win the game on the last possession.
But in the post game interviews I heard on the radio on my drive out of the stadium, all of the UConn players just said it was a physical game and they can't wait to play again March 7th. I know I can't wait for that game either and a chance to ruin Pitt's senior night. It's only fair as they knocked us from the top spot.
On a very different note, I am incredibly disappointed at ESPN for not putting Kemba Walker's sick reverse layup on SportsCenter. AJ Price threaded a beautiful pass to Walker who went up for the layup, saw two Panthers going up for the block, so he tucked it under, and did a windwill reverse layup, kissing it high off the backboard.
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