Thought about this as soon as UConn was jobbed of a chance at overtime last night.
And although we’re about three weeks away from the first edition of “Dancing on the Bubble,” I did want to bring one small team to your attention.
Consider the resume: Nine straight wins after an 0-2 start. The losses came against Connecticut and Harvard. Harvard is no slouch this season. Bill & Mary has a seven-point win over Tournament-worthy Richmond, a 10-point victory over worth-the-watch Wake Forest, a one-point win against Virginia Commonwealth and Wednesday night’s extremely convincing 83-77 win over Maryland.
Even if the Terps have proven they lose two or three of these games per year (and they do, with regularity), the win on the road was impressive.
Consider what remains for B&M: A respectable CAA schedule in which this team has a legitimate shot at losing only three games. What would you say to keeping a 25-5 Tribe team out of it?
The team’s KenPom rank is 68. I don’t know a lot about them, and mostly everyone else doesn’t either. But it’s time to start following and learning this team’s habits.
UConn is ranked in the top 10 despite failing to win against every BCS team it's played so far.
Now, what can we make of Connecticut? What is the Huskies’ best win? Look at the schedule and you’d have to agree it’s … William & Mary! Intriguing. If you compare the resumes, the Tribe win out over the Huskies. Let’s take advantage of this now, because that won’t be the case come Presidents Day.
Jeff Goodman agrees: “The UConn Huskies are no lock get to the NCAA tournament.” Right now, you bet that’s true.
UConn looked dreadful in a game against Duke at the end of November. It was part of the best game of the season to date but fell due to the heroics of some guy named John Wall.
And then came the loss to Cincinnati in Cincinnati last night. Hey, maybe the Bearcats can get a few more of these wins and prove last night’s victory not to be a fluke, but UConn showed all the makings of the streaky team it’s so willing to be. That was part of the reason Cincinnati got the win. That and some bad officiating.
UConn gets its chance to sweep this kind of talk under the rug with challenging games at home coming up against Seton Hall (Saturday) and Notre Dame (Wednesday). If the Huskies flop in one of those two, then the choir might increase.
But I’ve said it before: UConn looks to be a team with a lot of athleticism and a lot of talent — it doesn’t have an identity or a persona to win behind. This group will never put together six straight games of consistent, impressive plays.
And you know when you need those six games.
