UConn head coach Jim Calhoun yells to his team during the second half of a game against Georgetown Wednesday in Washington. Georgetown won 58-44. (AP Photo/Haraz Ghanbari)
Georgetown 58, UConn 44.
Soak that in for a second.
Forty-four points. That’s not too many, huh?
Yes, it’s the second-lowest total UConn has ever scored in a Big East game. Twice before the Huskies have hit 42 (in a 1999 loss to Syracuse and in a 1982 loss to Georgetown).
It was UConn’s fourth straight loss and the third straight game the Huskies have set a season-low for points. That’s hard to do.
The starting lineup changes looked good at the jump, but those positive minutes were quickly erased.
Have to catch a train but here are some quick reactions from the particulars:
— UConn shot 30 percent (18-of-60) from the field, a season-low. But if you take away Andre Drummond’s good day (9-of-12), the numbers are amazingly poor (9-of-48).
G Ryan Boatright (scoreless in 19 minutes):
“It’s mind-boggling when you can’t make a shot and you repeatedly miss,” Boatright said.
Said coach Jim Calhoun: “We missed a ton of shots that Division I basketball players, and us, UConn, should make.”
— The Huskies rallied a bit. They were within six points on a DeAndre Daniels bucket with 7:45 to play.
“We came back to (within) six and somebody goes for a steal, next thing you know _ and we took a bad shot _ now we’re down 10,” Calhoun said. “You can keep running up the hill for only so long.”
— There obviously are no easy answers right now.
“Right now we’re stuck in mud. Our wheels are spinning,” Calhoun said.
What is Calhoun going to do?
“I’m going to keep working. I don’t know what you’re going to do. I’m going to keep working, keep pushing them,” Calhoun said.
(At first, it looked like he was asking my colleague Dave Borges what he was doing but apparently not)
— Shabazz Napier missed all nine of his shots from the floor and has missed his last 17 shots over the last two-plus games.
Napier didn’t speak to the media after the game. Boatright was asked how Napier is handling it (Boatright seemed to think the question was about him replacing Napier in the lineup, not Napier’s struggles in general, but his answer was interesting):
“I really don’t now. He ain’t really showed no hatred towards me or anything like that,” Boatright said. “He’s handling it like he’s handling it. We like each other. We still get along and stuff like that. It’s coach’s decision.”
Calhoun took a couple of shots at Napier after the game.
“What I don’t like to see is people mentally not stay in the task at hand,” Calhoun said. “How many times did we get beat on a back-cut today? Shabazz did, I know. And we told him during a timeout what was going to happen. And it did happen. But who else got beat on a back-cut? We were well-prepared to play their offense.”
Calhoun was also asked about Napier’s body language, which wasn’t great at certain times.
“I expect a lot more out of him. An awful lot more, including body language,” Calhoun said.
— All is not lost, according to some of the Huskies.
“I feel like we’re coming along. I feel like we looked like a better team. We played harder than we’ve been playing,” Boatright said. “It’s all going to come together for us. We’re not giving up.”
Said Drummond: “I have faith in everybody. I’m sure everybody has faith in everybody else. The coaching staff has faith in us. Nobody’s given up yet.”
— There was an Enosch Wolf sighting Wednesday. With Alex Oriakhi (0 points in 7 minutes) in foul trouble and Drummond briefly getting checked by trainer James Doran, the German sophomore saw a little under one minute of action.
– Neill
In Storrs Now 