UConn Basketball: Will the Huskies’ upset jump start the rest of their season?

By Carmine Carcieri | Dec 5, 2016

Dec 5, 2016; New York, NY, USA; Connecticut Huskies head coach Kevin Ollie coaches against the Syracuse Orange during the first half at Madison Square Garden. Mandatory Credit: Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports /

UConn basketball upset Syracuse in an ugly game at Madison Square Garden Monday night.

It was 40 minutes of ugly basketball. Both teams shot under 32 percent, struggled from three and had double digit turnovers. The two teams combined to make just 30 field goals and missed 18 free throws.

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But somehow UConn and Syracuse turned out to be a thrilling display under the bright lights of Madison Square Garden.

Despite Syracuse (5-3) dominating most of the second half, the Huskies came out on top 52-50 on Monday night in New York City to improve to 4-4 on the season. UConn was led by Rodney Purvis (21 points) and Jalen Adams (16 points, seven rebounds and seven assists), while Syracuse’s top scorers were Andrew White (14 points) and DaJuan Coleman (10 points and 16 rebounds).

It wasn’t anything compared to the six overtime finish in the Big East Tournament back in 2009, but the atmosphere was incredible and UConn was able to make magic happen.

The Huskies have been a bad basketball team through the first three weeks of the season. They were upset by Wagner and Northeastern in the first two games of the year, gave up 98 points to Oklahoma State in Maui, nearly lost to Division II Chaminade and only beat Boston University 51-49 five days ago.

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The Huskies aren’t a very good shooting team and don’t have the bigs to make up for their lack of 3-point prowess. In addition to the offensive issues and rebounding concerns, the Huskies are missing two key pieces for the remainder of the season, Terry Larrier and Alterique Gilbert, due to a torn ACL and torn labrum respectively.

But one thing the Huskies have working in their favor is Kevin Ollie and the resilience of this group; Purvis is hungry veteran and Adams is capable of taking games for stretches when he’s not turning the ball over.

This win could be a spark plug for the remainder of the season for the Huskies. That doesn’t mean that they will make the NCAA Tournament and compete for an AAC title, but it’s possible that UConn will put up a more fierce fight in the league standings than was expected a few days ago.

That’s the good news. However, the bad news is the Huskies clearly still have personnel issues and are going to have to win games based on heart and effort rather than talent. Beyond Purvis and Adams, UConn is awfully young and thin. That’s not going to get the job done against Cincinnati, SMU, Houston, Temple and some of the other top teams in the AAC.

Meanwhile for Syracuse, this is a bad, bad loss. They dropped out of the top-25 on Monday after losing to South Carolina last week, but at least that was not going to be a poor loss on their resume.

This is the second straight season that the Orange walked into MSG and laid an egg. Last year, against a St. John’s team that was one of the worst and youngest rosters in the country, ‘Cuse was unable to stop their opponents’ hot shooting touch.

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Monday night brought back memories of the old Big East: Rugged, tough and sometimes ugly! We deserve more of these types of games!

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