Marquette's slump continues, Seton Hall stays hot among Big East Basketball storylines
By John Makuch
3. UConn keeps winning through adversity
When you are down your best player, usually that spells game over for your season, but when you can recruit like Dan Hurley, that adversity is something you can fight your way through, and this team now sits at No. 1 in the nation. The Huskies recently picked up wins over Xavier and Georgetown, while they are not the top teams in the Big East, there is no tough game, especially with that road matchup against the Musketeers they won by 15.
What UConn has gotten are players who realize there is a hole to fill, and then they go out, step up, and lead this team to victories through this tough time. Against Georgetown it was the Alex Karaban and Cam Spencer show, Karaban finished with 26 points, five rebounds, and two assists, while Spencer put up 20 points, seven rebounds, and three assists. Huskies fans would argue that Karaban should have been Big East Player of the Week after that, but the impressive performance from Kadary Richmond stole the show there.
UConn has simply continued to win, the play of guys like Hassan Diarra, Samson Johnson, and and the entire bench unit has been key during this stretch without Clingan, but the road gets a bit tougher with their next matchup against Creighton. Will the Huskies defend their No. 1 position in the rankings? Given how they have been defending their reign as National Champions all season long, that should not be an issue for them when it comes to pressure. And while the Seton Hall loss seemed like a fluke when it happened, given how the Pirates have been playing, the Huskies can breathe a bit easier knowing how good that team is.