Worst 20 Minutes I've Seen from UConn

To paraphrase ol' Rick Pitino himself, "Kemba Walker's not walking through that door, fans."

So who does UConn turn to for leadership, on the heels of Monday night's awful, awful, 80-59 loss at Louisville?

Ryan Boatright has raised his hand to answer the call.

“I’ve never given up at any time in my life,” said Boatright, about the only Husky to show up on Monday with a game-high 18 points, five assists and four steals. “I’ve been in bad situations and pressure situations and real low points in my life, and I’ve never given up … If I’ve got to be the one to take that role, then I’m going to do it.”

Does he believe his teammates would accept such leadership from a freshman with just 14 games under his belt?

“I think they will, because I never came in trying to be the boss,” he added. “I just want to win. If all they want to do is win, then they’ll accept me. Somebody’s got to step up and do it, because we can’t afford to give in and lose like we just lost.”

Not sure what else to say right now, other than that second half was easily the worst 20 minutes (or maybe 15, as the latter five was mere garbage time) that I've seen UConn play in my five years on the beat.

Granted, that's not an exceptionally long period of time. I just missed the awful, postseason-less 2006-07 campaign, so I'm assuming there was one just as worse at some point of that season. Of course, that team was comprised almost entirely of freshmen and a couple of sophomores.

This was UConn's worst loss in a regular-season game in nine years (a 95-74 loss at Virginia Tech on Feb. 5, 2003). It’s the worst in any game since a 73-51 drubbing at the hands of St. John’s in the 2010 Big East tournament.

But it was even worse than all that.

The second-half numbers were slightly padded by the final five minutes, but the Huskies turned the ball over 11 times in the half (15 overall). They were outrebounded or the game, 45-36, and shot 3-for-14 on 3-pointers.

The Cardinals knocked down 11 3-pointers and shot 50 percent (7-for-14) from beyond the arc in the latter half. The Cards had 22 assists on the night; UConn had seven.

Andre Drummond was scoreless, missing all six shots – many of them ill-advised jumpers.

“I think he had a freshman night,” said Blaney, choosing his words carefully.

Lamb has now made just 10 of his last 37 shots (including 5 of 23 3-pointers).

“I’ve got to put the ball in the hole, and I just can’t hit a shot,” he confessed. “I’m just not good on offense. I’m in a bad slump right now.”