A year ago, they were the last two teams standing. Connecticut, clearly the proper champion. Purdue, clearly a brick or two short of a load needed for One Shining Moment, but still overjoyed to finally crack the Final Four barrier after 44 years. It was a good time to be a Husky or Boilermaker. They left State Farm Stadium that April night in Arizona with a combined record of 71-8.
Karma can be fickle. Another NCAA Tournament starts soon, and there is unease in the air at both places.
Dan Hurley sat at a press conference table Sunday in Madison Square Garden.
His Connecticut team, badly needing to find its second wind for March while trying to slow down the Rick Pitino Express at St. John’s, had just lost 89-75. The Huskies were down 18 points at halftime and that was that. They were swept by the Red Storm in their season series for the first time in 25 years. St. John’s, without a league title since 1992, moved to the brink of clinching the Big East, while Connecticut – who won the league last season by four games – now barely clings to fourth place.
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The Huskies are 6-6 since Jan. 8 and 18-9 overall. Most of the losses have been down to the wire – two of the nine defeats in overtime, five more by six points or under. But Sunday was a thumping. “This was the first time really since Maui and the last five minutes of the Dayton game where the wheels just came off,” Hurley said.
That happened in the first half. The UConn marquee trio of Alex Karaban, Solo Ball and Liam McNeeley had provided only 11 points combined and missed 15 of 18 shots before halftime. St. John’s – coming in 341st in the nation in 3-point percentage and 326th in 3-pointers made per game – had gone 8-for-16 behind the arc and soared ahead 50-32 The Red Storm pressure defense had also plagued the Huskies. They were able to stay with St. John’s on the boards, but as Hurley noted, “We made up for our rebounding by turning the ball over 18 times.”
Connecticut tried to edge back later in the second half, but no chance. As Hurley said, “We’ve got too many flaws.”
Those are not comforting words on the last weekend of February.
Nor are these: “Obviously our quality is way off from what it’s been for a variety of reasons.”
Nor these: “For us this year with our defense we can’t take everything away.”
Nor these: “Unlike our past teams where there were literally no bad matchups for us, there are some teams that are just not great for you. Teams that pressure full court and get after you. We have the obvious issue with people that can handle and create and break down pressure.”
Nor these, about the wobbly start Sunday by his top players: ”Overall, obviously we don’t go deep enough with the quality to survive 30 minutes of that.”
Once, there was serious talk of Connecticut’s chances for a three-peat in the NCAA Tournament. Now the clock may be ticking for them to find a level that can just get them past the first week. Still, champions are dangerous. Maybe.
Matt Painter sat at a press conference table Sunday in Bloomington, Indiana.
Purdue, once 19-5 and fighting for the Big Ten lead, had just lost its fourth game in a row, this one the biggest thud of all. Leading Indiana 37-25 at halftime, the Boilermakers crumbled before a 28-3 Hoosier rampage in the first eight minutes of the second half and were eventually beaten 73-58.
In under two weeks, Purdue has gone from a possible No. 1 seed to fighting for fifth place in the Big Ten. That’s left Painter, well, what? Angry? Baffled? Frustrated? Worried?
“All of those,” he answered. “You can get a couple of more in there.”
Indiana wiped out the Boilermakers 44-18 in points in the paint, and 23-12 in points off turnovers. Purdue had one assist in the second half . . . and 11 turnovers, five by star guard Braden Smith.
Painter bemoaned a “total lack of concentration” and added that “to say we lost our composure is an understatement . . . We just let it snowball. We just kept making it worse.” He mentioned the defense as an example. The game plan had been to focus on shutting down Indiana inside and living with whatever the Hoosiers did outside, and it seemed to work fine in the first half. Indiana scored 25 points and went 1-for-11 from behind the arc.
“They make a couple (outside to start the second half) and our guys act like Reggie Miller hit 10 3’s,” Painter said. The Boilermakers started rushing outside too quickly on defense and Indiana’s paint scoring skyrocketed. No one was immune from Painter’s post-game disappointment, including Smith and Trey Kaufman-Renn. “When we’ve got guys turning the basketball over or not making good decisions that have carried the water for us, that’s hard to take because you’ve seen them do special things,” Painter said.
There are loud alarms going off with the Purdue defense. The past three opponents have shot a staggering 81.6 percent inside the 3-point line in the second half. That’s 40-for-49. Indiana was 13-for-17. Zach Edey, they miss you. Also, the Boilermakers have forced only six turnovers total in the second half of the past three games.
In the four-game skid, they have led Michigan by 11 points, Wisconsin by nine, Michigan State by seven and Indiana by 12. Lost them all. Earlier in the season, Purdue blew a 12-point halftime lead at home against Ohio State and lost. But this one had to particularly hurt since it was Indiana, with all its historical overtimes. On the other bench, Hoosiers coach Mike Woodson sat in a chair that hadn’t been used in 40 years and everyone understood why. It was the same chair that Bob Knight had infamously thrown across the court 40 years ago this very Sunday, also in a Purdue game. Woodson told the story of how an IU tennis coach back in 1985 – “He was the only one thinking outside of the box that night” – got up the next morning and hustled over to Assembly Hall to get the chair and had Knight sign it for posterity. Woodson later got possession of it. “That’s why it was special to have it here tonight,” Woodson said. “I wasn’t going to throw the chair but I did want to sit in it.”
Purdue won that game in 1985. Not this one. So what now for the fading Boilermakers?
“Your best is always good enough,” Painter said. “When you try your best and you fail it’s still good enough. You’ve got to learn from it but it’s still good enough. When you don’t put your best foot forward and you don’t concentrate, it’s not good enough.
“You’ve got guys that have performed and played at a high level and been very successful. And are good guys. We don’t have selfishness. That isn’t an issue with us. We have an accountable issue and a concentration issue where guys aren’t concentrating to do their job on both ends. But yet when they do, we’re pretty damn good.”
They are, but not at the moment. Same for their former title game dance partner, Connecticut. And March arrives this weekend.
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