You can’t win them all. For UConn men’s basketball fans in recent years, that can be a tougher pill to swallow. Winners of their past 17 games and 47 of their last 50, losses hit harder. And Monday’s hit like a Mike Tyson punch.
In the opener of the Maui Invitational, No. 2 Connecticut faced off against Memphis. The field of the tournament included two top-5 teams not named UConn and few circled this matchup as being a dangerous one. The Tigers are a gritty team with mature guards and they came prepared to play in a way that the Huskies weren’t.
After one half that saw the Huskies treading water and relying on their bench to stay tied into a disastrous midportion of the second half, they enjoyed a great comeback. The exclamation mark on that comeback was a last-second trey by sophomore Solo Ball, a moment that would have been remembered forever had things not gone south in overtime.
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Connecticut had all the momentum until Hurley contested a bad call for the refs, a sequence that resulted in four straight points for the Tigers. That hole was ultimately too much to climb out of, signifying UConn’s first loss since February 20 at Creighton, a defeat that came over nine months ago.
As poorly as it felt that Connecticut performed at times, Memphis played above their level. They shot 55% from three and made 29 free throws. Those two stats are probably not going to be seen again at once against the Huskies this year–and the Tigers still needed overtime to win. Memphis’ defense also played very well, hounding UConn with major physicality and taking advantage of their lack of a great point guard.
The guards on the other side were inspiring. Tyrese Hunter, who played for Iowa State and then Texas, used 7-10 shooting from beyond the arc to jumpstart his 26-point outing, while P.J. Haggerty notched 22 behind a steady diet of free throws. That guard duo is dangerous and likely has the Tigers on their way to the title of Penny Hardaway’s best team yet.
On the Husky side, they definitely played less well than they could have. Their offense in the very beginning was stale as Memphis’ aggressive on-ball defense surrounded them. Even amid his early three, point guard Aidan Mahaney wasn’t doing much to calm the storm, visibly irritated by the defense.
Backup PG Hassan Diarra dealt with it slightly better, but didn’t have much to offer elsewhere on offense. On top of it, there were a number of possessions where he was loose with the ball, which had some heads scratching. Diarra closed with 12 points–9 on free throws, many coming late in the game–along with 4 assists and 3 giveaways.
Samson Johnson, keeping with his tradition of heavy fouling, picked up a pair early in the first half, as did Ball and Liam McNeeley. In response to those Huskies stuck on the bench, some reserves stepped it up.
Tarris Reed. Jr. had a fantastic opening half, notching 15 points and 7 boards. Jaylin Stewart had a career high 14 points in that period alone, staving off Memphis’ attempt to open up a lead. Despite this, Stewart played just four minutes for the rest of the game. Reed Jr. continued dominating until fouling out late, finishing the night early with 22 points and 11 boards. Johnson managed a measly 2 points and no rebounds.
Ball, who fought with foul trouble the whole game and hit the game-tying shot, ended up with 10 points on 6 shots. Karaban was certainly more aggressive than he had been last game, but less aggressive than he could have been, scoring 19 points, while adding 6 assists and 4 boards. His shooting was great, launching a few from way out en route to a 4-8 mark. Karaban wasn’t part of the problem in any sense; if everyone played as well as he did, they’d be playing in the semifinals tomorrow.
The Huskies started off very slow, having a considerable amount of trouble with Memphis’ press. No bucket came easy and the few open looks they did find still felt tough. Fortunately for UConn, Memphis didn’t capitalize on it particularly well. They were only up a few possessions until Stewart took over.
He was hitting threes, grabbing rebounds from all over, catching lobs and doing just about everything to keep the Huskies afloat. Without Stewart–and a lot of help from Reed Jr. too–, the Huskies could have been down a dozen. But instead they were tied. All things considered it was a great score given how the product looked, but it was still below standard.
The Huskies again trailed early in the second half, with the starting lineup not getting it done. But then Stewart and Reed Jr. came in and they were right back into it after a Stewart putback jam.
Things stayed close as the half wore on, with the Tigers leading for much of it, though by one possession for much of it. But then Memphis exploded. They went off for 9 straight points and UConn faced a 12 point hole with 8 minutes to go. Every time things started to go right for the Huskies, they shot themselves in the foot or surrendered a three.
Down 10 with 3 minutes left, Reed Jr. picked up his final foul. But then came McNeeley. He hit a pair of threes–including one that was from very far out–cut the deficit to 4. A Karaban layup made it 3 and then the teams traded pairs of free throws.
UConn forced a turnover and had a shot with 14 seconds remaining to tie it. Diarra dribbled the ball around for the better part of the time, as the clock ticked down. He flipped it to Ball on the wing, who flung it towards the hoop and found nothing but net. Overtime.
The teams traded deuces and Diarra nailed a three. The Tigers answered with a deuce, but as the play concluded, Johnson shoved a Memphis player. That was it for Johnson, who fouled out. Fortunately for the Huskies, Dain Dainja shoved Johnson in retaliation, which wiped out Memphis’ free throws and kept the ball for the Huskies.
At the end of the next shot clock, Ball drilled another hail mary three, but P.J. Carter responded with one of his own. And then Hunter tied it with a minute left. McNeeley was called for a bizarre foul on a rebound, which Hurley was none too happy about. This led to a technical on top of the initial loose ball free throws. The Tigers made all four. The Huskies had a look to win the game on the last shot, but failed to do so.
A performance like this isn’t the end of the world for Connecticut, nor is it a great sign. We’ve known that this team wasn’t poised to match the level of early dominance that last year’s team did, but that doesn’t mean they can’t get it done in April.
If you recall, the 2023 championship team lost in ugly fashion at home to a mediocre St. John’s team. The guard who was critical to the championship effort–Tristen Newton–played very poorly (0 points in 18 minutes), but managed to turn things around in time for the title game. Aidan Mahaney will need to have a similar revelation.
The key point is that we are a far way from when things need to be figured out. Yes, a loss like this isn’t ideal. However, they did not play well, had their opponent shoot over 50% from three, had the game negatively impacted by the refs and still nearly beat a borderline top 25 team. Cleaning those things up won’t be impossible.
Before they have much time for anything, the Huskies take on Colorado tomorrow at 3:30 p.m. ET on ESPN2.
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