Guards lead UConn to a resume-building win on the road at Texas
Just a few weeks ago Connecticut’s trip to Texas on Tuesday night was shaping up as one of the better battles between big men in the entire nonconference portion of the college basketball season.
But then UConn’s Amida Brimah and Texas center Cameron Ridley each suffered injuries completely taking away that matchup as a focal point and turning the contest into one dominated by guards, which is exactly what unfolded in the Huskies’ 71-66 road win.
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The Huskies earned an important victory that should help their resume as the season progresses, considering they went into the game with a 121 RPI and Texas was more than 100 points ahead of them at 19. UConn’s best victory prior to Tuesday was a win against Michigan back in November. The Longhorns had won six straight games, including two in the final seconds.
There were no heroic last-second shots from Javan Felix or Isaiah Taylor to save the Longhorns this time. In fact, Tevin Mack came off the bench to be more of a factor in the game for the Longhorns than Felix, leading his team with 20 points. Taylor added 19 but no other Texas player scored more than seven as the Longhorns shot only 39 percent on their home floor, including a 6-for-23 performance behind the 3-point line.
Meanwhile each of UConn’s three starting guards scored in double figures for coach Kevin Ollie, including senior Sterling Gibbs, who played 30 games for the Longhorns as a freshman in the 2011-12 season. Gibbs scored 10 to go along with 18 from Rodney Purvis and 13 from Daniel Hamilton.
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Both teams are obviously much better with their best big men on the floor. UConn comes out on top in terms of when it can expect to get Brimah back. It should happen about midway through conference play at the latest. Texas might not get Ridley back at all, considering his broken foot required surgery and he is a senior.
While Texas was looking like a very dangerous team for the rest of the Big 12 Conference prior to Ridley’s injury, there is now reason to think the Longhorns can’t pull out some wins and be a factor in March when they ought to be playing Shaka Smart’s brand of havoc as well as they will all season.
Smart still has plenty of depth on the perimeter and enough to work with in center Prince Ibeh and forwards Connor Lammert and Shaquille Cleare to create plenty of problems for opponents.
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[Kyle Ringo is the assistant editor of The Dagger on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @KyleRingo
