UConn finished its regular season the way it wanted to, mostly. The Huskies grab a necessary victory against Pittsburgh but still managed to scare the entire fan base into a coma not long after the fan base 
rejoiced over the return of coach Jim Calhoun just five days after back surgery.
The Huskies led by 15 points with about 18 minutes to play. Nine minutes later, it was a tie game. Seven minutes after that, Roscoe Smith took the charge that changed the game and momentarily kept the Huskies alive in the chase for an NCAA tournament bid.
Smith took the charge that might be UConn’s only one of the season with the Huskies holding a 63-61 lead and desperately needing the stop it hasn’t been able to get of late. Seconds later, Shabazz Napier hit a 3-pointer that basically wrapped up UConn’s first regular-season, home-finale victory in three years.
So the Huskies head to New York needing at least one victory, possibly two, in the Big East tournament to secure an at-large bid and the chance to try to defend that national title. Defending it might be impossible but just getting the chance would be an accomplishment for a team that has stumbled a great deal in the past two months.
Some stuff:
- Big East tournament seeding requires many advanced degrees to figure out the tiebreakers. As of this writing, UConn is most likely the 10th seed, though the tiebreakers show that it could move up to fourth. (Kidding, of course. I think.) It’s either nine or 10, possibly eight but only if the Earth tilts on its axis and Justin Bieber makes the move to thrash metal.
- Smith has been UConn’s best player for the last four games and it can’t be argued. In addition to the huge defensive play, he scored 14 points, grabbed seven rebounds and blocked a shot. He hit seven of his 10 field-goal attempts and had five offensive boards. Oh, and he scored the basket that put UConn up, 63-61, and his putback dunk of a Napier miss gave UConn a 60-58 lead.
- Napier sort of broke out of a protracted shooting slump. He scored a game-high 23 points, his most since posting 27 against Cincinnati in January. He was 7 for 18 from the floor and 4 for 9 from 3-point range. He also had six assists and four steals with just three turnovers.
- Pitt just isn’t the Pitt of recent memory. For long stretches, its defense was soft and just not what you’d expect from a Jamie Dixon team. UConn’s struggles have been surprising but not nearly as surprising as those of Pitt.
- The Huskies were outrebounded again (33-30) but managed to make that not matter much.
- Calhoun looked mostly normal on the bench. Not quite as animated, but, still, a 69-year-old guy returning from back surgery just five days later to do a rather stressful job is quite impressive.
- UConn got punched and punched back, so that’s good. However, there is still a disturbing inability to throttle teams when the opportunity is there.
- Nobody in the game had double figures in rebounds. Not often you see that from a game involving these two teams.
- George Blaney had the line of the day: “That’s the first time we’ve taken a charge in six months, I think.” Indeed. Admittedly, the Huskies don’t practice doing so because they rely so much on the blocked shot. Odd, then, that UConn’s season would be temporarily saved by a taken charge.
- On to New York, where the Huskies still have some work to do.
