Without academic progress rate issues to worry about and improved front-court depth at its disposal, Connecticut entered Friday night’s college basketball opener with sky high hopes, ranked 18th in the nation.
The Huskies performed like a team capable of having a big year, building a large lead, receiving contributions from virtually its entire roster and finding a way to win without its best player on the floor — point guard Shabazz Napier — over the final 1:30 of regulation. UConn committed its share of mistakes, but managed to hold off Maryland, 78-77, at Barclays Center.
Maryland guard Dez Wells missed two shots in the dizzying final 14 seconds and Amida Brimah secured the win with his third rebound of the evening, capping an impressive performance out of the freshman from Ghana.
“It showed a lot for our guys to get up 17, and then give up the lead, and then have that resolve when the crowd was going crazy and Dez Wells had the ball, we made a stop,” second-year Connecticut coach Kevin Ollie said. “Them guys stuck together when they were making 3’s and Dez Wells started getting going a little bit.”
Ineligible for the postseason last season because of low APR scores, UConn was impressive much of the evening, shooting over 51 percent from the field despite not executing to Ollie’s liking and out-rebounding Maryland 36-33, which was a Huskies weakness a year ago. Ollie’s team has a backcourt full of playmakers, led by Napier and Ryan Boatright, and now the frontcourt depth to protect the rim and attack the glass.
“If we take care of the ball and get good shots, we got a lot of weapons, a lot of guys who can do a lot of different things,” Ollie said. “They showed America what they can do, but we also showed America the bad side, too.”
Napier led the Huskies with an impressive floor game of 18 points, seven rebounds, seven assists and two steals. Niels Giffey added 13 points and Brooklyn product Omar Calhoun added 10. Nick Faust paced Maryland with 17 points, and Wells, Jake Layman and Evan Smotrycz had 13 apiece.
The Brooklyn arena felt like the Comcast Center in College Park during the Terrapins late run. It was technically a Maryland home game set up by the Barclays Center. The stands were full of red and the building erupted when Nick Faust’s 3-pointer cut a 17-point deficit to two with 2:28 remaining.
“Oh man, it’s been a long time since I heard a crowd like that,” Boatright said. “This was a good road test for us. This was an away game for us. We got through some adversity tonight and we showed our will to win.”
UConn received production from a number of unlikely sources. There was Tyler Olander not playing the entire first half, but hitting a clutch 3-pointer after Faust’s big shot; Giffey scoring 13 points off the bench; Brimah blocking three shots and scoring five points; Brooklyn’s Terrence Samuel, another freshman, contributing a big layup to stop a Maryland rally in the second half and handling the ball with Napier on the bench in the waning moments.
“We worked so hard over the offseason we were prepared for this, we got through it and won,” Napier said. “Just digging down and deep and understanding we can pull it out no matter what. It shows us we’re resilient.”