Game 2-7-75: Men's Basketball vs. Notre Dame

What: Men's Basketball vs. Notre Dame

Why in the world would we give
away red UConn shirts? And why
would we wear "platinum" and white
jerseys? And do them on the same
day? Oy vey.

When: Sunday, January 29, 2012, 12:00 PM
Where: XL Center
Result: Loss 50-48

Well, the first story was the uniforms. Those hideous contraptions Nike got nine of their favorite schools to wear. Well, they're terrible. Gray (pardon me, Nike says "platinum") and white are hardly befitting of the American Flag Blue and white we love. That's why in the InstantDaily a few days ago, I proposed changing our fight song to conform with the new color scheme. Alas, "Connecticut UConn Husky / Vict'ry again for the white and gray / So Go Go Go / Connecticut, Hip Hooray!" did not become a hit.

Oh, and then they left red shirts on all the student seats. Why red? The only red we wore was our shoes. It's all stupid. And some students were taking 10 or more shirts off of other seats. That's wrong. You get one, I get one, everyone gets wrong. Don't do that. The people next to me were very upset they didn't get shirts. Be nice.

As for the game itself, frankly, it was pitiful. We couldn't make baskets, we couldn't box out, and we were lucky to only lose by two. We missed a ton of chances to come back, including right at the end, and couldn't do it. Plus, the refs made several questionable calls. Most of them were closer than the crowd thought, but they shouldn't all be going one way. At least Ryan Boatright came back. But he didn't do much.

So now it's been three state losses. We need to do better. We could be in the NIT if this continues. With Boatright back, maybe we'll be better. But it only gets harder from here. At Georgetown, a home game vs. Seton Hall that we need to win, and then at Louisville and Syracuse. A Wednesday night game vs. DePaul at Gampel should be easy, and if we lose that, we're done. But then it's Marquette in Hartford, at Villanova, and College Gameday against Syracuse. We wrap up in Providence (who gives us trouble) before hosting Pitt. If we go .500, we're 9-9 in conference, and 19-11 overall. We probably will need to do better than that. Let's hope so.

Between the ugly uniforms, the ugly play, and the ugly reffing, this was terrible to watch. Yet we almost won. Funny how that stuff works, isn't it? Let's hope we do better next time.