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Takeaways from Louisville win over Connecticut

By Howard Megdal

STORRS, CT - FEBRUARY 12: UConn Huskies Forward Napheesa Collier (24) shoots over Louisville Cardinals Forward Sam Fuehring (3) during the game as the UConn Huskies host the Louisville Cardinals on February 12, 2018 at the Gampel Pavilion in Storrs, Connecticut.(Photo by Williams Paul/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
STORRS, CT - FEBRUARY 12: UConn Huskies Forward Napheesa Collier (24) shoots over Louisville Cardinals Forward Sam Fuehring (3) during the game as the UConn Huskies host the Louisville Cardinals on February 12, 2018 at the Gampel Pavilion in Storrs, Connecticut.(Photo by Williams Paul/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) /
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Two top-three teams met at the Yum Center on Thursday night, and it showed.

In what could be a Final Four preview, Connecticut and Louisville faced off Thursday night, with Asia Durr and the Louisville Cardinals beating UConn, 78-69, for the first Louisville win over UConn since 1993, in front of 17,023 fans at the Yum Center, the largest crowd in women’s basketball this season.

It’s a program-defining win for Jeff Walz and the Cardinals, and that’s saying something, given the regularity with which he’s reached the Final Four, and just a year removed from it, at that. Still, no one at the Yum Center is going to forget what it looked and sounded like when the Cardinals took down UConn for the first time in 26 years. And it served as another reminder that Louisville is absolutely a national title contender.

Here’s what we learned from this matchup of elites.

Asia Durr cannot be contained

For a quarter, Durr went scoreless, and the credit for that goes to Crystal Dangerfield. People don’t, to my liking, talk enough about Dangerfield. She’s at a 0.504 points per possession defensively, per Synergy, with a physicality to match her quickness that renders her relatively slight height irrelevant.

But Jeff Walz managed to find some ways to pry Durr loose from Dangerfield’s man-to-man defense, and she exploded for four threes and 14 points in the second quarter.

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Durr simply didn’t need much room to fire away all night, yet managed to thread the needle between getting those shots and not forcing, as with the three she hit out of the media timeout in the third quarter to extend a 50-47 lead to six, and the baseline jumper near the end of the third quarter. It’s why she’s going to be such a great pro someday. Unfortunately for UConn, that day hasn’t yet come.

“This is a huge win,” Durr said following the game. “We’ve got to continue to build. Be grateful, but keep pushing.”

Napheesa Collier plays with poise

Consider that Collier played the entire second quarter with two fouls, scored six points in the quarter, and anchored the defense, one in which Geno Auriemma elected to both go zone and play big. That only worked because Collier can slot into a more wing/guard oriented role while still crashing the boards. Put it another way: it was a do-it-all assignment, and one she thrived in, without picking up a third foul. It was why Connecticut only trailed 40-38 at the break.

And let’s not miss that moment midway through the fourth quarter, when Collier anticipated the pass from a streaking Durr, caught it and turned in stride at one end, then raced the other way to the hoop and drew the foul. There’s a sense of the court at all times that serves Collier and UConn so well.

No clear go-to for Connecticut

Louisville has plenty of weapons, to be sure. But there was little doubt who was getting the ball in key moments when offense was needed, and that was Asia Durr.

The UConn strength, for years, has been an efficient, even offense without a definitive top option. Even in Breanna Stewart seasons, she never averaged 30 a game as she would have almost anywhere else, the offense constant movement and motion, with Moriah Jefferson and Morgan Tuck equally capable of offensive explosions.

This team, too, lacks that obvious number one scorer. But against Baylor, and again Thursday night in Louisville, that wasn’t an advantage anymore. Connecticut was stuck on 53 for much of the fourth quarter. There are skilled offensive players like Collier, Katie Lou Samuelson, Crystal Dangerfield, even Megan Walker and Christyn Williams, all of whom have managed to take over some games. But for the second time this season, no one did so down the stretch in a big moment. Connecticut went scoreless for five minutes in the fourth quarter.

It behooves Geno Auriemma and the Huskies to figure out who will be their go-to scorer, late and close, between now and March.

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