1. UConn’s Roscoe Smith played 19 minutes and didn’t attempt a single shot. This was the most he’d played in his Connecticut career without shooting (previous high of 11 minutes). He attempted two free throws and missed them both. His positive stats were an assist and a block, to go along with 3 fouls and a turnover.
2. The Huskies blocked 10 shots. West Virginia attempted 72. That 13.9% block rate is actually considerably below UConn’s season rate of 17.8%, which is 3rd nationally and only behind Kentucky and Syracuse. The Mountaineers are actually pretty good at not getting their shots blocked. The last time an opponent blocked at least 10 was over eight years ago (February 7, 2004, also against UConn).
3. West Virginia grabbed 26 offensive rebounds. They missed 47 shots, which gives them an offensive rebound rate of 55.3%. This number is hardly surprising considering the Mountaineers are the 6th best offensive rebounding team in the nation, and UConn is 278th in defensive rebounding. UConn has given up at least 20 offensive boards four times this season, and twice that has come vs WVU (in two games).
4. West Virginia made 3-19 3-pt attempts (15.8%). On the season WVU made 30.2% of their threes (317th nationally), and in conference play that number fell to 28.7% (last in the Big East). It was the 5th time in the past eight games that they’ve converted less than 20%. Two players have attempted over a 100 3-pointers: Darryl Bryant (31%) and Kevin Jones (27%). You have to go back to 2004 (Cincinnati) to find a Bob Huggins team which finished among the nations top-100 3-pt shooting teams.
5. UConn won 71-67. Even though this went into overtime, this game only featured 65 possessions (which is below the national average of 66.2 for a regulation game). It was the 11th Big East game which UConn allowed more than a point per possession. On the season they’ve allowed a strength adjusted 0.946 points per possession, which is 59th nationally. No UConn defense has finished worse than 41st since advanced stats became available (2003).
