Today's Game vs. Irish Will Speak Volumes

A long, often tumultuous regular season for the UConn men’s basketball team ends today with a much-hyped matchup against Notre Dame on national television. It’s an important game, but likely not for any of the reasons ESPN will tell you. It means nothing for their record, for the conference tournament, or their NCAA tournament seeding.

It means everything for a portent of things to come. This game, at home against Notre Dame (2 p.m.), will tell us everything we need to know about the rest of the season. Can this team win a title or is it just another rebuilding season?

For their record, it means nothing. It’s not like they’re going undefeated overall, in conference, on the road, or at home. It’s just another win or loss added to the pile. You won’t remember their record next year because it holds no significance either way.

For the Big East tournament, it will likely mean nothing. They have a chance at getting a bye in the first round of the Big East tournament, but they need to win and get help. The tiebreaker scenarios are so complicated as to make Stephen Hawking’s head hurt. But honestly, whether they get the bye or not, it means little because the tournament means little.

A friend of mine who is a sports editor and Syracuse graduate mentioned to me the other day who won the Big East tournament last year. Do you even remember? When he said it was West Virginia, I paused, and said “Yeah, I guess it was.” We both had forgotten.

West Virginia went to the Final Four, where they were blown out by Duke. Those things I remember (and not only because I so badly wanted them to embarrass the Blue Devils).

Did winning the Big East tournament correlate to the Mountaineers getting to the Final Four? Maybe. But history doesn’t show that. The last team to win both tournaments was UConn in 2004. Before that? Connecticut in 1999.

So it means a lot to UConn right? Well, it didn’t mean anything in 2009 – the last time they made the Final Four. That year UConn lost in the epic six overtime game to Syracuse in their first tournament game. 

In other words, the conference tournament only means something if the coach says it does.

Finally, as far as the NCAA tournament seeding, this game won’t make a huge difference. The Huskies probably slot in as a No. 4 seed right now. At worse, with a loss to the Irish and early exit in the Big East tournament, they should be a No. 5 seed. Everyone fears the 12-5 game, but in reality, you’re still playing a team you are superior to and should beat.

So why does this game mean everything for the rest of the season? Because no team wins a title by losing home games to top competition. This is a quintessential yardstick game. This is the LAST yardstick game. This is the final time UConn will have a chance to see how they measure up.

If they lose this game, you can forget about a deep run in the tournament. Good teams, teams with Final Four dreams, win home games against top competition. Pure and simple. And don’t be fooled by UConn’s youth. There are no elite teams in the country this year.

Duke just lost to a mediocre Florida State team. Ohio State’s best player is a freshman (even if he’s a very good one). Kansas got manhandled at home by a Texas team that UConn blew out in Austin. BYU? Please. I like watching Jimmer Fredette as much as everyone else, but they just lost to New Mexico (and lost their best interior player to the Book of Mormon).

UConn can win the title. They have the ingredients to compete at the top level if they are all playing up to the capabilities we’ve seen in glimpses this season.

But only if we see those ingredients turn into a five-course meal against Notre Dame.