Will Brown Explains How Hartford Upset U Albany [VIDEO]

Will Brown called into the show today and he explained how Hartford pulled off one of the biggest upsets in the American East tournament.

WB: “I think it was a combination of things. I thought for sure that Hartford played as well as they have all year. They shot 9 for 12 from 3 in the first half. Some of that were our breakdowns, but you still have to make the shot. I thought them shooting 9 for 12 from 3 and we shot 28% from the floor in the first half and had 8 turnovers. When you’re not making shots and shooting poorly, you need to take as many shots as you can. So those 8 turnovers hurt us as well. They played up probably the way I would’ve played us all year long. I would’ve tempo pressed us and packed it in, sat in the zone, and dared us to take shots from the perimeter. Consistently, we’re not going to make enough 3’s to beat you; we can have a good night here or there. That was probably our Achilles heel, just consistent perimeter shooting, and that’s the main reason why we were 3^rd in the nation in free throws attempted, 3^rd in free throws made, and top ten in free throw percentage. We knew who we are. We played to our strengths, and what their zone packed in did to us was take us off the driving lanes and took us off the free throw lines, and we settled for some jumpers and then we were forced into taking some jumpers and the problem is that we didn’t make them. We shot 6 for 27 from 3, that’s probably 10 to 11 3’s more than we’d like to take on a given night. But the way they were playing us, for us to score, we had to knock down some of those jump shots. We had to be willing to take a few more than we’d like and if we could knock a couple down, it could’ve softened up the defense and opened up some driving lanes. It’s unfortunate, it just wasn’t meant to be. I’m not going to let that one game define our season. We were 24-8, we did a lot of good things this year. I just think the timing of that game was very difficult for us because our expectations for this team and the guys had for them, I think were through the roof.  So, disappointing to say the least, but you have to give credit where credit is due. Hartford set the tone early and often in that game and played tremendous basketball and played to their strengths, and they beat us.”