The feeling was not there for Connecticut as it entered in the Garden three days ago. The Huskies were lugging in four losses in their last five games, and were forced to make a rare appearance in a first-round game in the Big East tournament. After two games, though, coach Jim Calhoun is starting to get that familiar feeling that perhaps he’s sitting on something big with his Huskies.
“I’ve been involved in enough different situations where if a team catches something . . .” Calhoun said before catching himself by adding, “I don’t know if they caught it.”
The Huskies hope they have caught it and it’s contagious. There are greater tests to come, starting with today’s quarterfinal meeting with No. 1-seed Pittsburgh, but UConn hasn’t been threatened in its first two Garden games.
The Huskies manhandled slumping Georgetown 79-62 yesterday, providing further evidence that the Hoyas are in deep trouble, unless they get point guard Chris Wright back from a broken left hand. In the first round, Connecticut easily dispatched overmatched DePaul 97-71 to end a six-game losing streak in this tournament.
“It’s a new season. That’s the way we look at it right now, and we’re a new team,” said star guard Kemba Walker, who shot and spun his way to 28 points. “I think right now we’re extremely confident, we’re just looking forward to [today].”
How much longer the Huskies (23-9) can stick around depends on how much they have grown since the last time they tangled with Pitt. Walker is surrounded by freshman and sophomores. Two days after Christmas, the Huskies’ inexperience was exposed in a 78-63 loss in Pittsburgh. It was a rude awakening to conference play for the Huskies, who were 10-0 before the Panthers put a hurting on them.
“I really just want to see out reactions against Pittsburgh,” Calhoun said. “Our reactions the first time were young. We can’t have young reactions because we can’t beat them if we have reactions of that type. We have to man up a little bit. We just have to be better than we were the first time we played them.”
There was nothing to worry about against a Georgetown club that desperately misses Wright, who averages 13.1 points, 5.4 assists and has a team-high 41 steals. More importantly, the senior directs the Hoyas and without him they appear lost, going 0-4 in the 31⁄3 games he’s missed and unable to manage more than 62 points in any of the games.
“We miss Chris, obviously,” Hoyas coach John Thompson III said. “One-hundred percent, both ends of the court and in every way.”
UConn put things away with a 22-7 first-half spurt for a 42-30 halftime lead and Georgetown never got closer than 10 points the rest of the way. Walker was aided by sophomore Jamal Coombs-McDaniel (12 points) and freshman Jeremy Lamb (11). Jason Clark and Austin Freeman combined for 43 points for Georgetown (21-10).
Remarkably, at least one Big East coach did not vote for Walker for the conference first team.
“I think someone took a vacation and didn’t tell you, been gone for five months,” Calhoun, who hopes the slight on his star was not “because they lost out on him recruiting-wise.”
Walker will have to be as good as advertised for UConn to hang with Pitt, whom Calhoun calls the toughest team in the league.
“When people say you’ve got it going, don’t stop it, well Pitt’s got it going and they have for the last decade,” Calhoun said. “If we are to advance in the NCAA Tournament we’re going to have to beat some people like Pitt.
“Clearly to get someplace you got to beat someone like Pitt, so now after two or three months of doing this, we’re back to playing a team that’s going to give us the ultimate test.”
paul.schwartz@nypost.com
