If you're a glass half full person, you could say Roscoe Smith is improving.
The Connecticut sophomore came up with a loose ball at the end of the first half of Thursday's NCAA tournament game against Iowa State and heaved up an attempt at a half-court buzzer-beater. There was just one problem: There were four seconds left on the clock.
Smith made the same exact mistake last year in a game against Texas. That shot came with 11 seconds left on the clock. An optimist would point to the fact that his internal time mechanism was seven seconds closer to equilibrium. A pessimist would note that Smith's teammate, Andre Drummond, did the same thing earlier this year, suggesting that UConn coaches might work on time management this offseason.
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The Huskies concluded the second half with an equally boneheaded play. Both teams seemed content to let Iowa State run out the clock with a 13-point lead. But as the seconds wound down, the Huskies trapped near half court and stole the ball. With time running out and no one trailing, UConn star Jeremy Lamb went up for an unchallenged windmill dunk. It's important to reiterate that the Huskies were down 13 points at the time.
He came up short, the ball clanked off the rim and Connecticut's season ended with a perfect visual metaphor.
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