Connecticut Preview - NCAA Tournament - Second Round

by Beergut on Mar 20, 2009 12:50 PM CDT Comment 0 comments

The UConn team we face tomorrow afternoon is very, very good. Here is a look at their team stats:

			FG			3PT			FT			Rebounds			Misc
	G	M	M	A	Pct	M	A	Pct	M	A	Pct	Off	Def	Tot	Ast	TO	Stl	Blk	PF	PPG
A.J. Price	31	31.6	4.7	11.3	41.8	2.5	6.0	41.1	2.3	3.2	72.0	0.6	2.8	3.4	4.7	2.7	0.6	0.0	1.1	14.2
Hasheem Thabeet	32	32.1	5.1	7.9	64.7	0.0	0.0	0.0	3.8	6.0	62.5	3.8	7.2	10.9	0.4	1.8	0.6	4.5	2.5	13.9
Jeff Adrien	32	34.8	5.2	10.3	50.5	0.0	0.0	0.0	3.2	5.3	60.9	3.3	6.9	10.2	1.6	1.7	0.5	1.1	2.0	13.6
Jerome Dyson	24	29.3	4.3	10.6	40.8	1.0	2.9	34.8	3.5	4.8	72.4	1.3	2.8	4.1	3.2	2.0	1.8	0.3	1.8	13.2
Kemba Walker	32	25.6	3.1	6.6	46.2	0.4	1.4	26.1	2.3	3.1	73.5	0.9	2.7	3.5	2.8	1.9	1.1	0.2	1.5	8.8
Stanley Robinson	24	23.3	3.3	6.7	48.8	0.1	0.8	10.5	1.2	2.1	58.0	2.0	3.5	5.5	1.3	1.5	0.7	1.0	1.4	7.8
Craig Austrie	32	24.6	2.2	6.3	34.3	0.9	3.1	30.6	1.9	2.4	77.9	0.6	1.1	1.7	2.3	0.8	0.7	0.3	0.9	7.1
Gavin Edwards	32	11.5	1.4	2.3	63.9	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.9	1.3	70.7	1.2	1.6	2.8	0.3	0.6	0.4	0.8	1.6	3.8
Scottie Haralson	15	4.4	0.5	1.8	29.6	0.5	1.7	28.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.3	0.3	0.2	0.1	0.1	0.0	0.5	1.5
Donnell Beverly	16	4.5	0.4	0.7	54.5	0.1	0.3	50.0	0.3	0.3	100.0	0.3	0.6	0.8	0.8	0.1	0.3	0.0	0.3	1.2
Charles Okwandu	10	4.5	0.1	0.4	25.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.1	0.2	50.0	0.4	0.7	1.1	0.2	0.6	0.1	0.3	1.0	0.3
Johnnie Bird	8	1.5	0.1	0.4	33.3	0.0	0.1	0.0	0.0	0.1	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.1	0.3	0.1	0.0	0.1	0.3
Jonathan Mandeldove	6	2.5	0.0	0.3	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.3	0.3	0.0	0.3	0.0	0.0	0.5	0.0
John Lindner	3	1.3	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.7	0.0	0.3	0.3	0.7	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.3	0.0
Jim Veronick	2	1.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.5	0.5	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0
Alex Hornat	2	1.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.5	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0
	31	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	1.4	1.3	2.6	0.0	0.1	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0

Hasheem Thabeet, their center, is the key to their whole team. The team that most thoroughly dominated UConn this season is Pittsburgh, and they did it by being physical with Thabeet, and going right at him. With Davis, Elonu, and Loubeau, we have the depth to attack Thabeet inside, and force him into foul trouble. We need to focus on being physical in the post, and make him play our game. The Big East has a reputation for being one of the most physical conferences in the nation, so UConn isn't going to shy away from contact, but we need to hammer on Thabeet, and make him play physical.

Offensively, UConn is terrific, with four players who average in double-figures, but defensively they are awesome, as attested to by their 103-47 win over Tennessee-Chattanooga in the first round. Jim Calhoun's teams are defined by their defense first and foremost, and this team is no exception. Thabeet is an exceptional shot blocker in the post, so we need to focus on getting our shots out and up quickly when we go into the paint, and force him to foul us.

With Thabeet patrolling the paint, getting our outside game going with Carter/Holmes/Sloan is of utmost importance. If we can get hot frm outside, we can spread UConn out and open it up inside, isolating Thabeet in the post. Our main focus has to be on limiting turnovers, because scoring in transition is where UConn shines. Even though we dominated BYU, we still had issues with our transition defense, and you can be sure UConn is aware of this, and will try to exploit it.

More after the jump.....

If we win this game, it will be because we had fewer than ten turnovers for the game, and because we were able to get double-digit production from both Elonu and Davis inside. I'm thinking we may need someone unexpected to come up big for us, to be the hero, someone like Nathan Walkup or Dash Harris or B.J. Holmes to explode for us, and take it to the Huskies.

If we beat UConn, we will make it to the Sweet Sixteen for the second time this decade, a feat unmatched in Aggie basketball history. Here's hoping our guys are ready to make history.

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