@#19 Connecticut, Fri., Feb. 7, 8p, FOX

The UCONN game last week Vs Marquette had them turn the ball over 25 times .

We are a better defensive team than M’Q.

I noticed Diarra looked injured . He was limping around noticeably and appears very shaky handling the ball when pressured .

I think we will alternate Luis and Scott on Ball. KR and Smith to hound Diarra or the kid they substitute for him .

Or. maybe have KR defend Karaban . With Wilcher/ Smith on Diarra .

They are very susceptible to turnovers as their record indicates .

We will see Friday how all this plays out .

A Win for us jettisons us into the top 10 and keeps us a game ahead of Creighton , who is sneaking into 2 nd place with only 2 losses .
The Huskies would then have 4 Conference losses and likely out of winning the regular season title . Which is close to nirvana .

Especially if we beat them again at MSG .
 
Line makes sense. We'll be 4 point favorites here.

Game on campus for them is a big advantage. Not sure that UConn has gotten punched around like they will tomorrow. Solo and the Irish kid need to be bullied to get them tired. If we do that we can win this game. Nobody is out rebounding us with Zuby out there, He eats up space like I eat up cheeseburgers.
 
UCONN was terrible turning the ball over in the Marquette game. However that was somewhat uncharacteristic. For the season, they turn it over at a lower rate than all Big East teams other than Marquette and Nova (and Nova is only slightly better). On the other hand they haven't played us yet!
 
Fizzy said:
Line makes sense. We'll be 4 point favorites here.

Game on campus for them is a big advantage. Not sure that UConn has gotten punched around like they will tomorrow. Solo and the Irish kid need to be bullied to get them tired. If we do that we can win this game. Nobody is out rebounding us with Zuby out there, He eats up space like I eat up cheeseburgers.
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I


Hurley has already had his Video Conference with Friday’s Refs.


Using our game tapes to show them we are a “ violent bunch ,” that can’t be allowed to criminally assault his Altar boys , who don’t even have impure thoughts “

UCONN will be at the free throw line before the timeout at the 16 minute mark .
 
NCJohnnie said:
UCONN was terrible turning the ball over in the Marquette game. However that was somewhat uncharacteristic. For the season, they turn it over at a lower rate than all Big East teams other than Marquette and Nova (and Nova is only slightly better). On the other hand they haven't played us yet!
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They also had 15 against Georgetown, who's maybe the third best defensive team in the conference?

I agree that its somewhat uncharacteristic but also think its not necessarily a strength.
 
dk423 said:
They also had 15 against Georgetown, who's maybe the third best defensive team in the conference?

I agree that its somewhat uncharacteristic but also think its not necessarily a strength.
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Don't disagree but 10.7 TOs per game is certainly not a glaring weakness. Also both those high turnover games came with McNeely out and he should help in that regard imho. To me the big weakness we need to exploit is their defense and we need to make our free throws assuming we get a halfway honest whistle (admittedly a big assumption).
 
NCJohnnie said:
Don't disagree but 10.7 TOs per game is certainly not a glaring weakness. Also both those high turnover games came with McNeely out and he should help in that regard imho. To me the big weakness we need to exploit is their defense and we need to make our free throws assuming we get a halfway honest whistle (admittedly a big assumption).
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Definitely. RJ and Kadary, as long as they don't force things, should really be getting into the paint with ease. I also hope we see some Sim action with that as well. I think people will be surprised to see how poor their perimeter defense has been all season long.
 
We will have our work cut out for us. Need to respect Karaban and Ball's shot. Need to take advantage of Mcneely's rust if any.

Rick will have them ready to disrupt what they want to do. Uconn is good but our defense is on another level. I like our chances
 
Quickly addressing a couple of points:
  • Homecourt advantage: SJU beat Uconn at Gampel just two years ago, CMA's final season as coach and the first of Uconn's recent two nat'l championships. At the very least, it shows that anything is possible.

  • Lack of rest: I'm paraphrasing here, but I've always loved the sentiment that Louie (and/or Confucious) expressed when speaking years ago about 20-year old kids having tendonitis: "tendonitis, shmendonitis."
At the end of the day, my prediction:
  • Chucky Sproling: 72;
  • Tate George: 68.
I'm tempted to jump on a flight from DC to Bradely Int'l for this one. Either way, let's go Johnnies!!
 
Few things I'm looking forward to in this game:

- Alex Karaban came back to UConn and Dan Hurley...he's been hot and cold this year...one thing is for sure, I think RJ Luis Jr. is going to put him in hell. He hasn't seen a defender like RJ.
- Solo Ball might be one of the 5 best three point shooters in the country...it's pretty and it goes in at an absurd 45% rate. Gonna have to be physical with him and fight over tons of screens that Hurley will draw up to get him those looks.
- UConn's defense has been suspect this season. I know we don't shoot it well but if we can overcome the atmosphere, I think we can definitely go toe-to-toe with them putting the ball in the hole based on our extra possessions and ability to get to the rim.
- Hurley vs Pitino...how do the refs play into Dan and his BS antics at home? We know Rick has been ticked off at his behavior in the past...Tom O"Grady, aka the red jacket guy from last year will be in the building I'm told...hopefully he's in ear shot of Dan.

Hey we are riding high...why not us. Lets get this win and make it a hell of a week.
 
UConn fans:

the-boneyard.com

Slick Rick Pitino

"Slick" Rick has that slick moniker for a reason. It has been interesting watching his transformation since the return of his banning. Through Iona and then accelerated by the move to the Johnnies, he has been masterful about curating his media prescence and presenting as the contrite, elder...
the-boneyard.com the-boneyard.com

Love this rivalry, let's solidify it as one by winning tomorrow!
 
SJUDave said:
Few things I'm looking forward to in this game:

- Alex Karaban came back to UConn and Dan Hurley...he's been hot and cold this year...one thing is for sure, I think RJ Luis Jr. is going to put him in hell. He hasn't seen a defender like RJ.
- Solo Ball might be one of the 5 best three point shooters in the country...it's pretty and it goes in at an absurd 45% rate. Gonna have to be physical with him and fight over tons of screens that Hurley will draw up to get him those looks.
- UConn's defense has been suspect this season. I know we don't shoot it well but if we can overcome the atmosphere, I think we can definitely go toe-to-toe with them putting the ball in the hole based on our extra possessions and ability to get to the rim.
- Hurley vs Pitino...how do the refs play into Dan and his BS antics at home? We know Rick has been ticked off at his behavior in the past...Tom O"Grady, aka the red jacket guy from last year will be in the building I'm told...hopefully he's in ear shot of Dan.

Hey we are riding high...why not us. Lets get this win and make it a hell of a week.
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Going to also have to figure out how to fight through all the illegal off ball screens that UConn sets. Either have to get through/around that or figure out how to draw attention to it to get a few calls.
 
We have to hope that McNeeley is rusty and limited in terms of PT. The kid can play. If he is on, then we have to really defend at the highest level on all fronts. Much harder task. And, let's force Karaban into bad shots (he's streaky) and take our chances w/ Ball.
 
lawmanfan said:
Low expectations for this game. Every factor I can think of trends against us: Hard to get back up to the same intensity level after Marquette (though I think they will be close); on the road at U Conn; Hurley has 6 days to prepare; McNeely returning and (perhaps most importantly) legit size in the post with Reed and Johnson to back him up (if Hurley is sensible but the point is he has depth of size including McNeely).

But defense travels, I am sure this team will compete, and if we hit a few shots they could find a win.
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One more observation I neglected to include in this earlier post:

You can rest assured that Hurley has told his team that they have already banked the road win at Marquette; if they win the rematch at home and also beat us (twice) that is their path to the BE title.

He's also correct about that, and I think he does notch another W over Marquette, but I do not think he wins both games over us.

If we can beat Creighton and UConn at the Garden then I am pretty sure SJU will be the #1 seed going into the BET.

But as for this game - I fully expect U Conn to play as though they are playing for the conference title.
 
espken said:
Actually, we beat UConn at Gampel four years ago (Posh’s freshman season) and then at XL Center two years later.
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Ken - Correct me if I'm wrong but if memory is still intact, SJ was the first team to beat UConn at Gampel. I remember being at that game and it was very sweet.
 
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