BIG EAST GAME PREVIEW: Connecticut @ Providence
January 28, 2006
The Providence Friars opened Big East play by dropping their first four games, but they have rebounded a bit lately and have won two straight, winning at home against DePaul last weekend and coming up with a surprising win at Rutgers this past week. Now, they return home to face the #1 team in the nation, the Connecticut Huskies.
The Huskies were involved in an old-school Big East rock fight Wednesday night against St. John's. The two schools have re-developed quite a rivalry over the last couple months with some sparring in the media and on the recruiting trail and from watching Jim Calhoun on the sideline Wednesday night, you could see how important that game, which hardly registered a blip on the conference radar to most not too long ago, was to Calhoun and the Huskies. Now, they need to re-focus on the Friars and not look ahead to Pittsburgh, who is coming early next week.
READ REST OF PREVIEW...CLICK "Read More" BELOW
One thing that the Huskies should find more to their liking on Saturday is a little more space to operate. St. John's really got after it on the defensive end and wanted the game to be a physical battle in the mud. Providence, on the other hand, is nearly a polar opposite of the Friars and will likely fall into a zone and not provide too much resistence in the middle or on the boards for the entire 40 minutes. They are prone to allowing open looks on the perimeter and 2nd chance points on the boards and, in the past, not getting back on defense. Those are three areas the Huskies LOVE to expose.
With just eight scholarship players, and six of them being freshmen and sophomores, the Friars are going to have to think defense and slowing the game down, making it shorter, if they hope to have any chance, even at home. Herbert Hill and Jonathan Kale wil come off the bench and be forced to provide strong minutes battling Hilton Armstrong, Josh Boone and Ed Nelson. The UConn front line got a little weaker with the one-game suspension of Jeff Adrien for his ejection in their last game with St John's for fighting with Aaron Spears. Randall Hanke playing big is an absolute must for the Friars in this game, but could be a tall order to ask for the sophomore.
On the wings and perimter, Providence can not match up with the size or depth of the Huskies who will start Marcus Williams, Craig Austrie and Rudy Gay and turn to seniors Denham Brown and Rashad Anderson early and often off the bench. Providence will start a couple freshmen, Sharaud Curry and Weyinmi Efejuku, and senior Donnie McGrath at the guards. The youthful exuberance will probably be all too happy to run with the Huskies, which, is probably not a good idea when your short on talent and numbers to go up against UConn.
However, that youthful exuberance might also be the best weapon of these Friars as they might not know any better. This should be one of the better crowds the Dunkin Donuts Center has all season as Connecticut will definitely be a target of their fans and sometimes young players respond to the excitement. Howeve,r over 40 minutes, these young Friars are going to be hard-pressed to maintain their energy against the constant wave of UConn's talent.
This should be a balances performance from the Huskies, getting scoring and contributions from every spot on the floor with almost every line-up they put out there. They absolutely masacred Syracuse's zone and forced the Orange into turnovers and poor offensive possessions all over the place early in their game. If their energy and focus comes anywhere close to that effort on Saturday, the friars will find themselves in a similar hole early on.
It is another learning experience for the young Friars. I like some of their young pieces, but I am still not sure how well it translates for the future in this new Big East. They are likely to get a strong lesson this weekend, lets see how they respond.
NBE Blogger Prediction:
Connecticut 83 Providence 67
The Providence Friars opened Big East play by dropping their first four games, but they have rebounded a bit lately and have won two straight, winning at home against DePaul last weekend and coming up with a surprising win at Rutgers this past week. Now, they return home to face the #1 team in the nation, the Connecticut Huskies.
The Huskies were involved in an old-school Big East rock fight Wednesday night against St. John's. The two schools have re-developed quite a rivalry over the last couple months with some sparring in the media and on the recruiting trail and from watching Jim Calhoun on the sideline Wednesday night, you could see how important that game, which hardly registered a blip on the conference radar to most not too long ago, was to Calhoun and the Huskies. Now, they need to re-focus on the Friars and not look ahead to Pittsburgh, who is coming early next week.
READ REST OF PREVIEW...CLICK "Read More" BELOW
One thing that the Huskies should find more to their liking on Saturday is a little more space to operate. St. John's really got after it on the defensive end and wanted the game to be a physical battle in the mud. Providence, on the other hand, is nearly a polar opposite of the Friars and will likely fall into a zone and not provide too much resistence in the middle or on the boards for the entire 40 minutes. They are prone to allowing open looks on the perimeter and 2nd chance points on the boards and, in the past, not getting back on defense. Those are three areas the Huskies LOVE to expose.
With just eight scholarship players, and six of them being freshmen and sophomores, the Friars are going to have to think defense and slowing the game down, making it shorter, if they hope to have any chance, even at home. Herbert Hill and Jonathan Kale wil come off the bench and be forced to provide strong minutes battling Hilton Armstrong, Josh Boone and Ed Nelson. The UConn front line got a little weaker with the one-game suspension of Jeff Adrien for his ejection in their last game with St John's for fighting with Aaron Spears. Randall Hanke playing big is an absolute must for the Friars in this game, but could be a tall order to ask for the sophomore.
On the wings and perimter, Providence can not match up with the size or depth of the Huskies who will start Marcus Williams, Craig Austrie and Rudy Gay and turn to seniors Denham Brown and Rashad Anderson early and often off the bench. Providence will start a couple freshmen, Sharaud Curry and Weyinmi Efejuku, and senior Donnie McGrath at the guards. The youthful exuberance will probably be all too happy to run with the Huskies, which, is probably not a good idea when your short on talent and numbers to go up against UConn.
However, that youthful exuberance might also be the best weapon of these Friars as they might not know any better. This should be one of the better crowds the Dunkin Donuts Center has all season as Connecticut will definitely be a target of their fans and sometimes young players respond to the excitement. Howeve,r over 40 minutes, these young Friars are going to be hard-pressed to maintain their energy against the constant wave of UConn's talent.
This should be a balances performance from the Huskies, getting scoring and contributions from every spot on the floor with almost every line-up they put out there. They absolutely masacred Syracuse's zone and forced the Orange into turnovers and poor offensive possessions all over the place early in their game. If their energy and focus comes anywhere close to that effort on Saturday, the friars will find themselves in a similar hole early on.
It is another learning experience for the young Friars. I like some of their young pieces, but I am still not sure how well it translates for the future in this new Big East. They are likely to get a strong lesson this weekend, lets see how they respond.
NBE Blogger Prediction:
Connecticut 83 Providence 67
posted by NBE Blogger @ 11:44 AM
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