BET GAME PREVIEW: CONNECTICUT VS SYRACUSE

March 12, 2009


Talk about a great rivalry match-up, this is a fantastic slate of quarterfinal conference tournament games in the Big East with Connecticut and Syracuse being the Thursday night finale.

Syracuse got past Seton Hall on Wednesday night in a chippy contest, that saw a pair of double technicals and an excessive foul called. When the shenanigans started, SU had a slim two-point lead, when the dust had settles, Syracuse was up 24 and clearing their bench to set up a date with the Huskies.

UConn comes into the 2009 Big East Tournament as the #3 seed following their Saturday loss at Pittsburgh to close the regular season. UConn is very close to locking up a #1 seed for the 2009 NCAA Tournament and a win over Syracuse could do the trick.

Here are some pregam stories and previews on tonight's anticpated match-up:

Orange Get Mad (Syracuse Post-Standard)
Boeheim Gets Serious at Big East Tourney (Post-Standard)
Mad Bimber (Post-Standard)
Ready to Rumble (Journal Inquirer)
Orange Scouting Report: Syracuse vs. Connecticut (Post-Standard)
UConn Eager to Break Tournament Hex (Connecticut Post)
UConn Men Have No Shortage of Motivation for Big East Tournament (TheDay.com)
Big East Quarterfinal: Syracuse vs. UConn (Hartford Courant)

These two teams met in Connecticut back on February 11th in a contest that resulted on one win and two losses for the teams involved. With UConn winning by the score of 63-49, the Huskies picked up a win in the standings, while the Orange a loss, howeever, Jerome Dyson was lost for the season because of a knee injury, a loss that might have knocked UConn from the favorite perch in the Big East.

Dyson went down to injury early on in the game in the first meeting. Connecticut was able to break away from a close game in the first half with a defensively-dominant performance, led by Hasheem Thabeet who scored just 8 points, but added 16 rebounds and 7 blocked shots. The Orange wanted nothing to do with scoring near the basket, shooting 31.7% from the floor with their two big men, Rick Jackson and Arinze Onuaku, combining for a 3-12 effort.

However, the game also go physical late. Thabeet was not just intimidating with his size, but some loosely tossed elbows caught the attention (and bodies) of Orange players and he topped it off with a fastball to the face of Kristof Ongenaet when falling out of bounds in an effort to perseve possession. Following the game, SU seemed to be looking forward to another shot at the Huskies.

In a situation similar to Pittsburgh possibly looking ahead to a potential Friday night rematch, UConn could very well have the Panthers on their mind. Afterall, saturday's loss is very fresh in their mind, so being 100% concentrated on the Orange might not be happening. We saw on Wednesday night what a motivated SU team can look like, they should be plenty motivated for this game.

The current NCAA Basketball betting odds have UConn as a 5 1/2-point favorite. With all the focus on Pitt and UConn here in NYC, do not sleep on the Orange. However, in the end, UConn will play too much defense and keep SU's easy buckets to a minimum. With Hasheem Thabeet inside, that is likely to be the difference in the end.

NBE Blogger Prediction:

Connecticut 70
Syracuse 67