UCONN READY FOR CHATTANOOGA'S CHALLENGE

March 19, 2009


Jim Calhoun's Connecticut Husky men's basketball squad tips off their quest for a National Championship on Thursday afternoon in the Wachovia Center in Philadelphia when they take on 16-seed in the West, Chattanooga.


The Mocs, with a record of 18-16 overall this season, were the Southern Conference Tournament champions, upsetting the College of Charleston in the finals to earn the automatic berth to the NCAA Tournament. UT-Chattanooga had finished the regular season with an 11-9 conference record which included losses in their last three regular season games.

John Shulman and his Mocs have faced their share of tough opponents this season, facing NCAA Tournament teams such as Tennessee, Missouri, Memphis and Southern Cal in succession to open the season. The results were not very pretty, as they lost all four by an average of 26.5 points. Still, the Huskies are not taking anything for granted.

"They're a very athletic team, [they] play very hard," UConn senior guard AJ Price said of Chattanooga. "So we pretty much know what we're going to see in them."

For Price, this NCAA Tournament is his last shot at post-season glory in his UConn career. Last Thursday's epic six-overtime loss in the Big East Tournament quarterfinal was the fourth consecutive time the Huskies were ousted in NYC in their first game. Price's NCAA Tournament history consisted of a whole nine minutes last year in a first round loss to San Diego because of a torn ACL. Now, this go-round, UConn must overcome the loss of junior guard Jerome Dyson to make a deep tournament run.

"I think we've adjusted well since losing Jerome," Price said. "You understand anytime you lose a great talent like that, you're going to have to make some adjustments in order to pick up what he brings to the team."

"I think we've done a good job of doing that. We're over that psychologically and ready to play basketball now."

For Price and fellow seniors Craig Austrie and Jeff Adrien, their legacy is at stake. As freshmen, Austrie and Adrien were reserves on a team heavily favored to win the National Title. However, they were ousted from the Tournament by Cinderella of the Ages George Mason. Their tournament experience got off to an auspicious start that year as well, trailing 16th seed Albany well into the second half before taking control and avoiding the history making upset.

"We was down 11 with 12 minutes left," remembered Adrien of that game. "Our seniors just came back, you know, led us through that game. It wasn't a great feeling, but to get it over with and get that W, it felt great at the end."

Now, it is Adrien's turn to make sure an early exit is not on the agenda this time around. His head coach believes Adrien, Price and Austrie, as well as juniors such as Hasheem Thabeet and Stanley Robinson will be approaching this year's tournament with a heightened sense of urgency following lessons of the past.

"We hope we stay longer than we did last year," Jim Calhoun told the gathered media at yesterday's press conference. "That would be kind of nice. [We] had kind of gotten used to that. We found out it wasn't a God given right. I never thought it was, but can you get that assumption sometimes."

In order to avoid a monumental upset in the opening round, UConn just has to stay within themselves. Chattanooga likes to get up and down the court, will fire threes and run, run, run. They are athletic, but Jim Calhoun's club usually corner the market on athleticism and size. The loss of Jerome Dyson does limit them a bit on both ends of the court as his athletic ability allowed him to be a plus defender and able to break down the opposing defense to score. However, that might be something to worry about later on in the tournament, not Thursday afternoon.

UConn will likely dominate the boards and their superior size, quickness and overall athletic ability will likely make it difficult for Stephen McDowell to get loose for many open shots. The senior scorer stands just 5'11, but he can score in bunched and leads the high-powered attack with nearly 19 points a game. If the Huskies can neutralize McDowell, they could really make life miserable for the Mocs.

UConn is a 20 1/2-point favorite, while Chattanooga is very athletic, UConn has seen plenty of athletes, but the Mocs have not seen much like UConn, and when they did early in the season, they were not competitive...don't look for them to be in this one either.


NBE Blogger Prediction:

Connecticut 84
UT-Chattanooga 62