Since then, the Huskies have picked up three tough
wins against lesser opponents, squeaking by LSU 67-66 on a runner by Williams
with 20 seconds to play, followed by a 70-59 victory over Cincinnati in which
the game was closer than the final score would indicate and on Saturday a 74-67
win against Georgetown. The one
trend to all of these games, though, has been the emergence of a powerful inside
game for the Huskies in the person of Hilton Armstrong.
Early this season the Huskies pulled of a
last-second victory in the Maui Invitational title game over Adam Morrison and
Gonzaga when Denham Brown nailed a short hook with 1.1 seconds to go, serving
notice that the preseason hype the Huskies had been receiving was well
deserved. The win came on the heels
of season-opening victories over Pepperdine,
Arkansas and a solid if not spectacular
Arizona team.
Upon returning to the mainland, the Huskies used a
balanced scoring attack, with different players emerging in different games to
lead the way, as they cruised through a less-than-impressive portion of the
schedule, with the closest margin being a 14 point win over Army on November
29.
Over the years, UConn has relied predominantly on
a dominant swingman as the key to the offense, and this season
Jim Calhoun’s bunch features a wing player
simply oozing with potential (and the probable number one pick in this year’s
NBA Draft) in Rudy Gay. Gay is a
spectacular athlete who can take over games at times, but so far this season has
proven inconsistent, notching several games where he has failed to hit
double-figures and struggling from the field, connecting on just 42.9% of his
attempts.
Still, the overall numbers have been solid for
Gay, leading the team with 15.3 points-per-game and pulling in 6.2 boards every
outing. Gay is different from the
great wings of UConn’s past, though, as he lacks the shooting touch of Ray Allen, Rip Hamilton, and even Caron Butler.
Gay certainly has the ability to hit from
the outside, as he showed during his freshman season when he knocked down 46.7%
from beyond the arc (28-of-60), but so far this year his percentage has
plummeted to just 27% from deep.
Gay has all of the tools to be a dominant scorer, but so far he’s only
shown flashes, like when he poured in a career-best 28 points versus
Arkansas. Still, even with his struggles from the
outside, Gay is a difficult match up for the
Orange with his size (6’9”, 220) and
other-worldly athleticism.
The
Orange got a bit of a preview of
what it’d be like to face off against Gay when they took on
Cincinnati and high-riser James
“Flight” White, but Gay is a different kind of athlete. His ability to rise up over anyone,
contort his body, and make spectacular plays around the hoop make him college
basketball’s version of Reggie Bush—or in other words, the nation’s most
exciting player. Demetris Nichols
and Terrence Roberts will have their hands full with Gay, and will have to keep
their heads on a swivel and always know where Gay is. They cannot allow him to slip behind
them on the baseline, and when a shot goes up they must put a body on him,
particularly on the weakside, or else he could do a load of damage on Monday
night.
During the past several games, while Gay has
struggled a bit (just over 10 ppg in Big East play on 11-of-31 shooting),
Armstrong has suddenly emerged as a dominant post presence. The 6’11” native of
Peekskill is a big, long athlete who
can intimidate defensively (6 blocks in each of the last two games) and can get
it done on the offensive end. This
season Armstrong is averaging 10.5ppg and hitting 66.7% of his attempts from the
field while pulling in a team-leading 6.6 rebounds-per-game. In the win over
Georgetown, Armstrong went 8-of-10
from the floor and finished with 19 points, six blocks, and five rebounds, just
days after scoring 14 points, pulling down 10 boards, and swatting six shots
against Cincinnati.
Armstrong has really picked up the slack this
season for Josh Boone, who has seen his numbers drop across the board, averaging
9.4 points and 6.3 rebounds through 15 games. Last season, Boone boasted averages of
12.4ppg and 8.4rpg. Still, he is
making 55% of his attempts from the field, and he makes a formidable partner for
Armstrong up front at 6’10”, 237.
Boone, like Armstrong, has a tremendous wingspan and knows how to swat
shots with the best of them. This
year the duo have combined for 77 blocked shots, and the Huskies as a team have
blocked 135. The front line of Gay,
Armstrong, and Boone is what makes UConn one of the most difficult match ups in
the nation. Few teams have the size
and athleticism up front to combat the trio, but
Syracuse, at least on paper, appears
to be one of those teams.
The key to Monday’s game will be how well
Demetris Nichols, Terrence Roberts, and Mookie Watkins handle Gay, Boone, and
Armstrong on the boards. Against
Georgetown, UConn’s front line
combined for only 13 rebounds, which no doubt helped the Hoyas keep the game
close. Meanwhile, the Orange were
as dominant on the boards as they have been all year in their win over
Cincinnati, and they will need to continue to be active on the glass if they
want to have a chance to upset the Huskies.
It is true of any game that limiting second chance
points is a key to success, but this is especially true against the UConn front
line. Roberts was dominant on the
boards on Saturday, and Nichols can be counted on to collect six or seven boards
per game. That leaves Mookie
Watkins as the player that the Orange most need to step
up his game. Mookie has shown
flashes lately of what he can do, pulling down 14 boards against Notre Dame and
playing well against the Bearcats before getting into foul trouble. Another player who will be key to the
Orange, if given the playing time,
is Arinze Onuaku. Onuaku has shown
that he can hit the boards with reckless abandon and be a great windex man for
the Orange, and
Jim Boeheim will most likely need to call on
his freshman center against the big, athletic Huskies team.
Jim Calhoun
has a freshman of his own that he can throw into the rebounding mix in 6’6”
Jeff Adrien. Adrien is a bit undersized, but is a
bull underneath, pulling down 10 boards against
Georgetown on Saturday and averaging
7.3 points and 4.7 boards in 16.1 minutes per game. Calhoun can also look to Ed Nelson to
help out on the glass, with the 11th year senior entering the game
with averages of 4.8 points and 4.8 rebounds per game. Nelson can also do some damage against a
foul prone Orange front line from the free throw line, as he is a 73.7% free
throw shooter this season.
The key perimeter threat for UConn is actually
their sixth man Rashad Anderson.
Anderson can be a prolific
scorer and is an outstanding shooter, hitting on 45.9% from deep this season,
with 39 made triples on the year.
Anderson is the team’s second
leading scorer at 14.5ppg, despite not starting a game all year.
Anderson is always a threat
anytime he is on the floor, but struggles from the foul line, making just 65.4%
of his charity attempts. Denham
Brown is another player that has the ability to get hot from the perimeter for
the Huskies, though his shooting woes this season have landed him on the bench
after starting 10 games this season, with Marcus Williams landing back in the
starting lineup in his place. Brown
has been a disappointment this season, averaging 9.4 points but hitting a dismal
33.3% of his shots from the field and 28% from beyond the arc.
Running the show will be Williams and
Austrie, who started side by side for the first time against
Georgetown. Williams has quickly gotten back to his
2004-05 form, and is averaging 10.5 points and 7 assists per game in his four
games back, and his addition has given Calhoun another deep threat. Williams has knocked down 5-of-8 (62.5%)
of his three point attempts since returning to the lineup. Williams is also one of the top free
throw shooters on the team, hitting 83.3% of his attempts. Surprisingly, Williams has only come up
with five steals in four games, a sign that perhaps the talented junior is
reformed. Austrie has been a
pleasant surprise for the Huskies this year, hitting 38.1% of his attempts from
deep while dishing out 4.2apg and knocking down 77.4% of his free throws.
The Huskies are a deep and talented team that has
all the parts in place for a championship run this season. They have a big, athletic front line, a
terrific floor general that can knock down clutch shots, an explosive senior
wingman, and several role players who know exactly what their jobs are when they
hit the floor. For the year, the
Huskies are outscoring their opponents by an average of 21.2 points per game,
and have dominated on the glass, outrebounding opponents 44.5 to 33.9. The Huskies are shooting 47.4% from the
field as a team and 38% from beyond the arc while making 68.4% of their free
throw attempts. UConn has seen 11
different players hit for double-figures this season.
After struggling a bit early in the season, the
Orange have turned things around and
in their last two games have looked downright impressive. With 12 straight wins, including two
tough road victories, Syracuse is
3-0 in Big East play as it enters its toughest three game stretch of the season,
with road trips to Villanova and
Pittsburgh looming after the UConn
game. If the
Orange could come out of that
stretch at 4-2 in Big East play, it will be a solid accomplishment. If they can manage wins in two of the
next three games, SU fans will know this team has the makings of something
special.
One thing SU has got going right now is the
way the team has started to gel offensively. This is due largely to the improving
play of Gerry McNamara, who struggled a bit from the field this season, but
whose terrific point play has been a constant all year. He has been helped tremendously by the
recent emergence of Eric Devendorf, who struggled with foul trouble against
Cincinnati but had his best
all-around game as an Orangeman in the win over Notre Dame, hitting for 22
points and making big plays down the stretch.
Of course the biggest and most pleasant
surprise this season has been Nichols as a primary scoring option. Nichols is scoring 15.5ppg this season
and is hitting on 40.2% of his three point attempts, best on the team. McNamara has improved his percentage to
34.5%, and Devendorf is hitting on 40% of his triples to make this the best
perimeter shooting Orange team since the National
Championship squad. This year’s
team is different than most Orange teams, who have seemingly always had a
dominant inside/outside presence like John
Wallace, Damone Brown, Preston Shumpert, Carmelo Anthony, or Hakim Warrick to
come up with a big bucket when the team needs it most. This season, however, when the team
needs a big hoop it will look to its perimeter players in McNamara, Devo, and
Nichols—with the bulk of the pressure falling to McNamara.
UConn has always given the
Orange, and specifically McNamara
problems. In three games last
season, McNamara shot an abysmal 12-of-49 from the field, including 5-of-26 from
beyond the arc. For the
Orange to win, this trend needs to
change. McNamara is the main
scoring option, and a shooting performance like any of those from last season
would be unacceptable from the senior leader of this team. Devendorf and Nichols also need to come
up big offensively, because the Huskies are a very potent offensive team and the
Orange, despite having one of the stingiest defenses in the Big East, will need
all of the points they can get to keep have a shot.
The real key to this game is rebounding, as
mentioned earlier. Whoever controls
the glass will control this game, which makes the frontline of Nichols, Roberts,
and Watkins crucial. It absolutely
cannot be emphasized enough, the biggest threat posed by this UConn team is its
ability to get second chance points and dominate on offensive boards. If the Huskies are able to get multiple
attempts at the bucket throughout the night, it could be a tough one for
Orange fans to watch. Due to the need for rebounding, don’t be
surprised to see Louie McCroskey log quite a few minutes at the shooting guard
position to give the Orange another strong body to get in there and limit the
Huskies chances after the shot goes up.
Of the bench players for the
Orange, Sweet Lou and Arinze should
be the two that Boeheim goes to in an effort to combat this UConn
squad.
It’s a simple statement and an obvious one,
but against the UConn Huskies, rebounding wins the game and smart decision
making will win the game.