Saturday is set up to be a very special day in the KFC Yum Center. Not only are we celebrating four of the winningest seniors in school history, but there is also a pretty good team in #19 UCONN coming to town. This will be another opportunity to get a great quality win before the selection and seeding process next weekend. Our Cardinals will also ultimately be playing for the AAC regular season crown. Louisville leads this series 9 to 6 and have won three in a row over the Huskies including a 76-64 victory in the last meeting back in January. UCONN (24-6, 12-5 AAC) comes into the game Saturday winning 7 of their last 8 including big wins over Memphis and Cincy. Louisville (25-5, 14-3 AAC) comes into the game on Saturday winning 8 of the last 9 including the biggest win of the season against SMU Wednesday night.
After a year of sitting out of post season play UCONN is one of the hungriest teams in college basketball right now looking forward to getting their chance at a March run. Coach Kevin Ollie did an excellent job keeping his team playing hard last year and this season has been no different. Their backcourt is experienced, talented and one of the best in the country. They are lead by All-American candidate Shabazz Napier (18.1 ppg, 5.9 rpg, 5.3 apg), Ryan Boatright (12.2 ppg, 3.4 rpg, 3.5 apg) and Omar Calhoun (4.5 ppg, 1.6 rpg, 0.3 apg) all can pressure the ball, are competitive, play with confidence and have the ability to score. They are also getting quality minutes from DeAndre Daniels (12.1 ppg, 5.5 rpg, 0.4 apg), Niels Giffey (8.2 ppg, 3.4 rpg, 0.5 blkpg) and Lasan Kromah (7.1 ppg, 3.0 rpg, 0.4 blkpg).
Taken together, the Huskies’ big three of Napier, Boatright and DeAndre Daniels are shooting around 44 percent inside the arc and around 45 percent outside it this season.
Napier is 2nd in The American in assists, is third in steals (1.9) and his 18.1 scoring average ranks 2nd in the league. UConn is among the national leaders in three-point field goal percentage (.451, 20th) and free throw percentage (.767, 7th). Connecticut is No. 23 in the Sagarin Ratings, No. 29 in the ratings percentage index (RPI) through March 6th.
UCONN comes into Saturdays game averaging 73.5 points-per-game, while shooting 45% from the floor (2nd in AAC) and 39.4% from 3-point range (1st in the AAC). The Huskies are converting 76.7% of its attempts from the free-throw line (1st in the AAC). Defensively, UCONN is allowing 62.8 points-per-game (4th in the AAC) as the opposition is shooting 38.9% from the floor (2nd in the AAC). The Huskies are out-rebounding their opponents 1065-1046 with a rebounding margin of +0.6 averaging 35.5 boards-per-contest.
UCONN
2013-14 OVERALL RANKINGS
-POINTS PER GAME
73.5
100th
OVERALL
-REBOUNDS PER GAME
35.5
141st
OVERALL
-ASSISTS PER GAME
12.7
173rd
OVERALL
-FIELD GOAL PCT
.451
132nd
OVERALL
Kenpom Ranks
Overall – #26
Defense Adjustment Efficiency
– 92.8 ranks 11th
Offensive Adjustment Efficiency
– 109.2 ranks 92nd
It always a good thing when you can get a game like this to end a regular season. A quality opponent can get a team prepared for the tough weeks ahead as tournament play starts. This UCONN team is a very good opponent to close the season with and they do a lot of things well. They will challenge our Cardinals in every facet of the game on Saturday and we’ll see if the Cards can continue trending upward.
I would like to see Wayne Blackshear and Terry Rozier have solid games as they need a spark to get them going. We are gonna need one of these guys to step up in the next couple of weeks. This game will also be another good test for Mango and Van Treese to see if they can keep a steady production coming from that 5 spot. And Russ and Chris will be tested to the max defensively on Saturday. Not easy to stay in front of UCONN’s talented and very fast back-court. I do think our guys answer the call on Senior Day as they will be riding a wave of emotions from the festivities. I’m looking forward to being right in the middle of it all. Gonna be a great day! Go Cards!