UConn aims for payback, lucky No.7 against Georgia Tech |
||
Big East Fans Home |
Georgia Tech @ Connecticut Basketball Preview Saturday, February 9, 2008 4 PM
UConn aims for payback, lucky No.7 against Georgia TechAs UConn forward Jeff Adrien exclaimed after the Huskies’ win over rival Syracuse, UConn is back on the map. Not only are the Huskies back on the national map, they find themselves back atop the Big East. At 7-3, UConn trails only Notre Dame (7-2) and Georgetown (9-1) in the standings. Adrien helped UConn to their sixth straight win on Wednesday night, pulling out a 63-61 win on the road against Syracuse. Adrien notched a double-double, scoring 19 points and grabbing 12 rebounds. The stellar play of guard A.J. Price continued as well, with Price scoring 14 points and six assists. UConn entered the Top 25 this week for the first time in more than a year by beating three ranked teams during a five-game winning streak. UConn was last ranked No.24 back on January, 8, 2007. The Huskies earned home wins over Marquette and Pittsburgh, and picked up a huge win on the road against Indiana after losing guards Jerome Dyson and Doug Wiggins, who were suspended the day before for alcohol related incidents.
The Yellow Jackets and Huskies will face each other in a rematch from a year ago, in which Georgia Tech got the better of UConn, 65-52. Last year, Georgia Tech shackled UConn’s offense, holding the Huskies to just 30.9 percent shooting. But this year, the script appears to be written a little differently. The Huskies are surging, having won six in a row, holding their last six opponents to an average of 66.7 points per game. Guard A.J. Price leads UConn in scoring with 14.6 ppg and assists, with 6.0 per game. Forward Jeff Adrien has posted double-doubles in three of UConn’s six consecutive wins. Adrien is averaging 14.3 ppg and lead the Huskies in rebounds with 9.2 per game. UConn leads the nation in blocked shots with 8.7 blocks per game, led by 7-foot-3 center Hasheem Thabeet. Thabeet is averaging 4.0 blocks per game, along with 7.2 rebounds per and 10.6 points per game. For Georgia Tech, the Yellow Jackets have won four of their last five after losing four of five, and ended Wake Forest’s 16-game home winning streak on Wednesday night, defeating the Demon Deacons 89-83. The win put Georgia Tech a game over .500, 11-10, while pulling even in the ACC conference at 4-4. The Yellow Jackets are lead by guards Anthony Morrow (14.5 points per game) and Lewis Clinch (11.2 ppg) in scoring. Morrow and Clinch are primarily the one-two scoring options for Georgia Tech, and they’ll have to bring their sharp shooting A-games into Hartford to keep up with a balanced UConn offense. While Georgia Tech will prefer to win the game on the perimeter, UConn will look to dominate down on the low blocks. Georgia Tech must find a way to contend with the 7-foot-3 Thabeet. Alade Aminu stands 6-foot-10, but he’s lost spot in the starting rotation, and finds himself coming off the bench. Thabeet could be the X-factor in the contest at both ends of the floor. He’s cut from the mold of a former Huskie Emeka Okafor. Like Okafor, Thabeet’s defense is ahead of his offense at this point, but the sophomore is starting to assert himself in the paint more at the offensive end. He cleans the glass very well and he swats anything round with an orange tint that comes his way. The Yellow Jackets guards will have to give it a second thought before trying to drive the lane in Thabeet’s territory.
by Frank Minniti
> More Big East basketball articles
|
|