Post here any links or thought on the State/UConn game.

I'm about to go link searching myself. I also watched about half of the UConn/Hampton game and will post my thoughts in a little while.

Here is a UConn message board for anyone interested in talking some game with the Huskies...

<a href="http://qs236.pair.com/temery/cgi-perl/uconn/mbb.pl/#54015" target="_blank">The Boneyard: UConn Men's Basketball</a>

I doubt I'll find any links for the UConn/State game until late tonight or tommorrow (if they even right any...considering they'll be busy covering the 2nd round of the tourney).

As for my thoughts...

I think we'll have more trouble with UConn's frontcourt than we did with Michigan State's frontcourt. Surprisingly we did very well with Ballinger and company. Although they outrebounded us, it didn't seem as bad as it was suppose to be. However, UConn's big men are quicker and more athletic than the Spartans. Their two main big men are Jonny Selvie and Emeka Okafor. Okafor is pretty d@mn good. Selvie is solid, but not as good as Okafor. On the defensive end, both are VERY good. Okafor's offensive game is better than Selvie's, but both can finish pretty strong. If we can keep Okafor out of the paint, then he wont do much damage offensively. In the few games I saw them play this year (including Hampton today), I didn't see him take to many jumpshots. He's also not as likely to back it in if he gets the ball a couple feet out of the paint. But if he gets it deep inside, he's trouble. Both him and Selvie are really good at getting offensive rebounds and putting it back up. Here are the lines for those two guys in the Hampton game:

Okafor had 12 points, 15 rebounds, and 5 blocks.

Johny Selvie had 13 points, 11 rebounds, and 1 block.

That's very strong if you ask me. They have the advantage in the frontcourt.

UConn's backourt is pretty solid, but I dont think there are as good as MSU's backcourt. I would actually say they are pretty similar. They have a player similar to Marcus Taylor in Caron Butler. I think if Hodge can do against Butler like what he did against Taylor today...then we should be sitting pretty. The rest of their guards are solid, but nothing special. They dont handle the ball particularly well and they threw the ball away a couple of times today. Our perimeter defense should get a good amount of turnovers Sunday. I think we need to continue to to go with the full-court press to disrupt their offense like we did against Michigan State. I'm looking for Grundy to have a big game against UConn since he was saddled with fouls against MSU (he still had 16 points on 5-10 shooting). There guards aren't that tall either, so Hodge should also look to take it to the hole and score like he did so well against the Spartans. I think our guards definitely have the advantage in this one.

Hopefully on the offensive end our big guys that can shoot the 3 very well (Evtimov and Melvin), will bring Okafor and Selvie out which will open the lane for Grundy and Hodge to take their man to the whole and score points and draw fouls. Okafor is an EXCELLENT shot blocker and defensive player, and we NEED for our big men to draw him out to the 3-point line so our drives can be effective. We wont win the rebounding, but we still need to limit their second chances and get a couple of offensive rebounds ourselves. If we can play interior defense Sunday like we did today (which was excellent), then that would be HUGE. I think if we shoot decent and defend well, we have a really good chance of winning this game. I'm very confident after the 2nd half of the MSU game. Our best player and one of the best players in the ACC sat out most of the game and we dominated without him. Archie didn't have a good game either and even Melvin only scored a couple points.

Go Pack!!

My bad.

But what I was trying to say is that Caron is your go-to guy like Marcus Taylor was the Spartans.

I'm wondering who'll we put on Caron. I think Hodge might be the guy at 6'6" about 175, but he might not be able to hanld Caron in the post.

We also might put Scooter Sherril on him when he comes in the game. Scooter is a small guard, but he's been put on guys like Anthony Richardson (6'9" forward for FSU) and Chris Williams (6'8" forward for Virginia) and done very well. Scooter is very built and really muscles up against bigger players.

It will be interesting to see how we match up.

<small>[ March 15, 2002, 08:55 PM: Message edited by: whitevillepack ]</small>

Does Butler post up a lot??

And how good of a 3-point shooter is he??

It's not that we rely heavily on the 3-point shot...we just rely on it to open up our offense. I dont think we hit too many threes today...but we hit a couple in the second half that made MSU spread open their defense. When that happened, our guards penetrated and scored and drew fouls.

But there have been games where we've shot the 3-ball A LOT and there have been games where we've absolutely lit it up from 3-land. We have the guys to do that, but it seems like UConn has a very good perimeter defense. We might have to rely more on penetrating and back-door cuts.

I'm kind of getting the idea that UConn isn't a strong offensive team and that ya'll win (and dominate) a lot of games because of your defense??

Are there any really good shooters on the team?? It sounds like ya'll get a lot of points off transition..and the rest is just driving to the basket and finishing, or getting offensive rebounds and putting them back up.

I missed where you said Ben Gordon has an excellent outside shot.

Does he score a lot??

Our team is a pretty good combination of a running team and a halfcourt team.

You wont get into a strictly "running game" with us. But we will run. We do a great job on creating turnovers and finishing. We also do a good job of recognizing when we can run when we pull down rebounds.

But most of the time we'll set up in a half court offense. And our halfcourt offense is really really good this year. If you look at the analysis I did of our team...everyone can shoot and everyone can pass. The announcers will say that we run a "Princeton-style" offense...but it's really not like that. We do have a lot of backdoor cuts, but we'll also drive when the opportunity presents itself (because our guards are good penetrators). If the backdoor cuts aren't open...then we'll try and set screens for open threes. If that fails, then our guards will penetrate. Every once in a while you will see a post play...but that's very rare.

Our halfcourt defense is pretty strong (I say that because you said that your halfcourt offense is weak).

Do you guys struggle with a trap?? Sometimes we'll employ a full-court trap or just a halfcourt trap which is really just double-teaming the ball handler as he gets to the halfcourt line. It's not something that we try to get steals from, just something we use to disrupt the offense. But Grundy will usually get his long arms in there for a couple steals a game.

Thanks for all the info sailor! But I'm out...gotta get up and work tommorrow. <img border="0" title="" alt="[Frown]" src="frown.gif" />

Ask any other questions and I'll answer them in the morning. I think this is going to be a tough game Sunday. The toughest defensive team we've faced all year is Duke. Their guards put excellent pressure on us for the whole game. I hope UConn isn't the same way. But the Duke games were different too. I dont think we ever really got into those games. But we did put together some strong halves against them, we could just never keep it together for a whole game.

Here's UConn's schedule...

<a href="http://www.uconnhuskies.com/sports/MBasketball/2002/schedule/20010917b.html" target="_blank">Husky's Schedule</a>

NOVEMBER
Tues. 6 NIKE ELITE (EXHIB.) HARRY A. GAMPEL PAVILION W, 105-77

Tues. 13 GRASS ROOTS CANADA (EXHIB.) HARTFORD CIVIC CENTER W, 107-57

Mon. 19 VANDERBILT (TV-20) HARTFORD CIVIC CENTER W, 84-71

Mon. 26 NEW HAMPSHIRE (TV-20) HARTFORD CIVIC CENTER W, 110-58

DECEMBER
Sun. 2 vs. George Washington MCI Center W, 84-76

Mon. 3 vs. Maryland MCI Center L, 65-77

Sat. 8 NORTHEASTERN (TV-20) HARRY A. GAMPEL PAVILION W, 80-44

Tues. 11 at Massachusetts (ESPN) Mullins Center
Amherst, MA W, 69-59

Fri. 21 QUINNIPIAC (TV-20) HARTFORD CIVIC CENTER W, 95-79

Fri. 28 ST. BONAVENTURE
(TV-20) HARTFORD CIVIC CENTER L, 70-88

JANUARY
Wed. 2 at Virginia Tech* (TV-20) Cassell Coliseum Blacksburg, VA W, 86-74

Sat. 5 MIAMI* (TV-20) HARRY A. GAMPEL PAVILION W, 76-75

Mon. 7 OKLAHOMA (espn2) HARTFORD CIVIC CENTER L, 67-69

Thu. 10 VIRGINIA TECH* (TV-20) HARTFORD CIVIC CENTER W, 95-60

Sun. 13 at Villanova* (TV-20) First Union Center Philadelphia, PA W, 70-65

Wed. 16 at Providence* (NESN) Dunkin Donuts Center Providence, RI W, 69-62

Sat. 19 NORTH CAROLINA (CBS) HARRY A. GAMPEL PAVILION W, 86-54

Wed. 23 ST. JOHN’S* (TV-20) HARRY A. GAMPEL PAVILION W, 75-70

Sat. 26 at Arizona (CBS) McKale Center
Tucson, AZ W, 100-98 OT

Wed. 30 at Rutgers* (TV-20) Louis Brown Athletic Center
Piscataway, NJ L, 53-61

FEBRUARY
Sat. 2 at Miami* (TV-20) Miami Arena
Miami, FL L, 66-68

Tue. 5 PROVIDENCE* (espn2) HARTFORD CIVIC CENTER W, 67-56

Sat. 9 at St. John’s* (ESPN) Madison Square Garden New York, NY L, 83-85 OT

Mon. 11 VILLANOVA* (ESPN) HARTFORD CIVIC CENTER W, 46-40

Sat. 16 BOSTON COLLEGE*
(TV-20) HARTFORD CIVIC CENTER W, 79-77 OT

Tue. 19 at Georgetown* (ESPN2) MCI Center
Washington, DC W, 75-74

Sat. 23 WEST VIRGINIA* (TV-20) HARRY A. GAMPEL PAVILION W, 95-73

Mon. 25 at Boston College* (ESPN) Conte Forum
Chestnut Hill, MA W, 90-78

MARCH
Sat. 2 SETON HALL* (ESPN) HARRY A. GAMPEL PAVILION W, 90-78

Interesting losses are St. Bonaventures and Rutgers. I dont know much about either of those teams...but I'm pretty sure they aren't too good. They got whooped by St. Bon by 18 AT HOME. I'd like to know what happened in that game. Rutgers isn't much of a powerhouse either.

However, they did play Oklahoma pretty close...losing by 2. I think Oklahoma is one of the best teams in the country right now. They also played Maryland pretty close (kinda...8 points could go either way).

This is definitely a good team. I just dont think they'll be able to handle our offense. Especially with only one day to prepare. It will be interesting.