With apologies to Duke, Kentucky and Texas, this is the game that UConn circled on the schedule when it came out. The long-awaited rematch of the six-overtime classic from last March will be the dominant storyline Wednesday night, not how UConn has uncharacteristically lost six of nine in what is becoming a lost season, nor how Syracuse has emerged from the woodwork to become a front-runner for Indianapolis.

It’s common knowledge that SU’s 2-3 has been highly effective this season, perhaps the most best of any of Boeheim’s teams. It’s also no secret that UConn has struggled to find a perimeter game outside of Jerome Dyson, but to demonstrate how lacking the attack has been, Andy Rautins and Wes Johnson have more threes between them (89) than the entire UConn team (85). Yes, Stanley Robinson has been a surprise, but UConn really can’t afford to keep him that far away from the hoop for long.

When you get a team with as weak a perimeter threat as UConn has fielded this year coming to your house, you can breathe pretty easy and pack it in in the paint as if the three point line weren’t even there. Doing so becomes less of a chore when there’s no Emeka Okafor, Hasheem Thabeet or Hilton Armstrong types diverting SU’s path to the basket, and that’s to say nothing of the fact that their Hall of Fame coach is missing his 7th consecutive game.

Jim Calhoun has been a great foil to Jim Boeheim over the years, and I think he’s associated with UConn just as strongly as Boeheim is linked to Syracuse. The rivalry will feel very different whenever he’s gone for good, and it’s too bad (for me at least) that we’ll get a taste of that with Calhoun still not healthy enough to patrol the sideline.

The Huskies will get an opportunity to move away from the bubble, but it’s very difficult to see them pouring a shot of closure for their fans. That being said, it always seems like UConn always gives Syracuse a tough time and is often the best in the Big East at attacking the zone. In fact, the teams have split their last four Dome meetings, all of which have been decided by ten points or less.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 9th, 2010 at 11:52 am by Brian G. . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.