Connecticut faces tough challenge against St Johns

The Connecticut Huskies are all but out of the race for the regular season Big East title. Back to back losses to Louisville and Syracuse have put them 3.5 games behind Pittsburgh for the conference title, but they have no intention of letting that slow them down. Their Big East schedule is relentless as they have 3 top-15 teams left to play. Those games will be hard enough, but it’s the unranked teams that are the ones to watch out for as they have much more on the line heading into the part of the season where each quality win can add to a bubble team’s resume’.

Steve Lavin has already attained a few quality wins with this St Johns Red Storm squad. A convincing win against the Duke Blue Devils on January 30th may have been the biggest upset of the season, and will go a long way in the eyes of the tournament committee. However, at 13 wins with just 8 games left, the Red Storm will need to finish strong to even be considered as a bubble team. They will have plenty of opportunities to do so as they have 3 ranked teams left to play.

St Johns is incredibly unimpressive statistically. They average just 69 points per game, and are 310th out of 346 division 1 teams in rebounding. The only reason they even have as many wins as they do is because they maintain constant defensive pressure on their opponents for 40 minutes. Their efforts on the defensive end of the court often benefit them in the second half when teams get frustrated.

Point Guard Dwight Hardy is the floor leader as well as the points leader for the Storm. He is averaging almost 16 points, 3 rebound and just 2 assists from the guard position. The lack of ball movement to create open shots has been a thorn in St Johns side all season long. They do not have 1 player on the team that averages 3 or more assists per game, and will need to improve in that area over their last 8 games.

The Huskies have a tremendous advantage over the Red Storm in terms of size, strength and athleticism. The rebounding discrepancy is HUGE as UCONN ranks 6th in the country with just over 41 boards per game. The point differential is just over 5 points, but the Huskies have played a far tougher schedule this year. The reason why this has the potential to be a competitive game is because of the shooting woes of the Huskies. They have one of the best scorers in all of college basketball in Kemba Walker, but his shot selection is often questionable.

The sportsbooks have the line set at Connecticut minus 1 for this game. Obviously college basketball handicappers are anticipating a low scoring defensive battle that will be decided within the last minute. They may very well be right. Tune in Thursday night as both of these teams fight hard to gain better position heading into the Big East tournament.

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2. Syracuse & St Johns battle in Big East Tournament
3. Louisville goes to Connecticut in Big East Top-25 Battle
4. NIT 2nd Rd Showdown: Connecticut v. Virginia Tech
5. Connecticut takes on Arizona in Elite Eight Showdown

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