The bogusly-unranked Huskies (21-6, 9-5) face the University of Southern Florida (USF) Bulls (12-15, 3-11) in Tampa tonight in the teams’ second contest of the season. Though “contest” may be overstating things a bit. When UConn faced USF on February 2, the outcome was what you would expect if the Heat played an AAU under-16 team. The Huskies utterly crushed USF 83-41. UConn’s first half point total – 45 – was more than USF scored in the entire game. So that happened.
In the first game, freshman Kentan Facey and Terrence Samuel saw significant minutes and walk-ons Pat Lenehan and Nnamdi Amilo got into the box score. Leon Tolksdorf played 11 minutes. Tolksdorf. Eleven minutes. I think you know where I’m going with this.
This is normally where I would tell you about the players on the other team, but no one on USF scored more than eight points in the last game. It seems unlikely that will change tonight, so let’s move on to more important topics.
UConn is coming off a gut-punch of a loss against Larry Brown’s SMU (he’s really got Ollie’s number), and they’re looking down the barrel at Cincinnati on Saturday in Hartford and at Louisville to close out the regular season next week. They play Rutgers in there somewhere, too, but whatever. Rutgers. These next couple weeks are really important to UConn’s tournament resume. Wins against Cincy and Louisville, and a good showing in the AAC tournament could mean an NCAA seed as high as four. Losses to those two teams and an early out in Memphis could mean a slot in the dreaded 8-9 game. Or worse.
USF has lost its last four games, and nine of its last eleven. UConn really needs to get a big win tonight, and muster up all the swagger they can bring back to chilly Connecticut going into the end of the regular season.
Hopefully, Boat and Bazz got a little sun and relaxation, because both have been struggling with injuries. Don’t be surprised if the Huskies run up the score and the starting guards’ minutes are limited, as Ollie tries to get his guys as healthy as possible before Saturday. Bazz is currently sitting on 597 career assists, and he could reach the 600-mark tonight, joining Coach Kevin Ollie, Tate George and Taliek Brown as the only UConn players to hit that illustrious number.
Tip-off is at 7 p.m. and the game can (maybe) be seen on CBS Sports Net. Pete Gillen is calling the game again. So, yeah. Sorry about that.
