The UConn Basketball Blog

When you hear college basketball rivalries what’s the first thing that pops into your head? Most people immediately would think of Duke and North Carolina maybe some would say Kentucky and Louisville. How about the Big East rivalry between Uconn and Syracuse? Outside of the Northeast and Big East country this may be the most underrated in college basketball today. Whenever these two teams square off something special happens. Whether it was Gerry McNamara’s memorable game tying shot in the 2006 Big East tournament, or how could one forget the classic six overtime game just two short years ago, and even last year these two teams had a controversial timeout call decide the winner. This rivalry certainly has had its moments, but lately Uconn has been on the other side of lady luck against the Orange. While Uconn is 9-7 against Syracuse since the 2000-2001 season, the Orange have had the last laugh over the past couple meetings giving the Huskies heartbreaking loss after heartbreaking loss. Last seasons meeting just about sums up Uconn’s heartbreak with John Cahill awarding Syracuse a timeout and possesion in a tie game with 35 seconds left when Uconn had the ball in a game the Huskies desperately needed. Of course this call ended up costing the Huskies the game and possibly some much needed momentum that may have propelled them into the NCAA tournament. Fast forward one year and it seems ironic that the roles from last years game have been switched in Wednesday nights meeting. As unlikely as it seems Uconn has assumed the role of the team destined for a deep NCAA tournament run, and Syracuse suddenly is the team in desperate need for a win over a big time opponent. Much like last years’ UConn squad many are pointing to chemistry issues as Syracuse’s main reason behind this four game losing streak. But, as Jim Calhoun knows all to well you can never count out the Orange no matter what their record says especially in this heated rivalry. Jim Boeheim’s squad led by Kris Joseph will come in with a nothing to lose attitude and certainly will put their best foot forward against the Huskies. Kemba Walker will have to lead the offense attack as most of his teammates have not seen a two-three zone like Syracuse’s. The Huskies will need Walker and freshmen Jeremy Lamb and Shabazz Napier to shoot the ball extremely efficient from three in order to secure a much belated win in this rivalry. With things going unexpectedly well for Uconn and Syracuse faced with a must win scenario this great rivalry seems poised to turn in another great memory for fans. Jim Calhoun and his squad just hope they can come out on the winning side of things this time, and digging the Orange a deeper hole in the Big East would certainly make him smile too.

While he doesn’t look the part Uconn freshman shooting guard Jeremy Lamb quickly has become the robin to Kemba Walker’s batman. Even though the soft spoken freshman doesn’t garner the media attention or have the flash the star junior point guard has; he certainly has assumed the superhero prowess on the court to gain the junior guards trust. What has Lamb done that is so special to be appointed Uconn’s number two scoring option so quickly, you ask? After playing a combined 15 minutes against Rutgers and Texas, Lamb responded by averaging about 17 points a game over a four game stretch consisting of Depaul, Villanova, Tennessee, and Marquette. His 24 point outburst against Marquette on Tuesday night has valuated Jeremy from a unknown of sorts to outsiders to a legitimate complementary scorer to Kemba Walker. Lamb even got a shout out from Milwaukee Bucks star point guard Brandon Jennings on twitter. The recent emergence of Lamb’s scoring has put to the rest the biggest issue the media has appointed on Uconn. A team that was used to hearing they were a one man show suddenly has become a trifecta. With a secondary scorer in place to go along with a double double machine in center Alex Oriakhi and go to guy and national player of the year candidate Kemba Walker it may be that Uconn has finally found its final piece to the puzzle. And the threat of Lamb going off for another 24 point outburst will only get Kemba Walker better looks and maybe even take a little bit of every opponents’ defensive focus off him. Now does Jim Calhoun expect the suddenly sprouting Lamb to go score for score with Walker, frankly no but a consistent double digit output every game would certainly make the coach smile. And Calhoun is certainly smiling that his batman Kemba Walker is no longer being beaten and battered all by his lonesome anymore. For a while batman was battling in the Big East alone; but eventually Kemba Walker knew robin would show up and Jeremy Lamb certainly has shown up at the perfect time.

Not to many times does a team that relies on a six freshmen to play key roles go on the road to play a team starting five seniors be expected to win. But with a .500 record in the Big East and wins against Kentucky and Michigan State nobody is arguing that Uconn should not be expected to beat the fourteenth ranked Fighting Irish in Notre Dame on Tuesday night. But anybody expecting it to be easy for the eighth ranked Huskies is just plain crazy. Coming off a road loss at Pittsburgh and an overtime win over South Florida the past week, Uconn surely has a lot to prove that they were not just a Maui fluke. And Notre Dame is not going to make anything easy on Uconn Tuesday night led by Connecticut native Tim Abromaitis. Uconn’s inexperienced team defensively will have to be patient because the Irish will attempt to use Uconn’s guards aggressiveness against them by beating them with the three ball. As a team Notre Dame shoots 37.5% from three point land and will consistently shoot from three to get out to a big lead on Uconn. While Notre Dame does start five seniors they seem to have a struggle rebounding as a team opening a window for forward Alex Oriakhi to have a big game. Oriakhi seemed to pick up his play against USF on the offensive side of the ball but still is struggling defensively, this is certainly a favorable matchup for Alex to get back to his Maui ways. Kemba Walker has to be licking his chops at this matchup noticing that Notre Dame has had a history this season with struggling against their opponents star player, the junior point guard has scored 20 or more points in 11 straight games for Uconn. If Terrance Jones and Kris Joseph could lead their team to victories against the Irish with big scoring games Uconn can certainly trust Kemba Walker to do the same.

It wasn’t supposed to be as difficult as it was for Uconn to beat South Florida on Friday night, but rarely do things go as expected in the Big East conference. Trailing by as much as nine points in the second half it looked like Uconn was going to find a way to lose what looked like an easy win on the schedule. Then Jim Calhoun went against what his tough Uconn teams are known for. With Augustus Gilchrist consistently beating Uconn in the paint, Jim Calhoun went against his classic man to man defense and turned to a 2-3 zone to slow down the charging Bulls offense. The zone couldn’t have worked any better, as Uconn’s length and aggressive guards disrupted South Florida’s offense and ultimately helped guide them back into the game. After the zone helped the Uconn defense regain its form, Kemba Walker jumpstarted the offense to get the Huskies get back into the game scoring six of the Huskies next ten points to trim the South Florida lead to one, Walker finished the game with 24 points. For the second straight conference game Walker did not get much help offensively as he was one of only two Uconn players in double figures, the other was forward Alex Oriakhi who had 15 points. Oriakhi responded well on the offensive end from a poor game at Pittsburgh but defensively he struggled as he only recorded three rebounds for the game. With Oriakhi struggling on the boards USF took advantage as they had ten offensive rebounds a major reason why South Florida was able to give Uconn so many fits. Gilchrist led the rebounding charge for the Bulls leading all players with 8 rebounds in the game. Uconn’s youth and inexperience was exposed in the game but the freshmen lead by Shabazz Napier who had an efficient nine points showed a lot of composure throughout the game and gained some late game experience that will certainly come in handy in March. Uconn finally managed to take a one point lead late in the game thanks to a layup by Napier and then extended the lead to three with 28 seconds left. It looked like Uconn put the game away but South Florida’s Anthony Crater hit a game tying three that sent shock waves throughout the XL Center. After missing a chance to win the game Uconn quickly regrouped and had no trouble putting the Bulls away in overtime outscoring them 8-3 in the extra session. Surprisingly it was not Walker who took over in the extra session but sophomore forward Jamal Coombs-Mcdaniel who guided the Huskies to the win scoring four of his six points in overtime and pulling down numerous key rebounds for the home team. While Uconn managed to survive this scare from South Florida it is obvious this team has taken a major step back from their remarkable run in Maui. With road games at Notre Dame and Texas featured in the upcoming weak, Coach Calhoun has a lot of work to do to get this team ready to prove itself worthy of its lofty top 25 ranking.

There aren't too many times UConn will face South Florida and feel as if they are at a disadvantage in the frontcourt, but this may very well be one of those times. Coming off a loss against sixth ranked Pittsburgh where UConn's frontcourt struggled throughout the game with foul trouble and scoring, one may wonder if UConn will be able to contain South Florida's trio of big men. With UConn's main frontcourt anchor Alex Oriakhi coming off a one rebound game against Pittsburgh, USF will certainley provide UConn a test on the boards. With a froncourt that features a trio of Augustus Gilchrist, Jarrid Famous, and Ron Anderson Jr. that combined averages an impressive 29.1 points and 19.7 rebounds this certainley will provide Alex Oriakhi and co. the test they have been looking for since being beaten down by Pittsburgh. In order to get to a .500 record in the Big East Jim Calhoun knows it can't just be the Kemba Walker show out there, others must step up for the Huskies. Freshman Jeremy Lamb has all the skills to be this player but like most of his teammates looked like a deer in headlights on the road against Pittsburgh. Expect UConn to try and get others involved in preparation for another pair of tough road games in the upcoming week, that features the #15 Notre Dame Fighting Irish and #13 Texas Longhorns. While this game look to be nothing more than a tuneup this game means much more than it appears, Calhoun needs to install some confidence back into his talented freshmen who need to bounce back to help out their star in need of others to help shoulder the load. All of America want to see how this team will bounce back after a shellacking loss in Pittsburgh and all eyes will be on Kemba Walker and his young team to see if they have it in them to gather themselves and get back on track. Will somebody other than Kemba Walker provide a scoring threat and prove the doubters about this team wrong? We are about to find who has it in them to do it for UConn today against South Florida.