Syracuse at Uconn, Monday 7:00 pm

Which Syracuse team will show up at Storrs, the one that beat Marquette, Rutgers, Villanova, and Cincinnati in a row or the team that lost to St. Johns, Louisville and Notre Dame? Uconn hopes it’s the latter. Whichever Syracuse team that steps off the bus will be a more cohesive unit than Uconn’s.

Syracuse has an experienced team with Demetris Nichols, Eric Devendorf and Terrence Roberts that combine for 43 points a game. So this team isn’t a one trick pony. They have depth and use their bench as much as Uconn but with more execution.

What to watch for: Keep an eye on the battle of the boards. These two teams lead the Big East in rebounding margin and average and also in defense field goal shooting. This is going to be a tough and bloody battle to get and secure every rebound. Hopefully Thabeet’s good play continues.

Not missing McNamara: Syracuse’s offense is ranked 3rd with 76.4 points a game and Uconn plummeting to 73.3. Syracuse also has a good three point shooting team making .381 a game. So Uconn needs to counter the threes and be ready for long rebounds because Syracuse will shoot plenty of them. Uconn has kept opponents to shooting .312 a game that ranks them 4th.

Don’t fear rejection: These two teams combined to block 358 shots this year, ranking 1st and 2nd in the league. This smells of a foul plagued game and that doesn’t fall into Uconn’s favor.

Player to stop: This is easy, Demetris Nichols. He leads the league in scoring with 18.5 a game and is ranked 4th in field goal shooting at .870 a game. See how many points he gets from the line. If it is more than 10 than Uconn will lose.

Syracuse’s weakness: Their size is not that intimidating but they make that up with experience with 9 juniors and seniors on the team. If Uconn wins, it is because they are penetrating the zone and hitting jumpers, which is something Uconn was able to do for only one half versus Providence.

This is a huge game for Uconn and to beat Syracuse and build on the momentum of their previous win will do wonders for the teams confidence. Though I see this game as lopsided towards Syracuse, I still believe Uconn can pull off the victory in front of the home crowd but seeing is believing.

Uconn 65 Syracuse 63