The Daily Campus

Issue date: 2/8/08 Section: Sports

Media Credit: Ryan Sayers Hasheem Thabeet's drives to the basket against Pittsburgh earlier this season. His progression on offense has given UConn another scoring threat.

The result was typical - a victory over rival Syracuse by the slimmest of margins.

But the means certainly were not.

The men's basketball team has created a reputation over the last few years of playing tough defense and has led the NCAA in blocks the past six seasons. However, to overcome the Orange's perimeter attack, the No. 19 Huskies took a page out of Jim Boeheim's playbook and used a zone defense - something head coach Jim Calhoun rarely employs - to limit Syracuse to just 37.3 percent shooting from the field and pull out a 63-61 victory in the Carrier Dome Wednesday.

Now riding a six-game win streak, UConn (17-5) looks to continue the sterling defense they've played of late as they take on Georgia Tech (11-10) Saturday at Gampel Pavilion (4 p.m., ESPN).

"We're playing things a little different and doing a lot of different things that would be atypical of a Connecticut team," Calhoun said. "I'm a man-to-man coach, I'm a running coach, but last night we probably played 33, 34 minutes of zone.

"Right now we're playing really great, pragmatic basketball."

The changes in the game plan have worked so far, as the Huskies rank fourth in the NCAA in rebounds and are allowing opponents to shoot 37.4 from the field, good for sixth-best in the nation. But the adjustments made have come out of necessity rather than choice.

With UConn down to 10 active scholarship players after the 30-day suspension of Jerome Dyson and the team getting very little offense off the bench - they've added just six points the last four game - Calhoun said he simply curbed his ideology to the strength of his team.

"We're not coming out at you like we normally would because we just don't have the depth and can't afford some of those guys playing all those minutes to get in foul trouble," Calhoun said. "If you don't adjust to what's going on around you and your personnel you're making a mistake."

The transition to playing without Dyson has been smoother than most would have expected, thanks in large part to the outstanding play of late by Hasheem Thabeet. The sophomore had seven blocks Wednesday - although Calhoun said his coaches counted 11 - to bring his season average to four per game.

Continued...

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