Spring Break
Thabeet plus Blair equals Big Monday
Marc Gauthier
Issue date: 2/16/09 Section: Sports
When the men's basketball team wakes up this morning, they'll be waking up to perhaps the single most important day of their season thus far.
Today, Jerome Dyson will undergo surgery to try and repair the torn meniscus in his right knee.
Later on, The No. 1 Huskies (24-1, 12-1 Big East) will host No. 4 Pittsburgh (23-2, 10-2) in a top-five matchup at the XL Center at 7 p.m. before a national audience on ESPN. For UConn, this will be their first game against a ranked opponent since Dyson went down with his injury last Wednesday.
The game is also a battle between the current No. 1 team in the country and a former No. 1 - the Panthers held the top spot for two weeks back in early January.
In addition to this, tonight's matchup will feature the two Big East teams with the highest winning percentage over the last eight seasons. Pittsburgh has won 80 percent of its games since 2001, while UConn has won 77 percent.
But even with all the story lines, A.J. Price seems to know what this particular Monday is all about.
"The real test is Monday," Price said.
The Panthers come into tonight's game fresh off an 85-69 blowout of Cincinnati, while the Huskies come back to Connecticut after a 62-54 road-win over Seton Hall on Saturday.
In the Huskies' win, Hasheem Thabeet put on a career performance putting up 25 points and 18 rebounds - both career highs - to go along with nine blocks.
"To me, Thabeet might be the best player in the country," said Seton Hall coach Bobby Gonzalez. "I don't know who has a more dominant guy. In my opinion, from what I've seen, he's the No. 1 player in America. I'm not trying to push him out the door, but if I was in an NBA franchise, I'd take him No. 1 in the draft."
For coach Jim Calhoun, Thabeet's dominating performance Saturday was as much a positive thing as it was a negative one.
"Why did Hasheem block so many shots?" Calhoun said. "It could be that [Seton Hall] was getting to the rim. A.J., Kemba [Walker] and Craig [Austrie] should do a much better job stopping penetration. What's going to happen [tonight] is a couple of those guys from Pittsburgh are going to bang you, somebody's going to get two fouls and now [DeJuan] Blair's going to be allowed to roam free. We have no Blair, just like nobody else in the league has anybody to guard Hasheem."
Today, Jerome Dyson will undergo surgery to try and repair the torn meniscus in his right knee.
Later on, The No. 1 Huskies (24-1, 12-1 Big East) will host No. 4 Pittsburgh (23-2, 10-2) in a top-five matchup at the XL Center at 7 p.m. before a national audience on ESPN. For UConn, this will be their first game against a ranked opponent since Dyson went down with his injury last Wednesday.
The game is also a battle between the current No. 1 team in the country and a former No. 1 - the Panthers held the top spot for two weeks back in early January.
In addition to this, tonight's matchup will feature the two Big East teams with the highest winning percentage over the last eight seasons. Pittsburgh has won 80 percent of its games since 2001, while UConn has won 77 percent.
But even with all the story lines, A.J. Price seems to know what this particular Monday is all about.
"The real test is Monday," Price said.
The Panthers come into tonight's game fresh off an 85-69 blowout of Cincinnati, while the Huskies come back to Connecticut after a 62-54 road-win over Seton Hall on Saturday.
In the Huskies' win, Hasheem Thabeet put on a career performance putting up 25 points and 18 rebounds - both career highs - to go along with nine blocks.
"To me, Thabeet might be the best player in the country," said Seton Hall coach Bobby Gonzalez. "I don't know who has a more dominant guy. In my opinion, from what I've seen, he's the No. 1 player in America. I'm not trying to push him out the door, but if I was in an NBA franchise, I'd take him No. 1 in the draft."
For coach Jim Calhoun, Thabeet's dominating performance Saturday was as much a positive thing as it was a negative one.
"Why did Hasheem block so many shots?" Calhoun said. "It could be that [Seton Hall] was getting to the rim. A.J., Kemba [Walker] and Craig [Austrie] should do a much better job stopping penetration. What's going to happen [tonight] is a couple of those guys from Pittsburgh are going to bang you, somebody's going to get two fouls and now [DeJuan] Blair's going to be allowed to roam free. We have no Blair, just like nobody else in the league has anybody to guard Hasheem."
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