UCONN Attacking Strategies

[MuggsyB]

Muggsy

They cannot afford to miss a ton short range shots, especially early in the game. I fully expect Oso to take it hard to the basket today and close out some of the bunnies he missed on Tuesday. I think the Oso and Ben combo lead the team today and keep them in it until the end.

Exactly right.  Go strong!!  And finish around the rim.   

[MUMountin]

I'm in a good mood, so today feels like a no-lose situation:

Any win puts the BE regular season in play and firmly places us into the conversation for a number one seed.  There is certainly a chance that UConn stumbles after such a dominant stretch and/or we come with our full A game on display like we did in Maui.

A close loss (within the spread) would reaffirm what we saw against Kansas and Purdue—we can compete with the best, but have to be on our game.  That would hopefully help them focus down the stretch and in terms of media/public perception there would be no real damage. 

Even a blowout loss, though, may not be the worst thing in this context.  While it may hurt some public perception and minor seeding impact, I think there could be a silver lining in that it would be a good opportunity for the team to really pack it in for the stretch run.  The 15 point loss at UConn last year spurred us on to a 10 game winning streak straight through the BE tourney, and I would expect a similar loss could have a similar effect this year.

In other words, the 8 game win streak means that we are playing with house money today and should just enjoy the ride!