Huskies will look to cap busy month on high note
The UConn men’s basketball team entered the shortest yet busiest month of February like a lamb — and we’re not talking Jeremy, either.
The 21st-ranked Huskies can exit the month like a lion.
UConn’s bout with Georgetown on Sunday at Capital One Center in Washington, D.C. (noon, CBS) wraps up a rather grueling, competitive portion of the Huskies’ schedule in which they will have played nine games in 27 days. (It would have been 10 games had the Huskies made up their cancelled game with Providence on Feb. 3, but the Big East didn’t reschedule it and, quite frankly, neither head coach likely wanted to play the game on that date).
UConn (20-7, 11-5 Big East) can finish 6-3 in February with a win over the lowly Hoyas. After dropping their first two games of the month to Creighton and Villanova, the Huskies have won five of their last six games and four straight, including a revenge win on Tuesday over ’Nova before an XL Center sellout.
More importantly, a win on Sunday improves UConn’s seeding opportunities — both for the upcoming Big East tournament and the NCAA tournament.
The Huskies are out of the running for first place and the top seed in the Big East tourney at Madison Square Garden March 9-12. UConn still has an outside shot at the No. 2 seed if it wins its final three games and Villanova loses its final two. More likely, the Huskies are destined for either the No. 3 or 4 seed for the league tourney.
Perhaps more importantly, UConn is currently viewed by most “bracketologists” as a No. 5, or even a No. 4 seed for the NCAA tourney. Win out the regular season, win the Big East tourney and maybe even a No. 3
seed is in play. Either way, the Huskies want to at least maintain their current course for a fourth or fifth seed.
All that said, Georgetown (6-21, 0-16 Big East) wouldn’t figure to be much of an obstacle to UConn’s goals. Patrick Ewing may be the Hoyas’ head coach, but this team couldn’t be a further cry from Ewing’s great Georgetown teams of yore. In fact, this could be the worst Georgetown season of all-time — or at least since the Big East began. The Hoyas have lost 17 straight games overall.
Still, the team has played better lately. Georgetown lost at Villanova by eight a little over a week ago, and on Thursday, came close to notching that first Big East win, falling at home to DePaul by three after a flurry of game-tying 3-point attempts misfired over the final seconds.
Some would argue 10thplace DePaul may have been the Hoyas’ best chance at winning a league game this season. But UConn coach Dan Hurley certainly isn’t thinking that way. He knows Georgetown has nothing to lose and has been knocking on the door of that elusive first win lately. He knows this is the Hoyas’ final chance to notch a win at home this season. And he knows Ewing & Co. came out of nowhere to win the Big East tournament a year ago.
“To me,” Ewing told reporters on Saturday, “UConn is by far the most talented team in the Big East.”
Hurley must conjure up the same type of respect for Georgetown on Sunday to avoid an embarrassing loss and end a most busy month on a winning note.