Huskies to play from new perspective starting in ‘Cuse Country
Now that the UConn Huskies have finally earned national respect by cracking both the AP and media top 25 polls, they’re going to be playing a new role. The role of the favorite. The Huskies were favored in games earlier in the season, but not against strong quality foes. Connecticut reached this point by bringing teams like Marquette, Louisville, and Pittsburgh into hostile territory in Hartford, Connecticut and taking them down for upset victories. Now it is the Huskies who must travel into hostile territory and try to avoid a let down. After three straight wins over ranked teams, UConn has become one of the teams to beat in the Big East that everybody will be gunning for.
UConn’s first test at the AP and media #19 team will be at the Carrier Dome when they do battle with the Syracuse Orange as part of ESPN’s rivalry week. This is a game where the Huskies can prove they are for real and continue to climb up the polls, but it is also a game that can drop them back down to earth with an upset. In his ESPN Chat Wrap, guard A.J. Price called the Carrier Dome the toughet building in the Big East to play in, saying “that place gets really loud at times.” The Orange have had a disappointing season thus far, so if the Huskies fail to live up to their top 25 expectations, the ‘Cuse faithful will surely let them hear it. Syracuse lacks any high quality wins this year, but they are still a dangerous team. They proved they can play by taking Georgetown to overtime and falling by just 2 on a missed buzzer-beater three point attempt. Their lack of a quality win could make this even more dangerous for the Huskies, as the Orange would love to change that against their Big East rival
After the Syracuse game, the Huskies supposedly head to the easier half of their conference schedule, but as any Big East fan would know- there is no such thing as an easy game in this league. They start with their last non-conference game, a home match-up with Georgia Tech of the ACC, before hosting AP #22 Notre Dame. The Huskies will be looking to avenge a loss from earlier this year in South Bend. UConn rallied late to erase a large deficit, but the Fighting Irish held on for a 73-67 victory.
The Huskies then have games at South Florida and against DePaul before they head to the Wachovia Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to take on the Villanova Wildcats. The Wildcats are in free-fall mode, but don’t be fooled; this game is still no gimme. This ‘Nova team will look familiar to UConn fans as they strongly resemble last year’s Connecticut team: young and talented. The Huskies failed to qualify for post season play last year, but they were no pushover. The ‘Nova-cats are the same way this season and they proved they can bring it with victories over Pittsburgh and at Syracuse. After that the Huskies travel to the RAC to face a Rutgers team who has pulled a few upsets already this year and then head home to face the West Virginia Mountaineers. The Hukies then conclude their regular season with rematches against Providence and Cincinnati.
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