Commentary

Game Plan: UConn-Pitt is battle of bigs

Originally Published: February 16, 2009
By John Carroll | Scouts Inc.
Tonight's Big East matchup between No. 4 Pittsburgh and No. 1 UConn has the potential to be one of the most exciting and intense games of the regular season. Each of these two powerful teams has all the ingredients to make a deep run in the upcoming NCAA tournament and eventually reach the Final Four in Detroit.

Pitt has one of the strongest low-post players in the country in DeJuan Blair, the best passing point guard in the country in Levance Fields and a hybrid wing who can score in Sam Young.

Top-ranked UConn will be severely tested because of the recent loss of junior guard Jerome Dyson, who is scheduled to have right knee surgery today to repair a torn ligament suffered against Syracuse. However, the front line of junior Hasheem Thabeet and senior Jeff Adrien gives the Huskies one of the most dominant center-and-power forward combos in the land.

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John Carroll

Scouts, Basketball Recruiting
John Carroll joined Scouts Inc. after nine years as an NBA coach, including a seven-year tenure with the Boston Celtics that concluded with a four-month stint as interim head coach in 2003-04. Before joining the NBA, Carroll spent six years as head coach at Duquesne University and seven years at Seton Hall as an assistant to head coach P.J. Carlesimo.

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