Tim Abromaitis is averaging 17.4 ppg
UConn at Notre Dame : Wednesday March 3rd 7PM ET, TV 
The clock isn’t exactly about to strike 12 for the Huskies, but let’s call it 10:30. It’s go time for UConn, who travels to South Bend Wednesday night to take on bubble buddy Notre Dame, who’s as desperate for a W as the Huskies are. The Huskies beat Notre Dame in Hartford way back on January 2nd, when the Huskies were ranked 10th nationally, which will tell you just how long ago it was. Stanley Robinson scored 22 and Jerome Dyson scored 20, as the Huskies pulled away late and won 82-70.
Notre Dame comes into this one at 19-10 overall and 8-8 in the Big East Conference. They looked dead to rights a little over two weeks ago, when they lost their leading scorer and rebounder, Luke Harangody, who sustained a bone bruise to his right knee.
The Irish lost the next two games in heartbreaking fashion, a 69-68 home loss to St. John’s, and a 91-89 overtime loss at Louisville. At 6-8 in the conference, with the specter of Pittsburgh and Georgetown looming on the horizon, the outlook wasn’t so good for Notre Dame. To their credit, they came out of the corner swinging, and downed Pittsburgh 68-53, then went on the road and beat Georgetown, 78-64. Impressive back to back wins over ranked opponents…
Players are stepping up in Harangody’s absence, especially Tim Abromaitis and Ben Hansbrough. Abromaitis, the son of UConn 1000 point club member Jim Abromaitis, has been lighting it up of late, averaging 22.3 points over the past four games. He’s shooting .522 from the field this season, which is 12th best in the conference, and his .473 three point field goal percentage is good for third. His 79 made threes are second only to Seton Hall’s Jeremy Hazell (94).
Hansbrough is averaging 17.5 points over the past four games, which is five points better than his season average. He scored 21 points in the loss to Louisville, and 21 points in the win over Georgetown. He, like Abromaitis, has been money from beyond the arc, where he’s shooting a ridiculous .450 (58-129). This could be a real problem for the Huskies, who allowed Louisville as much room as they needed to go 10-24 from three in Sunday’s loss.
Conference Rank Comparison
Scoring Offense
ND 79.1 (5th)
CONN 72 (10th)
Scoring Defense
CONN 66.8 (9th)
ND 71.7 (13th)
Free Throw %
ND .732 (3rd)
CONN .695 (8th)
FG %
ND .480 (3rd)
CONN .454 (5th)
FG % Defense
CONN .387 (1st)
ND .441 (14th)
3 Pt FG % / Avg per game
ND .413 (1st) / 8.0 (2nd)
CONN .329 (12th) / 3.8 (16th)
Rebound Margin
CONN +3.9 (6th)
ND +3.9 (6th)
Blocks
CONN 7.9 (1st)
ND 3.2 (14th)
Assists
ND 17.8 (2nd)
CONN 14.1 (10th)
Turnover Margin
ND -0.10 (10th)
CONN – 2.21 (15th)
This one’s not quite do or die, but it’s darn close. The Huskies really feel like they gave one away over the weekend, when they turned it over a sad 22 times, but it’s time to turn the page. Notre Dame is very difficult to defeat in South Bend, where they’re 16-3, and have beaten two ranked opponents in West Virginia and Pittburgh…it’s time to dig deep…who wants it more?
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I caught part of the Notre Dame v. Georgetown game over the weekend. Hansborough was very active on both ends of the court.
Obviously a big one tonight.
Call this the Dyson effect. Last year everybody and their grandmother thought UConn was screwed after Dyson went down. Except me. I thought that Stan would finally receive a “no-hook” clause in his playing contract and, without Dyson ball-hogging, would break out. He did – in spades. With AJ and Austrie on ball, Stan started moving more off the ball, started gaining confidence, and so on. Other guys stepped up as well. What became obvious as UConn plowed through into the FF was that Dyson’s absence wasn’t impacting the team. Ever leave a job? A job you did well and for which you were well regarded? When you leave the job gets done. How well? Depends.
In Dyson’s case, the job was done well. I’d argue as well, and maybe better. The emergence of Robinson ended up being more valuable to the team than anything we lost when Dyson went down.
Harangody is just one more example. Big, slow, skilled white guy with gaudy stats goes down. Seems like the end. But wait – the guys filling his minutes step up and play very well. Again, it’s arguable that Notre Dame is better without Harangody. Shocking? Blasphemy? They played two nice games and lost by a bit, then beat two teams they weren’t supposed to beat.
Fact is, other guys “stepping up” is just another way of saying – these guys getting integrated into the flow of the game, rather than watch the Harangody show, yields a better result than the Harangody show.
Completely unsurprising to me. The problem with Dyson is that everybody looks at his stats and says silly things like “he’s our leading scorer.” Well, only if you go by total. If you go by efficiency, it’s Gavin. Or Stan. Or 2 or 3 other guys. Dyson is the worst scorer of the main 3 or 4 guys if you look at it from a TO and points/possession, but, because he has the high number in the “PTS” column at the end of the game, he gets the title of “important scorer.”
People have defended this guy all year with chants of “well nobody else will step up if he doesn’t.”
Nonsense. If Dyson wasn’t taking 26 shots a game all year, and making 35% of them, somebody else would have developed his game, just like Stan last year.
For example, Hanangody shoots 30% from 3. So now, instead of 10 possessions a game going to big Luke for the ungainly flopping/layins around the basket with a couple blocks a game, it’s getting kicked out to guys who are shooting 40% from 3. So what’s better? 12 points from 3 from other guys and the defense is spread and has to work hard to guard everybody, or 8-9 points from Luke inside, with the defense just watching?
Plenty of really good points in there…good read, thank you.
Guest you got some good points. Since Walker has taken over i think we have played much better as a team. I think that Edwards and Walker have been the two guys that get things rolling on this team. If we took care of the ball in the second half we would be looking to lock things up tonight but such is life. If you told me mid way through the year that Walker would score 26 and only have one turnover against louisville and we lost I would have been no way. We need to do a much better job tonight getting out on the shooters. We were not working hard enough to fight through screens on Sunday and gave them a ton of open looks. I am talking about looks you and I could hit 1-3 in the gym. Need to have much energy tonight share the ball and get good shots because ND will milk the shot clock and look to hit from deep. Take care of the ball and rebound is usually a good equation in the Big East for a victory.
Apparently we are still the same team we were 3 weeks ago. Never know who is going to show up.
I am no hoops expert but how the hell do we go for such long stretches without a field goal?
Can’t Jimmy C adjust? Bob K, was talking about the high-low all game. Get Stanley some touches. Why do we not get him the ball more?
Why were Dyson, Walker and Beverly on the court together so much? If you are going to have three guards on the court, why not try someone like Combs-McD who is supposed to be a shooter.
Wish these guys luck the rest of the way but man….. I am ready to turn the page tonight.
Jerome 2-14, 5 turnovers. Good Lord.
Edwards 4 turnovers.
Stanley 6 points of 4 FG attempts.
Not what you expect from your Seniors in such a big game.