UCONN vs Stanford preview

This is UCONN’s first game since the final exam break so it should be interesting to see how they come out in a weird 9 o’clock game against Stanford in Hartford.  Don’t understand at all why the game starts at 9 and home court advantage certainly won’t be in effect.  With the game being in Hartford, I do not expect a big crowd at all since the XL Center rarely has big crowds especially for a Wednesday in December.  Enough about the crowd though, let me actually talk about the game.

UCONN is 9-0 and is playing their first of back-to-back games against PAC-12 opponents (super weird).  Stanford comes into Hartford with a 7-2 record with losses to BYU and a blowout against Pitt.  Their best win is probably against a 7-5 Houston team so if UCONN loses, well then that’s just awful.  While I expected to see some god-awful stats for the Cardinal team, I realized that they rank 35^th in the nation in PPG and 13^th in field goal percentage. 13^th!!!  This explains why they have 4 players who average double figures.  Their leading scorer is guard Chasson Randle who averages just over 18 a game and poured in 33 against BYU earlier this season.  The player to watch for Stanford is 6-10 forward Dwight Powell who averages over 15 points and 7 rebounds a game, while leading the team in assists per game at 4.1.  Coach Johnny Dawkins thinks of guys like Paul George and Lamar Odom when drawing comparisons (Lamar Odom- LOL).

While Stanford fans may think it is cool that they have a 6-10 guy lead their team in assists, 6-1 UCONN guard Shabazz Napier leads the team in points, rebounds, and assists.  Napier can flat out play, but likes to defer to his teammates until they absolutely need him.  Husky fans, including myself, want to see Shabazz score as much as possible, especially tonight.  The last thing UCONN needs to do is come out flat after their 2 week layoff against a Stanford team that is going to be geared up to play a top 10 team.  If Shabazz defers to Deandre Daniels, who is 2^nd on the team in scoring, then I’m slightly ok with that because I want to see Deandre be aggressive and score the basketball.  I do not want to see Boatright jacking up shots and trying to get his because he is shooting 39% from the field.  The only player who plays significant minutes who is shooting worse than that is Omar Calhoun who has been struggling shooting 38%.  I want to see Omar keep shooting, though.  He just wants it so bad.

As far as a prediction, I like UCONN tonight by double digits, but expect a semi-competitive first half.

PS- I wish I could see what Olander and Boatright’s grades are