UConn Syracuse

#22 Syracuse vs. #1 UConn

2/11/09

Here we go again! There seems to be no end to compelling match ups in the nation’s best conference. The Big East have just dominated this season and even this late in the year for college basketball the Big East still have six teams in the top 25 rankings, five of which are ranked number 13 or higher. The only squad beyond the 13th ranking is Syracuse at 22 who will face their biggest test this season against arguably the best team in the country and in the Big East in the number one UConn Huskies.

We are in for yet another Top 25 Big East battle between the number one team in the country UConn Huskies and Syracuse who are struggling a little bit as of late, but still haven’t been knocked out of the nation’s top 25 teams just yet.

Although the Orangemen have lost six Games this season they have still played great basketball with some big wins over Kansas and Memphis earlier in the year. At one point the Syracuse Orangemen were one of the top ten teams in the country, but after losing to Georgetown in mid January the Orangemen have failed to get back to their winning ways as they hit the toughest part of their Schedule.

With losses to Big East opponents Georgetown, Pittsburgh, Louisville and Providence the boys in Orange seemed to have lost their composure. They were able to rebound after the Four big losses to Conference opponents by taking down West Virginia, but that didn’t last long as Villanova had their way with Syracuse a few days ago beating the Orangemen convincingly by 17 points.

The UConn Huskies on the other hand have been superb as of late winning 11 straight Games and finally being crowned with the number one ranking in the country. Not only are the Huskies leading the way in the country, but they have also taken the lead in the Big East Conference after Marquette went down to South Florida. They did have a little scare recently as unranked Michigan pretty much took Jim Calhoun’s number one squad to limit.

Even though the Wolverines looked like they could have pulled off the biggest upset of the season, the Huskies came back in the second half and put Michigan back in their place with an eight point win.

It would be hard to argue that the Huskies aren’t the best team in college basketball right now with the way they are playing. They have the talent and play some of the best basketball on both sides on the floor every single night. They have won some big Games this season, but their biggest tests are down the road as they finish out the season by playing Marquette and Pittsburgh twice.

Although UConn almost fell to lowly Michigan, I really don’t see them losing to Syracuse. UConn opened up -12 in this one and we have them winning by 15 or more, so we’ll lay the big number with the Huskies here. UConn -12

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