Now that the West Virginia Mountaineers got the road win they needed north of Chi-Town on Wednesday, it’s time to head to New England and accomplish something the Eers have never done in school history. WIN AT UCONN! They have lost in Huskie territory all six times including one back in February 2000 when, as the buzzer sounded, Khalid El-Amin scored on a desperation runner to win by one. Aside from that the Eers lost to UCONN on the road, in the other five games, by an average of 20 points.

Today, at high noon, the Mounties will face-off against the 15th ranked UCONN Huskies at the XL Center in Hartford. This is only the second time they faced each other there. In their only previous meeting they lost to UCONN by 17 back in January 1997. With an NCAA tournament bid on the line this is another playoff game the Eers. While this is not really a must still a win today would not only give the Eers the marquee win they’ve been desperately waiting for but also solidify an NCAA berth as this win would give the Eers an RPI in the mid to high 20s.

The Huskies have overcome the growing pains of last season to bounce back to the Big East powerhouse that they are. They recently were on a 10-game winning streak before losing to Villanova last Saturday. During that stretch coach Jim Calhoun suspended Jerome Dyson from the team. He was recently reinstated which gives more ammo to the arsenal of Jeff Adrien, A.J. Price, and Hasheem Thabeet.

Adrien, a 6-7 power forward, has been a beast in the frontcourt as he averages a team-leading 15 points and 9.3 rebounds a game. Needless to say the Eers will have a hard time containing him as will Price the point guard. He stepped his play with a team leading 16 points in Big East play along with averaging 6.2 assists overall which leads the Big East. What may determine the outcome, good or bad, is the play of Thabeet. The 7-3 Tanzanian giant may give WVU fits all day. He averages 10.5 points with 8 rebounds and a Big East leading 4.4 blocks per game. In the last meeting Thabeet did not make a field goal, was a 4 for 10 at the foul line, and was plagued by foul trouble throughout the game as he played only 22 minutes. That resulted in a 79-71 Mountaineer win at the Coliseum.

For WVU to pull off the upset they must do the following correctly:

1. Get Thabeet is in foul trouble early and often. To do that you have to have Joe Alexander and Da’Sean Butler set up the high-post and go at him.
2. Have the UCONN frontcourt go to the foul line often since they struggle to make about 65 percent of their foul shots. They were 13-27 in their last meeting against us.
3. Not be intimated by the Hartford atmosphere. Quiet the 15,000+ crowd. Don’t let them cheer their heads off.
4. Make it rain early. The UCONN opponents average almost 8 treys per game. Ruoff and Nichols must get a least four each.
5. Adrien and Price are uncontainable but don’t let the others have their glory like Thabeet or even Doug Wiggins who dropped 20 against us last season.

Here’s hoping the seventh venture to UCONN is the lucky charm. Hoping, with that early start, they’ll be wide-awake and alert because we need that same intensity that was shown at DePaul. Good luck and GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO MOUNTAINEERS!