Conn-quering Huskies is next task for league champs
By KATHLEEN O'BRIEN
Associate Sports Editor
Tonight's road matchup with Connecticut has lost some of the luster it had a year ago, when the Huskies reigned as the defending national champions, especially since the Irish have already escaped with first place in the Big East West Division.
The Notre Dame-UConn faceoff remains a marquis game, though, as ESPN has it marked off for a primetime slot on Big Monday. Unlike last year, when the lower-ranked Irish stunned the Huskies by knocking them off twice in one season, this time it's the unranked Huskies who are trying to play their way into the NCAA Tournament while the No. 13 Irish [19-6, 11-3 Big East] are seeking to snag a higher seed.
"We certainly know we'll be playing a UConn team that's playing for their lives up there on Monday," Irish coach Mike Brey said.
The Huskies, at 18-9 and 7-7 in the Big East, are on the bubble of the NCAA Tournament, a familiar position for this Irish team that wound up on the outside of the bubble a year ago. A 60-53 win over Miami (Fla.) on Saturday helped UConn's chances, but beating Notre Dame and at Seton Hall next Saturday would improve the Huskies' postseason outlook.
"They're a team that, they're always going to be good, no matter what their record is, especially going into their place," Irish small forward David Graves said of Connecticut.
Graves was on the money when he said going to the Hartford Civic Center to play made Notre Dame's task tougher. The Huskies are an impressive 14-1 on their homecourt, the lone loss coming to Villanova.
The atmosphere in Hartford should be much like the one the Irish faced at Kentucky's Rupp Arena. The UConn fans, used to supporting highly successful teams, know their basketball, and get into theit team's games.
The Irish have played well on the road, though, since losing three straight away from home in January. They've won their past five road games, the best by any Notre Dame team since 1953-54.
"I think we've been better on the road than at home," Brey said.
The Huskies' Albert Mouring, a senior, leads UConn in scoring with 16 points per game. But the supporting cast for Connecticut consists of freshman forward Caron Butler, freshman guard Taliek Brown and junior college transfer Johnnie Selvie.
"They're very young and they're very talented," Graves said. "They're a lot like Seton Hall."
If UConn is like Seton Hall, the Irish have reason to worry, since the Pirates are the only team to hand them a pair of losses this season.
For guarding matchups, Husky center Souleymane Wane will have his hands full in guarding Irish All-American Troy Murphy. Forwards Edmund Saunders and Butler will have to take on the rotating trio of Graves, Ryan Humphrey and Harold Swanagan. Mouring will match up with Matt Carroll, while Brown will go up against Notre Dame point guard Martin Ingelsby.
Swanagan will play despite a bruised right foot as the Irish work on getting their 20th regular season win.
Notes
*ESPN's "The Life", will reair its episode profiling Murphy tonight at 6:30 p.m. on ESPN2.
All Sports Stories for Monday, February 26, 2001
