The Huskies look to bounce back from the loss to Villanova with a road game against a feisty Georgetown squad.
Following a tough road loss to Villanova, the UConn men’s basketball team hits the road once again to take on a Georgetown team that is no longer a total laughingstock. Ed Cooley’s Hoyas have shown promise so far this season and are led by one of the top freshmen in the country in big man Thomas Sorber. Georgetown welcomes UConn to what should be a relatively packed Capital One Arena with a 12-3 record and as winners of five of its last six games. The Hoyas recently fell to No. 7 Marquette in Milwaukee, but did give the Golden Eagles a legit scare after taking a nine-point lead into halftime.
UConn will be without its own star freshman Liam McNeeley once again on Saturday, but head coach Dan Hurley told the media Friday that McNeeley is out of a walking boot and that all scans came back clean. Despite the good news, his absence will once again lead to opportunities for a talented sophomore class of Solo Ball, Jaylin Stewart and Jayden Ross to step up.
“This is a really good time to play us with Liam out. We need to find a way to win enough of these games so that when he returns to the team we develop more people and add a great player back to the mix,” Hurley said.
TV: FOX
Radio: UConn Sports Network
Odds: UConn -2.5, over/under 147.5
Location: Capital One Arena — Washington D.C.
KenPom Predicted Score: UConn 75, Georgetown 72 (60 percent win probability)
Series History
UConn and Georgetown have met 74 times in a series that dates back to 1958, with the Huskies holding a 38-36 record overall. The Huskies have won eight-straight games against Hoyas since joining the new Big East, the third-longest win streak in the series.
What to Watch For
Containing a dynamic Hoyas backcourt
Georgetown boasts a dynamic trio of courts in Malik Mack, Micah Peavy and Jayden Epps that figure to be trouble for a UConn defense still struggling to clamp down for long stretches. Mack and Epps offer speed and shooting, with both shooting over 39 percent on 3-pointers, while Peavy has tremendous size at 6-foot-8 that could present a real challenge for a shorter and smaller UConn backcourt.
Epps was one of the top scorers in the conference last season at 18.5 points per game, but injured his ankle in a win over Seton Hall and has played just four minutes in the last three games, missing the Hoyas’ loss to Marquette. If he returns, he forms a dangerously quick backcourt with Mack eerily similar to the Dayton backcourt of Posh Alexander and Malachi Smith that torched the Huskies repeatedly in the final game in the Maui Invitational.
UConn guards Hassan Diarra and Solo Ball will have their hands full trying to keep Mack and Epps in front of them all game to prevent easy buckets. The same goes on the other end, as Peavy is a lengthy and versatile defender that should make things tough for the likes of Alex Karaban and Jaylin Stewart.
Thomas Sorber’s special freshman season
Aside from Duke’s Cooper Flagg, no other freshman in the country has been better than Hoyas big man Thomas Sorber. The Trenton, New Jersey native leads Georgetown with 15.1 points, 8.4 boards and 2.3 blocks per game and has quickly established himself as a key in Cooley’s rapid rebuild of the Hoyas and has the inside track to winning Big East Freshman of the Year.
At 6-foot-10 and 255 pounds, Sorber has size and strength on UConn’s frontcourt of Samson Johnson and Tarris Reed Jr., and the freshman has already shown improvement against high quality competition with an 11-point, 13-rebound, five-block performance in the loss to No. 7 Marquette.
Foul trouble has been less of an issue for Johnson and Reed as of late, but the big man platoon will have to stay disciplined and try to keep Sorber bottled up. After a disheartening rebounding performance in the win over Providence, UConn outrebounded Villanova in Wednesday’s loss and will need a team effort to own the boards again to keep Sorber in check and return to Storrs with a road victory.
“We want our guards to rebound more. Samson needs to be better in that area,” Hurley said. “We’ve got a lot of nice guys on our team. I don’t think we are as nasty as we were in the past…We need our nice guys when the game starts to be nastier people.”
Sophomore class needs to step up
UConn’s sophomore class of Ball, Stewart and Jayden Ross have all earned at least one start this season and stepped up in key moments so far this season, but will need to continue to carry the team with McNeeley out. Stewart was exceptional in the Villanova game with 14 points, three rebounds and two blocks in his third start of the season. Stewart did get beat by Eric Dixon on defense on occasion, but overall did a solid job containing the nation’s leading scorer and keeping the Huskies in contention.
Ball has emerged as a star offensively, ranking 18th in 3-point percentage nationally and establishing himself as one of the top shooters in the country. He scored 16 points and connected on four of 10 3-point attempts in the loss to Nova, and is now shooting 44.4 percent from three on the season. On top of the accuracy from deep, Ball has started to show more layers to his offensive game with the ability to score off the dribble and a knack for midrange jumpers.
“The numbers are impressive. The scoring jump is impressive. The 3-point numbers are top-20, top-25 nationally,” “Solo is a beautiful shooter. I love him getting into the midrange and scoring on the road, getting to the rim,” Hurley said. “We have to get him back on the glass. We need to get that two-way play for him, he has all of the tools to do it. He made that sophomore jump that we were looking for.”
His defense is still a work in progress, but the sophomore has the size and skill to be a solid defender sooner rather than later. His classmate Ross has shown promise as a stopper this season and will be called upon Saturday to guard the likes of Peavy, Mack and potentially Epps for stretches. All three will need to turn quality performances if the Huskies want to avoid back-to-back road losses.