The NCAA Tournament may be a week away, but it's fairly obvious who is the favorite this March (Duke-haters rejoice - it's not the Blue Devils).
Barring a heist led by Marcus Williams, or a team decision to play with the enthusiasm of an NBA All-Star game (which it has done at times this season), UConn is this year's team to beat.
The Huskies are without question the most talented and deepest squad in the country. Their eight-man rotation includes four NBA-draft quality players in Williams, Rudy Gay, Josh Boone, and Hilton Armstrong. The Huskies are strong at all five starting positions and can beat their opponents on both ends of the floor.
Six of their players average over nine points a game, displaying their offensive balance. They have a reliable bench that is frequently utilized as a supplement to their dominant starters. Defensively, they lead the nation in blocked shots, almost daring opponents to attempt a drive.
Williams is the best pure point guard in college hoops. Gay, despite his occasionally apathetic play, is a surefire top-5 draft pick. Together, Boone and Armstrong average 13 rebounds and nearly six blocks a game, while hitting almost 60 percent of their field goals.
Rashad Anderson is second on the team in scoring coming off the bench. He is a sniper from long range and also happens to be more clutch than MacGyver (although slightly less so than David Ortiz). Denham Brown is always capable of 15 or more points on any given night, and freshmen Jeff Adrien and Craig Austrie will continue to be key role-players in the postseason. Connecticut's coach, Jim Calhoun, is already a Hall of Famer and has won two national championships with the Huskies.
Despite its myriad strengths, all is not perfect for UConn. The Huskies are the best team in the land when they decide to play, but they sometimes seem disinterested and lack that killer instinct found on most championship-caliber teams. This attitude is dangerous in any single-elimination situation, and could come back to haunt the team in March when passion runs high.
UConn will need Rudy Gay to play assertively and use every bit of his talent. The team's free-throw shooting is not especially great and could be a problem in a close game as well. Austrie, while a suitable backup, is not nearly the player Williams is, and Connecticut will struggle if Marcus gets in foul trouble.
This weakness was exposed in the Huskies' 69-64 loss to Villanova. The Wildcats used Williams' absence to erase a double-digit deficit and hand the Huskies their second loss of the season.
Duke, Villanova, Memphis, Texas, Gonzaga and the other 59 teams looking to knock off the Huskies aren't going to go home without a fight.
After all, this is March Madness, and although a 16-seed has never beaten a one-seed, there's always the possibility that the upset could occur, followed by the shell-shocked winning coach being tossed around like a rag doll by his players (think Steve Merfeld, coach of the 15-seeded Hampton, being lifted sky high after his team upset two-seed Iowa State in the first round of the 2001 tournament). And that's the beauty of tournament play: you just never know.
