The Daily Gus: February 17th

Another fantastic top-ten matchup occurred on Big Monday last night, putting up #1 UCONN at home against #4 Pittsburgh. Going into the game, I figured UCONN would be a manageable favorites at home, but would run away with the game. The Huskies are more athletic at every spot than Pittsburgh, or at least everyone thought so. That was before DeJuan Blair stepped up for Pitt after Sam Young got in foul trouble. Blair might have put in the performance of the season so far at its biggest stage, he went for 22 and 23. The most amazing thing about the Pitt sophomore forward was that he surrendered six inches to Hashim Thabeet of Uconn, and literally took it to him. He looked him in the eye and took Thabeet and the rest of the Huskies' manhood. Now take a gander at Pittsburgh, who I considered just a normal run of the mill Pitt team who would falter early in the NCAAs. But now, they have a scorer in Sam Young for the first time in years, they have a point guard who just needs to distribute in Levance Fields. Reflect back at past Pitt squads who were in the top ten. They had an interior forces all the time, but on the perimeter their distributor was also their scorer, Carl Krauser and Brandin Knight and Ronald Ramon to name a few. I am not a fan of the brutal Big Ten style that Pitt normally plays, but do not stereotype this Panther team. After watching Monday, I am a believer, I think they will win the Big East and end up being a top seed in the NCAAs. As for UCONN I think losing Jerome Dyson will be a bigger deal than most believe. Now UCONN has no real perimeter threat who they have had in their national title runs in the past. They got Adrien and Thabeet inside, yes, probably the best interior in the country. But match that with a team with some depth and size in the frontcourt and that may be negated. Not to mention, a 2-3 zone literally shuts down Connecticut now without a knock down shooter. The positive thing Conn can take from this showdown was Thabeet only played 20 some minutes, he was in foul trouble all game and could not perform at his best with a tweaked shoulder. But, I think things got flipped in the Big East Monday night. And maybe the national title picture.

Shoot-Around
- VMI is not going to win the Big South. Yes they still lead the league and have pretty much gone wire to wire, but they went down to Presbyterian last night and struggled from the field, shooting 19% in the first half, notching 15 first half points. The biggest problem with VMI is their style, if they are not shooting well or scoring they ain't gonna win. There is no "D" in VMI and it has proven evident in their losses. They managed to scratch and claw their way back to a six-point game before going cold again. VMI could get homecourt throughout the tournament which would be vital to the campaign, but at some point they are going to have to rely on a defensive stop to win a crucial game and they will not get it. Liberty and Radford will.

- For the first time in years there is trouble in Austin, Texas. The Longhorns dropped their fourth in sixth contests to state rival Texas A&M, who had lost three in a row in their own right. Texas got down by as many as 19, and the loss of D.J. Augustin is really prevalent, A.J. Abrams cannot do it by himself and Connor Atchley is far from the remedy. Texas now lies sixth in the Big 12 at 6-5 and could be in serious danger of falling on the bubbling bubble. Three of their last five are against teams above them, including a finale at Kansas.

- Action pretty light on Monday night.