Hasheem Thabeet was the story Thursday night. His 15-15 performance against Purdue was the difference maker. UCONN didn't play its best game last night, failing to put the Boilermakers away until the very end. However, one thing was constant all night, Purdue settling for bad shots because of the big man in the middle. Thabeet had several huge blocks, including one that setup an A.J. Price bucket. Nobody on Purdue could rebound with him either, as the Huskies won the battle on the boards 42-31.
The Missouri Tigers didn't have as much trouble in their Sweet Sixteen bout. The Memphis Tigers showed little fight for most of the game, and Missouri led for most of the game. The Tigers play up-tempo, fast paced ball, and are going to take the fight to UCONN. If they can get a lead early, and force UCONN to get into a shootout, they might be able to pull the upset.
Even though UCONN has the athletes to run with Missouri, they would probably rather keep the pace slow and run a half court offense. Their big advantage over Missouri is the size in the paint. I don't believe Missouri has an answer for Hasheem Thabeet, Jeff Adrien, Stanley Robinson, and even Gavin Edwards when called upon. A.J. Price needs to be a distributor in this game and let the big men takeover.
The pick: I'm going with the Huskies. Too much size down low for Missouri.
http://www.coolreplicas.net/cool-nomos-replicas-49.htmlToo much size down low for Missouri.
Posted by: Joan268 | May 19, 2011 at 11:41 PM