Pages

Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Lineup Change. Maybe. Again.


In what seems to be becoming a weekly occurrence, Jim Calhoun is considering a lineup change for tomorrow night's NIT Season Tip-Off game with LSU. As usual, it's Gavin Edwards who may lose his spot in the lineup.

Calhoun is considering starting 7-foot junior Charles Okwandu in place of the 6-10 Edwards, who has grabbed just 12 rebounds in his first three games this season. LSU throws out a big, physical team with 6-11 Garrett Green, 6-7, 238-pound Tasmin Mitchell and 6-7, 230-pound Storm Warren ("he looks like one heckuva tight end," said Calhoun) up front, so Calhoun might want to start the game with a bigger frontcourt.

"More importantly," he added, "it may give us a quality guy off the bench, as opposed to getting Stanley (Robinson) right off the bat into the four-spot, particularly against a physical team like this."

Calhoun said he'd sleep on it, but he has been running Okwandu and 6-9 freshman center Alex Oriakhi together in practice lately.

Rebounding, obviously, is a huge concern for the Huskies right now. While they've actually been outrebounded so far this season overall (by Hofstra and Colgate, no less!), the Tigers are averaging 44.3 boards per game, nearly 14 more than their three opponents thus far.

"We're going and getting it," said LSU head coach Trent Johnson. "We're rebounding pretty well."

***How about this: The Big East improved to 4-1 against top-25 teams Monday night with Cincinnati’s 67-58 win against No. 24 Vanderbilt.

Big East teams are a combined 52-4 in 2009-10 (.929).

***Tomorrow night will be Calhoun's 73rd game coaching UConn at Madison Square Garden. The Huskies are 43-29. Overall, they're 49-45 at the world's most famous arena.

***That's all we've got for now. Check out tomorrow's Register for a preview of the LSU-UConn game. The Huskies – as well as LSU, Duke and Arizona State – will head to a banquet tonight, play tomorrow, then watch the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade from their hotel windows on Thursday. There will be a team brunch and dinner on Thanksgiving, and the games resume on Friday at 2:30 p.m. and 5 p.m.

2 comments: