You know all about the great history of UConn-Georgetown. Funny how Kevin Ollie and John Thompson III have different takes on how much they like the idea of playing the game on Saturday. Some of the main characters talked about it over the past couple of days:

JOHN THOMPSON III, Pt. I



JT III, Pt. II



D'VAUNTES SMITH-RIVERA



KEVIN OLLIE



OMAR CALHOUN, STERLING GIBBS

Well, it sure is a good thing they’re breaking up the Big East, eh? Wouldn’t want any more instant classics like Wednesday night's double-overtime UConn-Georgetown battle, would we?

“I thought I had seen it all,” Kevin Ollie said when it was over. “But I guess I haven’t.”

A truly amazing game (even if the first half was as ugly as many figured the whole game would be). A 3-point shooting exhibition by both teams in the second half. UConn rallies from 12 points down with 4 ½ minutes left in regulation and five down with as little as 11 seconds left to send the game to OT. Georgetown rallies from seven down with less than 2 minutes left in the second OT and four down inside the final minute.

Otto Porter being Otto Porter. DeAndre Daniels being better than Otto Porter, at least on this night (25 points, 10 boards, three blocks, strong ‘D’ on Porter most of the night).

Great stuff. Shame this rivalry could be over, in the unlikely event that the Catholic 7 somehow breaks off by next season.

Here are a few quotes (we’ll have some video up around 12:30 a.m.):

RYAN BOATRIGHT:

“It was a very, very, very emotional game, man. These losses are the toughest, because you fight so hard to win the game and you fall short. These are the toughest pills to swallow, but it’s basketball, you’ve got to move on.”

(on his final shot in double OT)

“I just tried to get it up the court as fast as I (could). When I made my initial move, he kind of knocked me off line and I lost the ball. I had to move myself and try to get to an open spot. I thought I had an open shot, but I ran into Smith-Rivera. Once I hit him, I knew I only had two seconds so I went right up with it.”

“It actually felt good coming out of my hands, but it fell short.”

OMAR CALHOUN

“I’m confident when I get the ball. That’s one thing I’ve always had.”

DANIELS:

(on why he seemed to play with extra passion on Wednesday)

“Just hearing a lot of people saying I can’t play with Porter, and all this other stuff. But this is a team game, I just came out, my teammates were finding me and I was able to knock down shots tonight.”

JOHN THOMPSON III:

(on the Hoyas winning at Gampel for the first time in four tries)

“Storrs, Hartford, Fairfield, wherever. That was a great game.”

(on UConn)

“The guys in the other locker room, they could have cashed it in … they fought and fought and fought.”

PORTER:

(on Daniels)

“He’s a terrific player. He was just setting ball screens, popping, and we were having miscommunication with that. He’s a tough kid. He was knocking down shots when they needed it. He was playing good defense, trying to make it hard for me, clogging up the paint.”

(on game-winning shot)

“First, we were just trying to get the stop. That’s what I was worried about. Once we got it, I just sprinted the lane. D’Vauntes (Smith-Rivera) was able to hit me and I saw Mikael (Hopkins) sprint to the rim. So I was able to use him to get to the rim.”

KEVIN OLLIE:

(on Boatright’s last shot)

“We weren’t loking for that shot, but Otto Porter got to the rim with (9.5) seconds on the clock. Ryan got the ball. You try to push it and get to the rim, see if we can get an offensive rebound, see if we can get a kick-out. They played good defense, they bottled him up in the corner and he just had to make the play.”

(on his team)

“I’m very proud of my guys. They fought … down 12, they just kept battling, kept fighting, showed character, showed perseverance and showed heart. And that’s what our team is all about. You can say we’re small, we don’t rebound. You can write whatever you want to. But I hope you all write that we’ve got heart … I will go to battle with them any day. All of them, even the walk-ons.”

Big game -- the last truly big game of the season for UConn -- on Wednesday night at Gampel, when No. 7 Georgetown ambles into town.

The Big East player of the year race may be over (G'town's Otto Porter has all but sewn that up), but coach of the year is still somewhat open, and two of the three favorites (Kevin Ollie and John Thompson III) will be on opposing sidelines. Incidentally, he Republican-American's Ed Daigneault polled 13 out-of-town college hoops writers on Big East player of the year and coach of the year. Porter was unanimous for player and, surprisingly, JTIII got all but two votes for coach of the year. Ollie and Buzz Williams split the other two. It's possible the league's coaches (who actually vote on the award) could see things differently.

About 300 tickets were still available for the game as of Tuesday afternoon.

Here's some of what Ollie and Shabazz Napier had to say before Tuesday's practice at Gampel.

OLLIE:

(On Georgetown)

“I don’t think we’ve seen a team – probably since some of Coach (Calhoun’s) teams that went 16-2, 17-1 in league – both offense, defense, field goal perentage. They’re doing it on both ends of the table. They’re a great team – long, athletic. Can’t let them get out in transition, can’t give up easy buckets, and we’re going to have to guard them for the whole 35 seconds.”

(on Otto Porter)

“He’s just a great player. He’s a typical wing player, can put it on the floor, can shoot at a high rate … long, gets offensive rebounds, can go down on the block. Anything else I missed?”

(Ollie said it’ll be a group effort trying to stop Porter)

“Just like our guards. They don’t put one guy on Shabazz or one guy on Ryan (Boatright) … Otto’s gonna be a concentrated effort by all five of our guys in the paint, loading up, making sure he’s not on his sweet spots, distorting his catches, and making sure he sees a lot of UConn players and not getting a lot of easy buckets in transition.”

(on Omar Calhoun)

“He’s passing the ball a little more because of the wrist. It’s a good thing. He had to alter his game by default.”

NAPIER:

"I love Gampel. If I had a chance to pick our home games, they would all be at Gampel. The crowd is so right there on you, it can be devastating for the other team. It helps when we go through spurts where we don’t score, and when we go through spurts when we do score. I just really appreciate Gampel.”

(on what happens if DeAndre Daniels guards Porter)

“DeAndre always comes up big in games where we need him to come up big.”

(on the possibility of winning their 20th game of the season on Wednesday)

“It would be a lot. We’ve been through so much, and not one day have we allowed excuses to overcome this team. We’ve continued to fight and be resilient.”

(on how big a game Georgetown is)

“This is, I guess you could say, a championship game, in a sense.”

*** A heavily-bearded Stanley "Sticks" Robinson was at Gampel on Tuesday. He's taken a break from hoops after suffering an Achilles tendon injury, living in Willimantic and working at Prime Materials, the scrap-metal place at which he worked while sitting out the first semester in 2008-09.
Always good to see Sticks.

*** The UConn athletics department and office of environmental policy will host a Green Game Day on Wednesday night. As part of the event, fans are encouraged to bring any lightly-used sneakers to donate for reuse – especially children’s shoes. These shoes will go to Kicks for Africa, a UConn student-run organization whose mission is to donate lightly-used shoes to less fortunate children in Africa. The shoes will be collected at all entrances as fans enter the game.

Greetings from Washington, D.C., home of Kevin Durant, Elgin Baylor, Byron Leftwich, Maury Wills, Redskins, Capitals, Wizards, Gilbert Arenas's arsennal, Dave Grohl, bad baseball and Bad Brains. Oh, and a whole lot of historical stuff.

Jim Calhoun was off on a recruiting trip and wasn't at tonight's media availability at the team hotel. George Blaney did the honors and talked about what he's seen from the Hoyas this year.

"It looks to me like (coach John Thompson, III) is just not playing as many people. They're really playing 6 ½ guys. They're a little more veteran. (Greg) Monroe is a little better, if you can get better. He certainly had his coming-out party against us last year. He's playing very much like a leader, versus just a good, talented player."

Indeed, as a freshman in his Big East debut last season, Monroe ran circles around UConn's Hasheem Thabeet, outscoring him 16-4. A 6-11 center who can step back and hit the 3, drive to the hole and distribute the ball deftly, Monroe is a tough matchup.

"It's tough because he's really long and really athletic," said Gavin Edwards, "and it's kind of tough to play against a kid who's left-handed because it kind of goes against everything you know as a player. It's a little unique, I guess, but he's definitely a good player."

Under the tutelage of Princeton grad and Pete Carril disciple John Thompson III, the Hoyas employ a slow-down, Princeton-style offense that primarily runs through Monroe. Guarding that type of offense requires a lot of work and patience – on both ends of the floor.

While the Huskies (11-3, 2-1) will have to fight through screens and backdoor cuts on defense, they'll also have to be more patient on offense. Possessions, after all, will be at a premium, and UConn must try to make each one count.

"If we have no good shot, we've got to kick it back out and run a good offense," said Blaney. "Kemba (Walker) and Jerome (Dyson) have to take care of the opportunities they get on the break. It's hard to get (the score) in the 70's, let alone in the 80's."

***The Hoyas are one of the few teams that have had UConn's number in recent years and have won the last three meetings. Two years ago, a 3-pointer in the waning seconds by 7-foot center Roy Hibbert (now A.J. Price's Indiana Pacer teammate) gave the Hoyas the win at Verizon Center.

***Hometown boy (Potomac, Md.) Jerome Dyson arrived in D.C. on an earlier flight to spend some extra time with his family and wasn't at UConn's media availability on Friday at the team's hotel.

The UConn athletic department would like to get the word out that seven of the 13 former UConn players currently in the NBA are on this year's NBA All-Star ballot: Rudy Gay (Memphis), Ray Allen (Boston), Emeka Okafor (New Orleans), Charlie Villanueva (Detroit), Richard Hamilton (Detroit), Caron Butler (Washington) and Ben Gordon (Detroit).

Fans can vote for all-stars at NBA.com until Jan. 18. The rosters will be announced on Jan. 22.

***Speaking of the NBA, we're hoping we don't run across Gilbert Arenas's personal arsenal on Saturday at the Verizon Center, when UConn faces Georgetown in what should be a good one. Guns among NBA players (and basketball players in general) is a topic on people's minds these days, including some clown on today's Big East coaches conference call.

A guy identifying himself as an Associated Press writer (who was apparently from a radio show out in Portland) asked Jim Calhoun if his players "still have guns in the locker room." Calhoun appeared flustered, perhaps not understanding what the guy said or whether he was serious or not, and eventually the caller was cut off.

***Not a terribly lot of information on the call. Calhoun was asked about Georgetown.

"It's a little different kind of Georgetown team. You're not going to see a lot of bodies, they're basically playing seven people. Greg Monroe is incredibly skilled. He's unselfish, he can score, rebound, block shots. I know they lost a tough one to Marquette (on Wednesday), but we're going to say that, I think, all throught he league season."

***Georgetown coach John Thompson III also spoke:

(on UConn)

"They still are big and imposing on the boards. At the end of day, between Jerome and Kemba, they kind of make the team go It's easy to say, 'let's stop UConn's transition,' that's something they stress. 'Let's keep them off the boards, try to limit their easy baskets.'"

(on the Hoyas' success vs. UConn in recent years)

"I think we’ve been lucky. I don’t know that there’s any one particular thing. We've probably caught them at some times when they’ve been off. You know it’s going to be an extremely intense, physical game. If you can make them work at both ends of the floor, that’s what we try to do."

(on Georgetown's season thus far)

"We’ve gotten a lot better since the season began, but I think we still have a long way to go. I think our guys have done a great job supporting each other at both ends of the floor. That has to be a premium for us. The thing I like, that’s a positive, is that we’ve seen growth."

(on Monroe's development)

"His biggest growth is something the casual fan doesn’t get an opportunity to see. Last year he's gone from a freshman that came in under a lot of scrutiny and performed well, and now he's a leader on this team. He's a leader, he's vocal in the locker room, at the dorm, on campus, in practice every day. He’s standing out with our team."