Thriller in Providence tonight as St. John's won 72-70 on an offensive rebound putback at the buzzer by Ejiofor, who had a severe mismatch with a smaller guard trying ineffectively to block him out. Ejiofor easily high-pointed the rebound over him.

Providence led by 15-18 points for stretches of this game, but they are prone to offensive droughts, partly because of no Bryce Hopkins (out with left knee tendinitis and has missed 9 games), and partly because PC's big men suck. PC was playing a 7'2" guy named Anton Bonke, who doesn't look like a total dork and runs the floor well but looks like he is a complete stranger to the college game. He is from the country of Vanuatu which I honestly have never heard of. During the game he showed his inexperience and only scored 4 points and 1 board which, combined with the 7'1" Christ Essandoko (who UConn briefly kicked tires on) gave PC 4 points and 2 boards at the 5 position. PC's best player was Miami transfer Bensley Joseph, who looked like a poor man's Kemba Walker but did not have a ton of help.

St. John's looked good on D but kept PC in the game by shooting 11-26 on FTs and 3-18 on 3s. This is not a good shooting team at all.

Who says you can't get a good bowl game with no tie in's as a FBS independent. P-4 opponent in Boston, I'll take it,
and about that UNC coaching thing with Mack Brown out- Bill Belichick to North Carolina Talks ....

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I'd guess he's a PWO.. Marco Cate a 6-4 295lb OL Carmel, IN
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One player who signed on NSD but isn't (yet) in the Uconn Rivals commits.....@ Ydore Lewenski (6-3/225 From Miami, FL ) listed as a LB by Uconn.....P.S. Uconn has not listed (Elijah Whitaker) as a signed commit in their NSD press release.

Here is the full list of DEC prep signings:

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When a Big East team makes 13-24 3s on your court, you generally should not expect to win, but UConn managed to withstand the perimeter onslaught and hold on for the W. We have seen a few too many perimeter onslaughts this year already, but I thought Xavier made some contested shots and some tough fadeaways The best thing you can say about this game is that down the stretch in regulation and in OT, UConn played well when it needed to, despite some guys playing heavy minutes. All they need is Al's reminder:
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"If all you’ve seen of Connecticut’s football season is coach Jim Mora’s rant following the Wake Forest game, you might assume Mora isn’t having any fun......But while that moment drew the most attention, it doesn’t accurately reflect how 2024 is going for Mora and the Huskies. “This has been one of the most enjoyable years of my career,” If UConn can upset Syracuse and then beat Massachusetts next week, it would win nine games for only the third time in its FBS history."

"Mora feels quite at home in unlimited transfer/NIL era because it resembles the environment he grew up in as a coach. “My background is the National Football League, which really is somewhat similar to the new structure of college football,” he said. “Your portal resembles free agency. Your draft resembles recruiting. So it doesn’t faze me one bit that there’s been this transformation in college football where money has become an issue. So I’m able to operate in this world very comfortably because I’ve been in it most of my career.”

This was fun to watch:
Coming into the game I thought their 3 point shooting had to be better, and this was a step in the right direction.

Props to a true blue Husky.....Best of Luck getting to the next level !
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A couple of new LB's..... Lewenski Ydore (6-3/225, Miami, FL) and Charles Johnson( 6-2/205, King George, VA ) not in the Uconn Rivals commitment list yet......
One is listed but has not signed (Elijah Whitaker) though still lists a Uconn commitment on his X account.

Bio's from the official Uconn site:

@ Umass who's headed to the MAC for all sports in 2025. ( Umass an A-10 in hoops, etc played as a FB only from 2012-15 in the MAC but they required them to eventually join as a full member. So they left and played as an FBS independent. Now Umass has finally agreed to leave the A-10, ten years later)

The Huskies and Minutemen will face-off at 12 noon on ESPN+.