In that article Hurley mentions that OSU will be the toughest game this year. If they are tougher than Alabama I will be surprised. To me Alabama was by far the best team UConn has played this year. I realize OSU has a very athletic 7 foot center but both Oregon and Alabama had lots of size and quality 7 footers.
In that regard, is size now back in vogue? Last night, I was watching Purdue vs. Florida State and was surprised to see two 7'4" centers battle head to head- Purdue's 7'4" Canadian Zach Edey, a monster who is a likely All American and high first round pick, against FSU's 7'4" Naheem McLeod, who is offensively challenged but a good shot blocker. It was the first time I ever saw two 7'4" guys face each other in a college game. Besides Oregon, Alabama, OSU, Purdue and FSU, lots of teams seem to have 7 footers. Arizona has a good one named Ballo. Creighton of course has an excellent 7 footer in Kalkbrenner, as does Xavier in Nunge. Duke has 2 7 footers in their starting lineup and one of them, Filipowski, appears to be very skilled. It just seems like all of a sudden size is BACK!
Another thing mentioned in that article Blades posted is that Hurley gives Hawkins a "mulligan" for the technicl foul that resulted in his foul trouble. We do not know what he said but I think you have to be smart about yapping to officials. Last night one of Purdue's guards hit a 3 and then taunted the FSU bench while the ref was standing right next to him. It was one of if not the dumbest technical foul I have ever seen, and the announcers were mocking him for his stupidity afterwards, because the game was fairly tight at that point. I am hoping Hawkins got the message from not playing again in that game that with the guard depth UConn has, he is not needed to finish off a game against a quality opponent.
