UConn, Wisconsin Set To Meet In V.I. Final

#2 UConn 76, #16 Miami (Fl) 63
This game wasn't even as close as the final score would indicate. UConn was up 24-7 halfway through the first half, and cruised from then on out. Suffocating defense was the difference here, as Miami shot only 35% from the field to go with 21 turnovers. It's pretty hard to beat anybody with numbers like that. The Hurricanes are a good team, but you can't pencil them into the Tournament just yet. I'd like to see them beat a good team before ACC play begins, and I'm not sure if San Diego qualifies (assuming they hang onto a lead that is about 10 points as I type this). They play Ohio State and Kentucky on national television in early December, and without a sweep there they are going to feel pressure to have a good ACC season to earn an at-large bid. They have to prove that they're more than just Jack McClinton. As for UConn, we all knew that their starting lineup was going to be great. And they've added high-scoring freshman Kemba Walker as a sixth man. Those six players are about as good as any six players on any team in the nation. But I'm not convinced yet about the rest of the bench, a group that combined for six points on 16 minutes here. We should get a better sense of the rest of the bench against Wisconsin later tonight, because Wisconsin generally finds a way to get their opponents into foul trouble. That necessitates big minutes for bench players, and we'll see how UConn's bench players respond.

#22 Wisconsin 64, San Diego 49
A good win for Wisconsin to build on after a somewhat disappointing overtime win over Iona. San Diego seems like a good team, although their early start makes it seem like they're going to be long shots for an at-large bid. For Wisconsin, though, the real question is on the inside. They have a great back court, but Keaton Nankivil is the only center getting minutes, and his 10 points and 4 rebounds here are his best performance of this season. I'm very interested to see how they play UConn tonight, because UConn has a few outstanding bigs, none bigger than Hasheem Thabeet. To me, the question for tonight's game will be whether Wisconsin can get some of the UConn players into foul trouble, because Wisconsin's bench is deeper and better than UConn's bench. But UConn's starting lineup is better and more athletic than Wisconsin's, so shy of serious foul trouble I don't see how Wisconsin wins. That said, this win over San Diego proves that the Badgers aren't going away after all of the graduations. As always, Bo Ryan will have this team in the top half of the Big Ten. If they can prove that they can play with UConn's size tonight then it will be a great sign that they're going to be ready to play with bigs on teams like Ohio State and Michigan State later in the season.