{"id":11810,"date":"2010-12-22T19:01:25","date_gmt":"2010-12-23T00:01:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=11810"},"modified":"2010-12-22T19:01:25","modified_gmt":"2010-12-23T00:01:25","slug":"ncaa-mens-basketball-preview-harvard-at-uconn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/ncaa-mens-basketball-preview-harvard-at-uconn-11810\/","title":{"rendered":"NCAA Men’s Basketball Preview: Harvard at UCONN"},"content":{"rendered":"

Harvard Crimson at Connecticut Huskies
\nDecember 22nd, 2010 at 7:00 PM EST
\nOpening Line:\u00a0 Connecticut -13.5
\nCurrent Line:\u00a0 Connecticut -12.5
\nOpening Total: 142
\nCurrent Total: 142
\nOpening Moneyline: Conn. -1100 \/ Harvard +750
\nCurrent Moneyline:\u00a0 Conn. -1040 \/ Harvard +760<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"
Kemba Walker has improved dramatically over last year and is one of the best prospects in the country<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Tonight’s game brings together a decent 7-2 Harvard team (first in the Ivy League) against the undefeated 9-0 Connecticut Huskies, who sit atop the standings of the Big East.\u00a0 Harvard has won their last two games against Boston University and Worcester Tech, but faces a much tougher challenge in Connecticut.\u00a0 Connecticut won their last game against Coppin State by 10, but college basketball oddsmakers have set the line decisively in favor of Connecticut tonight with an opening spread of 12.5<\/p>\n

Both teams sport positive point differentials.\u00a0 Harvard is +9.6, scoring 72.1 a game and giving up 62.6 a game; while UCONN is scoring 79.4 (31st best in the nation)\u00a0 and giving up 63.6.\u00a0 UCONN is also the fourth best rebounding team in the nation with 44.0 rebounds per game.<\/p>\n

Harvard has lost 4 of their past 6 road games, and Connecticut has won all five of their past five home games.\u00a0 Harvard is 3-0 ATS this year and UCONN is also 3-0 ATS this year.<\/p>\n

Harvard is led by the duo of Christian Webster and Keith Wright, who together account for 32.3 points, 44% of Harvard’s output.\u00a0 Webster is a 6’5″ sophomore guard who has a deadly outside shot (40% from three; 22 of 55) and a good penetration game as well.\u00a0 In a 6 point win against Mercer on November 20th, Webster went for 29 points, attempting 15 free throws.\u00a0 If he can get to the paint like that tonight against the Huskies, he will go a long way towards helping Harvard cover the spread.\u00a0 Keith Wright is Harvard’s second biggest player (Andrew Van Nest is 6’10”) at 6’8″ and leads them in rebounding with 8.8 boards a game to go with his 15.7 points per night.\u00a0 He has already notched four double doubles this year, including a 22 point 16 rebound game in an opening night loss to George Mason.\u00a0 The Crimson will look to get it to Wright down low to attempt to get UCONN’s big men into foul trouble, which would obviously be to the Crimson’s advantage.<\/p>\n

Connecticut is led by outstanding 6’1″ junior guard Kemba Walker.\u00a0 Walker can do a bit of everything and is a marksman, shooting 41.5% from three (22 of 53).\u00a0 He’s averaging 27.2 a game and can seemingly do no wrong this year, as he is averaging nearly double his output from last season.\u00a0 He’s scored 30 or more in 4 of the Huskies’ 9 games, including a 42 point outburst in a 16 point win over Vermont.\u00a0 He plays 34 minutes a game and Harvard really doesn’t have anyone to challenge him defensively.\u00a0 6’9″ sophomore center Alex Oriakhi has impressed this year, as well, averaging a double double (11.4 ppg and 10.0 rpg), shooting 56% from the floor.\u00a0 He is a good shotblocker, swatting away 2.4 shots a night and will keep the paint protected from any Harvard penetrators.\u00a0 He solidifies an already strong Husky defense and is a threat downlow at all times.\u00a0 He should have a good shot at containing, if not shutting down, Keith Wright in tonight’s game.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Harvard Crimson at Connecticut Huskies December 22nd, 2010 at 7:00 PM EST Opening Line:\u00a0 Connecticut -13.5 Current Line:\u00a0 Connecticut -12.5 Opening Total: 142 Current Total: 142 Opening Moneyline: Conn. -1100 \/ Harvard +750 Current Moneyline:\u00a0 Conn. -1040 \/ Harvard +760 Tonight’s game brings together a decent 7-2 Harvard team (first in the Ivy League) against […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40250,"featured_media":9795,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,1444],"tags":[4239,3285],"class_list":["post-11810","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-college-basketball","category-headlines","tag-harvard","tag-uconn"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11810","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/40250"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11810"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11810\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11812,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11810\/revisions\/11812"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9795"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11810"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11810"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11810"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}