Tar Heels Ready for Up-Tempo UConn

On paper, they've had about as different seasons as two basketball teams could have.

North Carolina has played a challenging out-of-conference schedule and has hit the road to play in two tournaments in New York City's Madison Square Garden. In fact, unranked UNC is No. 19 in the RPI rating, thanks in large part to its fourth-ranked schedule.

The Tar Heels (10-5) have endured a season-altering injury to freshman center Sean May and have at times limped at both ends of the court without his offensive and defensive presence.

Connecticut, on the other hand, has cruised. Despite their 11-1 record and No. 6 national ranking, the Huskies have an RPI rating of just 38, due mainly to its 161st-ranked schedule.

Playing 10 of its first 12 games within the friendly confines of the Nutmeg State against the likes of Quinnipiac and

Sacred Heart will do that to a team.

The differences, though, don't end there. UConn is the nation's third-highest scoring team, averaging 87.6 points per game in its frenetic zone press and fast-break offense.

Meanwhile, UNC averages just 70.5 points per game and is still learning how to get itself going in transition and how to break the constant zone defenses shown by its opposition.

Saturday afternoon's game between the Huskies and the Tar Heels is a rematch of last year's blowout in Storrs, Conn., a game in which UConn turned an 11-2 UNC lead into a 86-54 romp that wasn't even that close.

After that game, Connecticut's point guard, Taliek Brown, marveled at the degree to which the Huskies rolled.

"Whoever thought we'd be up on North Carolina by 40?" he said. "The starting five would be on the bench, the walk-ons would be in? The last time we had a lead like that was an exhibition game. We were really surprised."

And although UConn lost leading scorer Caron Butler to the NBA, the Huskies still play the same sort of transition game that gave the Tar Heels fits a year ago and even more trouble against UVa. on Saturday.

The game will be UConn's third away game. The last time the Huskies hit the road, they got picked apart by an aggressive Oklahoma squad for their first loss of the season.

"The Huskies are a great team, but I think that we have an advantage because we're playing them at home," said UNC point guard Raymond Felton. "Even though they're still a great team ... that still gives us the home-court advantage. We know the goals, we'll have our fans behind us, so we're going to come out, play hard and try to win the game. That would definitely be a great win for us."

But playing in the Smith Center won't be enough to top the Huskies. Felton will have his hands full slowing the strong and push-ahead-minded Brown, and then he'll have to take his time breaking UConn's 2-2-1 three-quarter court press.

And while the Huskies might have some problems matching up with the strength of Rashad McCants, the Tar Heels could have trouble with Connecticut's 1-2 scoring punch of guard Ben Gordon and center Emeka Okafor.

"It's going to be a great college game," said UNC forward Jawad Williams. "We're athletic, they're athletic. If we go out and play hard, anything can happen."

-- Compiled by Ian Gordon