It might still be Winter Break, but the real tests are starting now.
Tonight's game against UConn kicks off the toughest stretch of the Hoyas' schedule, with three of the top seven teams in the most recent 
AP poll on tap. With a trip to Notre Dame's Joyce Center, where the Fightin' Harangodies have won 43 straight, coming on the heels of the UConn game and a home tilt against #3 Pitt, there's plenty of reason to be overjoyed with a 2-1 finish in the next week.
With such high-ranked opposition coming up, I'd like to take a moment to talk about intestinal distress.
The last time the Hoyas and Huskies met, UConn coach Jim Calhoun, central character in one of the funnier fan-coach interactions I've ever seen/been a part of, did not make a triumphant return to the bright lights of the Phone Booth, staying in the visitors' locker room with a reportedly violent bout of nausea. Assistant coach George Blaney filled in for Calhoun, and inspired the Huskies to a surprisingly solid performance-UConn led by as much as 6, and had a 69-67 lead with a little more than two minutes left-that certainly had more than one of us in the arena feeling a little bit like Mr. Calhoun. Blaney clearly couldn't coach everything though, as he forgot the one piece of advice that Calhoun probably would have imparted to UConn's 7'3" center Hasheem Thabeet:
You don't leave the 7'2" guy who's a 100% career three-point shooter wide open at the top of the key with the game on the line. 
It was Roy Hibbert's nearly flat-footed three with 4.2 seconds left that led the Hoyas to a 72-69 victory, and Rich Chvotkin to punctuate his end-game play-by-play with Roy's name so severely, you would think that he had to repeat Roy's name in order to convince himself that what he just saw had really happened.
Of the 200 minutes played by each team last year, UConn's players returning in 08-09 accounted for 171.5. Last year UConn had a different player lead in each statistical category: points (Jeff Adrien, 18), rebounds (Stanley Robinson, 7), assists (A.J. Price, 9), steals (Jerome Dyson, 2), and blocks (Thabeet, 5). All five starters are back for UConn, and so far in 2008-09, none has been more important than the 7'3" man in the middle, who maybe should have been the man on the perimeter on Roy's shot, Hasheem Thabeet. Per Ken Pomeroy's stats, Thabeet is one of the most efficient offensive and defensive players in the country, equally adept at shooting, rebounding, getting to the line (and converting once he's there) and blocking shots. Right now, there are certainly comparisons that can be drawn between 08-09 Thabeet and 07-08 Hibbert, with Thabeet being the better rebounder, but Hibbert the better passer.
My favorite comparison, however, is this:
3-point FGM-FGA
08-09 Thabeet: 0-0 .000
07-08 Hibbert: 3-3 1.000
For tonight's sake, however:
3-point GTM-FGA
08-09 Greg Monroe: 0-2 .000
Third time's the charm.
Game time tonight is 7:00 ET. The game will be broadcast nationally on ESPN2 and in the DC area on AM 570.
Paul Campbell (MSB '09)
Proud Member of Generation 3 for 3
