Pitt looks to topple No. 1 UConn

Tonight is the night for Pitt men’s basketball.

At the Gampel Pavilion in Storrs, Conn., two… Tonight is the night for Pitt men’s basketball.

At the Gampel Pavilion in Storrs, Conn., two of the Big East’s top three competitors tip-off as Jamie Dixon and the Pitt Panthers take on the No. 1 team in the nation, the UConn Huskies.

College basketball games don’t get much bigger than this.

The Panthers (17-1, 6-1 Big East) are coming off of two solid home conference wins last week with Monday’s win against Syracuse, where senior Carl Krauser set a new career high with 32 points, and Saturday’s victory over Marquette in which he passed former Panther Brandin Knight for 13th on Pitt’s all-time scoring list.

UConn (18-1, 6-1) hasn’t lost since Steve Novak’s 41-point outburst for Marquette in Milwaukee earlier this month and is currently ranked No. 1 by both the AP and USA Today Coaches Polls. And when looking at the Huskies’ personnel, it’s no wonder why.

UConn head coach Jim Calhoun was recently inducted into Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, coaching the Huskies to two national titles in the last seven years. Calhoun owns a 473-174 record in 20 years at Connecticut, and more than 700 wins in his overall career.

Although not as decorated yet, Calhoun’s current players certainly attain the prowess that he has brought to the program.

The Huskies’ point guard Marcus Williams currently leads the Big East with 7.3 assists per game and also boasts a 2.23 assist-to-turnover ratio.

Williams is flanked in the backcourt by swingman Rashad Anderson, who averages 14.5 points in 19 minutes per game. The two will be feeding the ball down low to forward/centers Josh Boone and Hilton Armstrong Jr., who together average 20 points and 14 rebounds per game.

The glue of the Huskies’ offense is forward Rudy Gay Jr., who leads the team with 15 points per game in addition to just over six rebounds per game. As a freshman last season, Gay was honored as the National Freshman of the Year by The Sporting News and was also named the Big East Rookie of the Year, an honor that former Panther Chris Taft earned the year before.

And just as Pitt is considered to have a rather deep bench this year, UConn’s is even deeper. Eleven Huskies average double-digit minutes per game, as opposed to the Panthers’ 10.

Pitt and UConn have had a rather storied rivalry in the conference’s recent years. Between 2002 and 2004, the Panthers and the Huskies met three consecutive times in the Big East Tournament championship game, the Panthers winning just once, in 2003.

Overall, the Huskies lead the all-time series 28-23, with the teams’ last eight meetings split 4-4.

This year, Pitt is 3-0 against the top 25, but 0-12 in the team’s history against No. 1-ranked teams.

The game will be covered nationally by ESPN Full Court and televised regionally by Fox Sports Network. Tip-off is scheduled for 7:30 p.m.