Event: #4 UConn Huskies (5-0) Vs. #20/22 Florida State Seminoles (4-1)
Date/Time: Saturday November 25, 2011-2 p.m. EDT.
Location: Imperial Arena at the Atlantis Resort (Capacity: 4,500), Paradise Island, Bahamas.
Broadcast Info: Saturday's third place game of the Battle 4 Atlantis Tournament will be available on Versus nationally. Radio coverage of the game will be available throughout Connecticut and online on the WTIC/UConn Radio Network. Joe D'Ambrosio and and Wayne Norman will have the call of the game.
Everyone who has watched UConn this year knew it was coming, they just didn't expect it to happen this weekend, not against Central Florida. After a sluggish start to the season, Jim Calhoun expressed his frustration with his squad's performance Friday and his dissapointment Saturday after a 68-63 loss to Central Florida.
"I can't be more disappointed in how we played," Connecticut coach Jim Calhoun said in his press conference. "We just stopped playing. We couldn't even get the ball inbounded near the end. Nobody stepped up and it was a complete disaster for us."
After holding what seemed to be a comfortable 17-point lead early in the second half, the Huskies couldn't keep it up against the Knights.
Sophomore guards Jeremy Lamb and Shabazz Napier who had carried the team through the first five games, had their worst games of the season. Lamb had a team-high 15 points but shot just 5-of-16 from the field and Napier turned the ball over seven times while scoring a season-low four points.
Saturday's matchup could be just what Calhoun was hoping for, with a chance for redemption less than 24 hours later against one of the best teams in the ACC. Florida State fell in the second semifinal 46-41 against the suffocating defense of Harvard. The Seminoles missed their first fifteen field goal attempts and finished with just 17 made field goals.
Leonard Hamilton's team is projected to be a top-three team in the ACC conference and boasts a frontcourt that has seven players at 6'8" or taller.They are led by junior Michael Snaer who averages a team-high 11.8 points per game and senior forward Bernard James who is averaging just shy of a double-double.
Prediction: Neither team will leave with a title but Saturday's third-place game will provide a great chance for both teams to improve their resume. Neither team had lost yet this year and it will be interesting to see which team can respond more effectively. As well as Florida State played Friday, expect Jim Calhoun to put a fire under his squad with Napier and Lamb terrorizing the inexperienced Seminoles ball handlers.
UConn 81, Florida State 72