Plenty at stake for Huskies in visit to ND

South Bend, Ind. - Judging from Mike Brey's comments, you might think that UConn holds all the cards tonight.

Brey, Notre Dame's coach, sized up playing a crucial Big East Conference game without star Luke Harangody by saying, "They've got four pros and my pro is in street clothes Wednesday night, so we'll give it a shot."

Brey knows something about bluffing.

Without Harangody, the Irish pulled together and upset Pittsburgh and Georgetown, giving them consecutive wins over ranked opponents for the first time since 2002.

"They're better without him," UConn's Kemba Walker said Tuesday night. "They've been playing great."

The Huskies (17-12, 7-9) visit the Joyce Center for a 7 p.m. game with postseason ramifications. Entering Tuesday, Notre Dame (19-10, 8-8) resided in eighth place in the Big East, one spot ahead of the Huskies.

Earlier this season, UConn beat Notre Dame, 82-70, with Harangody scoring 31 points. The Huskies received balanced scoring and contained Notre Dame's potent perimeter attack.

They have no reason to be overconfident coming off a tough 78-76 home loss to Louisville on Sunday.

Whether UConn eventually earns an NCAA tournament bid or not will be determined on the road, where it is 2-6 this season. The Huskies finish the regular season Saturday at South Florida.

"In this league if someone gets a win, all of a sudden, everything turns around," coach Jim Calhoun said. "A win would help turn a lot of things around for us. … If we want to play in postseason play, we're going to have to win some games. The sand is running right as we speak."

"… I'm not a great believer that you put your aces on having to win X number of games in any tournament because anything can happen."

Some of UConn's wounds this season are self-inflicted. Sunday, the Huskies committed a season-high 22 turnovers.

A repeat performance likely will result in another crushing loss tonight. UConn can't afford lost possessions against a patient opponent.

"That's been a problem throughout the whole season," Walker said. "In the games we won, we didn't turn the ball over. … A lot of our turnovers are stupid. Most of the time, it is unforced turnovers. It's just us being careless."

UConn is averaging 16.9 turnovers in losses but just 13.5 in wins.

"We just can't afford to find ways to put ourselves into jams," Calhoun said. "When we've played well and stayed focused, we haven't."

Notre Dame, on the other hand, is careful with the basketball and does a good job spreading it around. The Irish rank first in the nation in assist-to-turnover ratio at 1.69 and third in assists with 17.8. They also shoot the ball well from the perimeter, ranking fourth in the country in 3-point shooting percentage.

Without Harangody, Notre Dame has worked the shot clock, forcing opponents to play full possessions on defense.

"Where we tried to help them is just limit the possessions and try to slow the game down a little bit," Brey said. "We've shot it maybe better because our feet are under us a little bit after we run offense a little longer."

Tonight's outcome may be decided in the effort department. UConn won three straight by outworking their opponents. A letdown Sunday cost the Huskies a valuable game.

Twenty-nine games into the season, UConn remains an unpredictable team. Even Calhoun is unsure what to expect.

"We have warts," Calhoun said. "We have flaws. We have weaknesses. But we have some things at times that make us very good. … I don't think this team has underachieved. It has caused an awful lot of scratching one's head or waking up at 3 in the morning and saying, 'Why did we do that?' "