Revitalized Huskies get right back to work tonight at Louisville

UConn emerged from the Big East spin cycle on Saturday.

Now the Huskies have to keep from falling right back into a dizzying downward spiral.

A challenging two-game road trip begins tonight at Louisville (18-5, 6-4) at 7 p.m. at the KFC Yum! Center. Next they visit Big East leader Syracuse Saturday.

They regained their competitive edge and ended a four-game losing streak Saturday with a convincing 69-46 win over Seton Hall in Hartford.

"It gets you out (the spin cycle) for sure," Blaney said Saturday. "If we didn't have Louisville staring us in the face on Monday I'd say it would be a little bit easier to get out. Louisville at Louisville will be everything we can handle."

For the second straight game, Blaney will fill in for coach Jim Calhoun who's on an indefinite medical leave of absence due to a lower back condition. It's uncertain when Calhoun will return.

The Huskies (15-7, 5-5) played with passion, energy and enthusiasm Saturday. A raucous home crowd helped fuel their surge.

"We need that kind of effort from them every day," Blaney said.

Of course, they won't have that vocal support on the road. So sustaining momentum will be difficult, especially against a Louisville team that has won four in a row.

"It's going to take the same effort we gave today, just being together," junior Alex Oriakhi said Saturday. "I told the guys whether we win or loss, let's go down fighting. … Guys bought into that. It's going to take effort.

"We're the same players from four games ago. (Saturday) we were just talking and excited to play the game of basketball."

During recent struggles, UConn has consistently played sound defense. Most breakdowns have come on the offensive end. Leading scorers Jeremy Lamb and Shabazz Napier are both in shooting slumps. Lamb is 7-for-28 in the last two games and Napier 1-for-22 in the three last three games.

As long as they're taking good shots, Blaney isn't overly concerned about either player.

"We missed some really good shots…," Blaney said. "I was really happy with the shots Jeremy got. … He just missed them. We don't have a problem with that. He's way too good a shooter to worry about that. He'll make those."

Despite sinking 43.4 percent from the field, the Huskies did show some positive signs against Seton Hall. For the first time this season, they started a three-guard lineup with energetic freshman Ryan Boatright joining Lamb and Napier on the perimeter. The move helped improve ball movement and led to more dribble penetration against Seton Hall's zone.

Blaney will likely stick with the same lineup tonight, needing ball-handlers against Louisville's harassing defense. The Cardinals rank third in the nation in field goal percentage defense at 37.0 percent and allow only 61.9 points per game.

The Huskies will have to value the ball better than Saturday when they had 16 turnovers, nine by Lamb.

"Louisville always presents much more of a problem at home," Blaney said. "Pressure works much better at home than it does on the road. So we're going to have to absorb pressure, not allow people to go behind us as we did a couple of times (Saturday) and snap the ball out of our dribble, and then really change sides of the floor with the basketball.''

The Cardinals may be without their best frontcourt player in sophomore Gorgui Dieng who's third in the nation in blocks at 3.5 per game and averaging 10.2 points and a team-high 9.5 rebounds. He's considered questionable after suffering an ankle sprain in Saturday's win over Rutgers.

Injuries have been an issue for Louisville, which has had eight different players miss games. Blaney expects Louisville coach Rick Pitino to have his team ready to play. But the Huskies plan to be prepared, too.

"We're going down there to get a win," Blaney said.

g.keefe@theday.com