Struggling Huskies now face best team on their schedule

This was supposed to be a much-anticipated showdown between two Big East kingpins and national championship contenders.

Over 30,000 fans bought tickets for today's nationally-televised game at the Carrier Dome (1 p.m., Chs. 3, 12).

But UConn (15-8, 5-6) failed to live up to its preseason statute as co-Big East favorites along with Syracuse (24-1, 11-1). The Huskies enter the rivalry game sputtering, losing five of their last six games to fall into ninth place. The second-ranked Orange reside in first place.

"Syracuse has shown to be the best team in our conference at this point in the season," UConn assistant coach Glen Miller said. "They're very talented and deep and experienced and they're playing like it."

"Could we have a better schedule to get back on track and build some confidence? Probably, yes. In this league there's no easy game. This is a great opportunity against a very good team."

With only seven regular-season games remaining, UConn is running out of time to make a postseason push. The Huskies will play their third straight game without head coach Jim Calhoun, who's out indefinitely with a lower back condition.

"Connecticut coming in, obviously we know their backs are to the wall and they're going to come out and play the way they always do against us, which is great," Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim said. "We expect that. We'd be shocked if anything else happened."

UConn reacted poorly to a stiff road challenge on Monday, completing collapsing in the second half of an 80-59 loss at Louisville. The Huskies spent the rest of the week trying to regroup from that demoralizing defeat. In practice, they worked on zone offense, rebounding, transition defense and sticking to their game plan in the face of adversity.

They fell short in all those categories along with a lack of leadership against Louisville. Their offensive struggles led to defensive breakdowns.

"When you're facing adversity, you can't stray from your system and fundamentals of the game," Miller said. "We took bad shots, we stopped running offense, we lost our poise and patience."

A repeat performance would result in another lopsided loss today. Syracuse thrives on capitalizing on an opponent's mistakes.

Showing some mental toughness would be a good place to start.

"We're going to have to have some resistance and not give in," Miller said.

Another big key is solving Syracuse's deep freeze inducing 2-3 zone. UConn has had little luck against any defense lately.

In the last five games, the Huskies are averaging just 55.4 points and shooting 36.8 percent from the field, including just 20.5 percent from three-point range.

Syracuse isn't without its own issues. Rebounding is a minor weakness, as Big East opponents outrebound the Orange by a slim margin. Senior Kris Joseph (a team-best 14.3 points per game) is one of the few consistent double figure scorers on the team.

Miller is confident that the Huskies will at very least play hard today. They know what's at stake.

"These kids are resilient," he said. "We understand the urgency of every game. We don't have to win every game but we've got to win some and everybody knows that. … There's still a great opportunity to do something special with our season.

"What we can't have is getting blown out like we did at Louisville. If we play well and the way we're capable of, we can win."

g.keefe@theday.com