Purdue looks to topple a #1 seed
Wednesday, March 25th, 20092009 NCAA Tournament - West Region - University of Phoenix Stadium, Glendale, AZ
No.1 Connecticut (29-4) vs. No. 5 Purdue (27-9)
Time/Day/TV: 7:07 EDT/Thursday/CBS
Connecticut Road to the Final Four: Defeated No. 16 Chattanooga, 103-47 Defeated No. 9 Texas A&M, 92-66
Pudue Road to the Final Four: Defeated No. 12 Northern Iowa 61-56 Defeated No. 4 Washington 76-74
Connecticut Moment of Truth: There really hasn’t been one except when coach Jim Calhoun wasn’t at the first round game.
Connecticut Leading Scorers: A.J. Price 14.6, Jeff Adrien 13.9, Hasheem Thabeet 13.7
Purdue Moment of Truth: The Boilermakers blew a double digit lead in the second half against Washington but held on.
Purdue Leading Scorers: E’Twaun Moore 14.0, JaJuan Johnson 13.4, Robbie Hummel 12.4
Key Matchup: Purdue’s half court vs. Connecticut’s transition. The Boilermakers are going to try and slow this game down to a crawl and keep it into the 60s. If they can, they can be in the game. Purdue is one of the Big Ten’s top offensive teams. But it has to value possessions.
Who Wins and Why: Connecticut. The Huskies just have too many options that the Boilermakers can’t match. And when you add a shot blocker like Thabeet, it makes taking anything to the glass tough. Connecticut is just a vastly better team.