College Hoops Picks, Jan. 28: Connecticut Huskies at DePaul Blue Demons

Connecticut Huskies @ DePaul Blue Demons
Wednesday, Jan. 28—9:00 PM EST

Preview

The second ranked team in the country faces off against one of the few remaining Big East winless teams on Wednesday. The Connecticut Huskies (No. 2 AP, No. 2 Coaches, 7-1, 18-1) suffered their only loss of the season in the Big East opener against Georgetown.

DePaul (0-7, 8-12) has been disappointing in almost everyone's eyes this season—they are one of two Big East teams yet to win a conference game and now have an overall losing record (they even were defeated by South Florida twice).

UConn's success comes from all over the board, but the most notable difference between them and their opponents is that they have two players averaging double-doubles—Jeff Adrien (F, 14.3 PPG, 10.1 RPG) and Hasheem Thabeet (C, 13.0 PPG, 10.1 RPG)—while most teams are very lucky if they have one. Connecticut's guards are nothing to laugh at either—Jerome Dyson is averaging 13.5 PPG and A.J. Price is averaging 11.9 PPG along with 4.6 assists.

The Blue Devils have two returning All-Big East Rookies from last season—Dar Tucker (F, 18.6 PPG, 5.4 RPG) and Mac Koshwal (C, 14.5 PPG, 10.5 RPG). The other player on the squad who can make a difference is Will Walker (G, 11.8 PPG). Aside from those three, DePaul really has no one impacting games right now, which has been severely hurting them.

Stats

	Record	Conf	ATS	RPI	SOS	PF	PA
Connecticut	18-1	7-1	7-7	6	27	78.7	62.5
DePaul	8-12	0-7	4-10	198	110	67.3	69.9

	FG%	D. FG%	3P%	D. 3P%	FT%	RPG	SPG	APG	TPG
Connecticut	49.1	38.3	37.7	32.5	68.4	43.1	6.3	15.9	12.2
DePaul	41.5	43.3	27.7	33.9	41.5	39.6	6.8	11.5	12.4

Prediction

Current Line: Connecticut -12.0

Connecticut ATS: 7-7, 5-7 when favored
DePaul ATS: 4-10, 3-7 when underdog

Tucker and Koshwal should match up nicely against Adrien and Thabeet, but the Connecticut guards are going to be a lot to handle.

While some of the Huskies games have been close, they have exceeded the 12 point spread on more than one occasion—they defeated Rutgers by 31 points, St. John's by 12, and Seton Hall by 15. DePaul has lost every conference game by an average of 11 points (by as many as 22 and as little as four). I am confident that Connecticut will be able to exceed that average.

Pick: Connecticut -12.0

*All statistics for this article have come from StatSheet.com*

*This article is also featured on CFBPlace.com—and soon to be featured on CBBPlace.com*