NCAA Tournament

Thursday

Noon, CBS

Before yesterday’s overtime upset loss to Syracuse, nearly every analyst we talked to picked UConn to win the national championship. While Syracuse laid out a blueprint at the Garden, there is more than one way to ruin the Huskies’ March to another title.

“They don’t do it if somebody can get them in a halfcourt game and Rashad Anderson doesn’t shoot well,” said CSTV analyst Steve Lappas, who, of course, is still picking UConn.

Lappas also pointed out that this UConn team doesn’t have a Ray Allen, a Richard Hamilton or a Ben Gordon, who could all create their own shots.

ESPN’s Jay Bilas spotted another “flaw” in UConn’s makeup.

“They don’t have a second handler,” said Bilas, who liked UConn in November and is sticking with the Huskies.

“Their primary ball-handler is a guy named Marcus Williams. When they have the ball in his hands, they are really, really good. Once the ball is out of his hands, they are not a great ball-handling team or decision-making team. It is hard to get the ball out of his hands because they are such a good job getting it to him.”

The Huskies also don’t finish off some teams when they get the chance, said CBS’ Len Elmore

“They don’t fully understand how good they are, and [that] they can keep teams down,” said Elmore, who, if he had a choice, would take UConn’s talent over the field to win the NCAA Tournament.

“That, to me, is the only drawback. They are going to get in a game. They are going to get out to a big lead. It is going to be a team that has an awful lot of moxie and it is going to come back on them and have just enough talent, and UConn has to understand that once they put the throttle down, they keep it down.”

So is there anyone who is picking a team other than UConn?

“UConn is great, but I’m not picking them,” said CSTV’s Pete Gillen. “I was up on the UConn bandwagon. I’m going to go with the Villanova Cats because they have great guards. They have point guards, two-guards, wing guards, bodyguards, security guards. I love the guards. I’m picking Villanova, but the last time I was right Moby Dick was a minnow.”