Welcome back to our semi-regular feature Friends With Bennies, where we sit down with another Big East blogger to talk about their team. Today we have Andrew from Casual Hoya to talk about tonight's game with Georgetown. I also answered some questions for them, which you can find here.

TheUConnBlog: Georgetown seemed to have a nice little run going, so what happened against Pitt? I was getting used to them losing everything.

Casual Hoya: If that 'nice little run' included a narrow 2-point win at home against Rutgers then yes, I suppose it was a nice, little run. And thank you for the compliment. The Pitt game was more of the same that occurred in the Rutgers game - poor shooting mixed with spurts of bad defense-- that resulted in a deficit that against Rutgers the Hoyas could claw back from but at Pitt it was more difficult. The key question for Georgetown going forward is whether the team we saw against Rutgers and Pitt is the one where rolling with or whether the team we saw earlier in the non-conference and against Louisville will reappear. The good news is that if we can get a mix of both, we should be just fine.

TUB: UConn is young and mistake prone, so playing an experienced, senior-led team like Georgetown is probably going to turn out well for them right?

CH: Georgetown is one of the younger teams in the Big East, actually, as Henry Sims and Jason Clark are the only seniors on the squad. In fact, other than Sims, Clark, and junior Hollis Thompson, all of the guys you will see tonight will be sophomores and freshmen, so this may turn out to be an epic battle of the super young and mistake prone. If you'd like I can come over and we can watch together and snuggle. I make a mean 7-layer dip.

TUB: Otto Porter's new, tell me about him.

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Boatright replaces Napier in UConn's starting lineup - NewsTimes
All of those things have contributed to UConn's three-game slump, a stretch that has been punctuated by two anemic offensive performances: The Huskies' dribble-heavy, one-on-one offense was detrimental against Tennessee, and their slow pace yielded just 48 points against Notre Dame Sunday.

UConn men's game day: Wednesday at Georgetown - Connecticut Post
IN NEED OF OLANDER: When teams zone UConn (which seems to be working just fine), Tyler Olander is the most viable four-man because of his ability to knock down a 15-footer and distribute the ball. Olander will need to snap out of his little drought -- Calhoun recently said he's been "logy" -- and provide UConn with a solid high-post option.

CBS Recruiting Analyst Tim Lemming Understands UConn's Process - Courant.com
"Overall, I think it's a very good class, very athletic," Lemming said by phone. "It's not nearly as bad as people say. It's not an elite class, but UConn has never had an elite class. This class fits perfectly into their system. It's a very athletic class and I like it. It's sort of the way Iowa and North Carolina State recruits. They do a tremendous job of valuing the ballplayer whose high ceiling might be a little under the radar but who they can develop into their system. And it looks like these are the kinds of guys UConn can do that with."

UConn Football Roster Moves | UConn Football
Linebacker Jerome Williams and defensive back Chris Lopes intend to transfer after the spring semester. Though they are on scholarship they are not considered a part of the team anymore and are not on the roster Linebacker Matt Edwards and tight end Corey Manning are graduating in May and will not be back next season. Both would have been redshirt seniors.

UConn: AD Search Continues - Courant.com
The process of interviewing candidates to replace Pendergast, who was named interim when UConn and Jeff Hathaway parted ways, has yet to begin. But Herbst said things are moving along. "I can tell you the timetable I think is going to be a little tighter than I had predicted," Herbst said by phone Tuesday. "I actually would not be surprised if we could name somebody in February. Part of it is because the response has been so great."

UConn is going to look a lot different when they take the court against Georgetown tomorrow and I suspect many fans will be very happy about it. Jim Calhoun announced tonight that Ryan Boatright, Niels Giffey and Roscoe Smith will join Jeremy Lamb and Andre Drummond in the starting lineup. That means that co-captains Shabazz Napier and Alex Oriakhi (along with DeAndre Daniels) will find themselves on the bench to start the game.

Apparently the move isn't meant to send a message to the co-captains, but rather to get UConn moving and pushing the pace in the wake of Sunday's 48-point loss to Notre Dame. I don't know how well the lineup will work, but if speed is the goal, this lineup won't hurt.

I can't say I hate. If you made me pick my ideal five-man lineup it'd be Boatright-Napier-Lamb-Smith-Drummond, so it's not too far off. The Huskies are definitely giving up size to get that speed (Calhoun on Smith: "He will get up the court. I don't know what he's going to do when he gets there, but...") but if it works it works.

If I have a concern, it's how Shabazz Napier will react. He's been very vocal about seeing himself as a team leader. Hopefully he'll realize that coming off the bench and helping the team get to where they need to be aren't mutually exclusive propositions.

When word came down on Saturday night that Ryan Boatright was going to return to UConn's lineup it seemed like the NCAA's long investigation into his AAU days was finally behind him. Well, not quite. The NCAA released an incredibly detailed press release about Boatright's situation, ostensibly to combat incorrect media reports (read: they wanted to fire back at Boatright-backing op-eds written by Joe Nocera in the New York Times).

That press release brought Nocera back to the well one last time, and it resulted in a column as powerful as his previous two. He pokes holes in some of the NCAA's more impressive claims, makes it clear that Ryan was an easy target because of his poor upbringing, and points out that, in the end, there really isn't much the Boatrights can do:

But the Boatrights aren't going to sue, and the N.C.A.A. knows it. Ryan only wants to play basketball. Tanesha just wants the whole thing to go away. Her life has been turned upside down by the N.C.A.A.'s investigation: She's lost her job, her friends have been harassed by N.C.A.A. investigators and it has affected her health. She blames herself for her son's problems, even though, by any reasonable standard, she did nothing wrong. I hear that she cries a lot these days.

That's not all though. Nocera also took the NCAA's press release and annotated it on his blog. Both pieces are worth a read, and hopefully this is the last I'll have to write about it.

(h/t justdave)

Duke Basketball Report - The unofficial home of Duke basketball fans and the Cameron Crazies
Inviting the Connecticut women to visit is a little like hosting the Mongol Horde: there’s a good chance your village is going to get torched. That’s the way it’s been for Duke recently. The Blue Devils went into Monday’s game having lost four straight to the Huskies, by an average margin of 32.5 points per game.

Connecticut Huskies look cohesive in beating Duke Blue Devils - ESPN
In fact, UConn this season might be an even better defensive team, at least statistically, than in Moore's four seasons. Through Monday's game, UConn is allowing opponents an average of just 45.1 points per game and holding them to 30 percent shooting from the field. The best numbers of Moore's career in that regard were in her junior season of 2009-10, when UConn's opponents averaged 46.2 points and also shot 30 percent.

UConn Women Win on Road but Aren’t There Yet - NYTimes.com
"We think we are the best defensive team in the country," Coach Geno Auriemma said after the Huskies held the Blue Devils to their lowest output and worst shooting performance of the season. "Kids buy into that. They are not an easy team to defend. I think they are harder to defend this year than they were last year. The effort was unbelievable tonight, for sure."

uconn basketball: uconn women defeat duke - Courant.com
Bria Hartley led the Huskies (20-2) with 15 points and Caroline Doty added 11, making each of her three three-pointers. Dolson had 10 points, but six came in the opening minutes before foul trouble sidelined her and made way for Stokes.

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Welcome to the Big East Basketball Power Rankings. Every week from now through the end of the regular season the editors of SB Nation's Big East blogs will cast their vote in an attempt to measure the current state of the Big East. The results are below. This feature runs on Mondays, in theory.

Although this post is about the Big East generally, and only exists because several Big East editors are kind enough to submit ballots to me each week, but it's posted on a UConn blog, so that's going to be my focus at the start. This league, or at least the people who rank teams in it, are insane. UConn has lost three straight games, five of its last seven, and is still somehow ranked in the top half of the league, they fell one spot to number seven, and I can't believe.

Elsewhere: blah, blah, blah Syracuse is still the best and I hate that I have to write that every week. Marquette put in a really nice showing to steal the number two spot that Georgetown vacated by losing to Pitt, and Notre Dame and West Virginia are just hanging out, putting up 6-3 starts despite each of them being bad enough to lose to UConn at least once.

South Florida is a total enigma (highest rank on a ballot this week? Fourth. Lowest rank? 10th), and Cincinnati, Seton Hall and Rutgers aren't much easier to figure out. Pitt strung together two nice wins to break out of the basement, which is now occupied by Providence, who is fighting tooth and nail to reclaim their birthright as the Big East's worst team from DePaul.

Homer of the Week goes to the Nova Blog, who I warned in this space last week. The Wildcats lost twice this week (to Marquette and Louisville), and the Nova Blog responded by moving them up to 10th. Hater of the Week goes to Rumble in the Garden, who put Georgetown sixth. Yes, the Hoyas did lose to Pitt, but in no universe is it justifiable to rank them below UConn.

Best ballot of the week went to Voodoo Five's Ken who originally submitted this:

1. Syracuse
2-15. Dartboard
16. Providence
17. Big East Refs

We'll see you back here next week.

1. Syracuse (10) (22-1, 9-1): 160 points -- Last week: 1

2. Marquette (18-4, 7-2): 147 points -- Last week: 3

3. Georgetown (16-4, 6-3): 136 points -- Last week: 2

4. Notre Dame (14-8, 6-3): 121 points -- Last week: 8

5. West Virginia (15-7, 5-4): 116 points -- Last week: 4

6. Louisville (17-5, 5-4): 112 points -- Last week: 10

7. UConn (14-6, 4-4): 98 points -- Last week: 6

8. Cincinnati (15-7, 5-4): 93 points -- Last week: 5

9. South Florida (13-9, 6-3): 91 points -- Last week: 9

10. Seton Hall (15-6, 4-5): 72 points -- Last week: 7

11. Rutgers (12-10, 4-5): 63 points -- Last week: 11

12. Villanova (10-12, 3-7): 45 points -- Last week: 12

13. St. John's (9-12, 3-6): 40 points -- Last week: 13

14. Pittsburgh (13-9, 2-7): 37 points -- Last week: 16

15. DePaul (11-9, 2-6): 22 points -- Last week: 15

16. Providence (12-10, 1-8): 11 points -- Last week: 14

Individual ballots are after the jump.

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There are some people who have a sense of "the moment." Be they politicians, athletes, actors or just the guy down the street, they always seem to know exactly the right thing to say at exactly the right time, to inspire confidence, passion and support. It's safe to say that none of those people work in the UConn marketing department.

How do I know that? Well, did you see the video on top of this post? At one point it declares, "we don't come to practice basketball, we come to practice perfect," which would have been a fine message last April, but rings a little hollow when the Huskies have lost five of seven, including three straight, and were most recently seen as accomplices in Notre Dame's ritual sacrifice of the sport we used to know as basketball.

The video (which is currently the splash page you see when visiting UConnHuskies.com) is actually titled "Greatness is not an Accident" and is designed to garner more donations for UConn's proposed practice facility. That's a goal I can certainly get behind, and I can definitely see the message the school was trying to send, but oooof.... timing is everything, and UConn definitely didn't have it here.