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.