Niels Giffey will start against Rutgers

Jim Calhoun is back with his team and his first order of business appears to be making some changes to the lineup. Sophomore Niels Giffey will get the start at small forward tomorrow night, leaping over both Roscoe Smith and DeAndre Daniels. This is a welcome change because the Huskies are getting almost no production out of the small forward position.

I don't know if Giffey is the answer, but Smith and Daniels have done little to nothing. Of the pair, Daniels has played slightly better, averaging 5 points and 3 rebounds in 18 minutes, but the scoring numbers are inflated by strong performances against Wagner and Maine that he hasn't come close to replicating. For his part, Smith is averaging 3.7 points in 17 minutes, which is down from last year. More worrisome is his defense, he averaged over a block per game as a freshman, but only has six total on the year so far, and he has yet to steal a single ball.

As a team UConn doesn't need a ton of offensive production from the 3 spot, because their trio of guards will supply a lot of points, as will (hopefully) Andre Drummond and Tyler Olander, but it'd be nice if the Huskies could get more than they have.

Also of note: Tyler Olander might return to the starting lineup over Alex Oriakhi (please), and Shabazz should be good to go despite not practicing yesterday and being questionable for tonight's practice.