PARADISE ISLAND, Bahamas — Kevin Ollie playfully looked at his watch after defeating Michigan just before midnight on Wednesday.

“We’ve got Syracuse in what seems like two minutes,” the Connecticut head coach said. “That’s all right though.”

The Huskies (4-0) just got done beating a team, that, like Syracuse, takes a lot of 3s. When those two teams matched up on Wednesday night, UM connected on just 8-of-29 from long range. And Ollie said the ability to run out to the 3-point line against Syracuse (4-0) is just one key to beating the former Big East rival. The two teams will meet up in the semifinals of the Battle 4 Atlantis on Thursday at 3:30 p.m. in the Imperial Arena.

“They shoot. They shooting it. I think last week I was looking at the stats and they had three guys averaging eight 3s a game,” Ollie said. “So we got to make sure we run out to the 3-point line.

“We’ve got to go down and get (the ball under the free-throw line). We’ve got to make plays there. We’ve got to shoot the ball and we can’t give up offensive rebounds. We’ve got to attack the zone on the fast break. We can’t come down and walk it because we don’t want to play against the zone for 40 minutes. We can’t get out on the break and attack it and beat the zone down the court.”

The Huskies and Orange game was set to start less than 16 hours after the UConn’s win on Wednesday. But still, guard Rodney Purvis tried to soak in the meaning of the game even if there wasn’t much time to do it.

“Well it’s definitely a huge game,” Purvis said. “I remember being in high school when I think they went into five or six overtimes. My mom let me stay up and watch that game. I’m happy to be a part of this game tomorrow.

“It should be a really good game.”

Published on November 26, 2015 at 10:37 am

Contact Sam: sblum@syr.edu | @SamBlum3