Men's Basketball | 12/12/2014 9:40:00 AM
BALTIMORE – The Coppin State men's basketball team has an opportunity that few will ever get in their lives Sunday afternoon when it visits the University of Connecticut for a 4:00 p.m. tip at the XL Center in Hartford.
The game will be televised regionally in the New York-metro area by SNY and streamed on ESPN3/WatchESPN. The game will also be broadcasted live by the UConn IMG Radio Network.
The Eagles (1-8 overall) have a chance to knock off the reigning NCAA champions. Not many people can say they'll ever have an opportunity to do that during their careers. In a strange scheduling twist, this will be the third time Coppin State has faced Connecticut the year after it won a national championship. The other two times were in 1999 and 2011.
The Huskies (3-3) enter this contest off of a 45-44 loss to Yale at Gampel Pavilion.
So if Yale can beat UConn and NJIT can knock off Michigan, why not Coppin State?
The Eagles lead the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) in three-pointers made per game (8.9). Coppin State made eight three-pointers in Wednesday's 105-64 loss to Hofstra.
Taariq Cephas,
Arnold Fripp,
Christian Kessee and
Sterling Smith have accounted for 66 percent of the Eagles' 80 total three-pointers this season.
Coppin State also has done a good job of protecting the basketball this season. The Eagles are fourth in the conference in assist-to-turnover ratio and turnover margin (+1.44). While those positive numbers are something to build on, Coppin State has struggled this season with shooting the ball consistently and defending as it has allowed 100 or more points four times this season.
"It's been a tough year for us," first-year Coppin State head coach
Michael Grant said. "I thought we could handle this tough schedule, but everything is new. We just have to continue to get better. We have to continue to shoot the ball better and continue to play together as a team."
After opening the season by winning their first three games, the Huskies have lost three straight. UConn has lost to West Virginia, Texas and Yale. The last two losses were last second defeats by one point for Connecticut, which was ranked 17th in the Associated Press preseason Top 25 poll.
Members of the American Athletic Conference, the Huskies have been led this season by Ryan Boatwright's 18.3 point per game average. He has hit for 20 or more four times this season and was a vital piece last season during the Huskies' championship run. Also hitting for double-digits for the Huskies this season have been Daniel Hamilton (12.3 ppg.).
"We have a lot to work to do as a team," Grant said. "This is a tough four-game road trip coming up and it doesn't get any easier for us. We have to keep grinding and get ready for conference play in January."
Coppin State continues its four game road trip next Monday when it visits the University of Michigan for an 8:00 p.m. tip. That game will be aired live on the B1G 10 Network.
