UConn junior guard Craig Austrie is suffering through a bout with pneumonia right now and isn't expected to be available for Sunday's game with Quinnipiac. Austrie will remain overnight at Windham Hospital in Wilimantic, due largely to the weather conditions.

Stanley Robinson will likely return to the starting lineup on Sunday. Austrie started in favor of Robinson against Northeastern last week, but it has been learned that part of that had to do with Robinson being late for some team events.

With Austrie out, expect freshman guard Donnell Beverly to see some more time on Sunday.

Former UConn assistant coach Tom Moore’s first game against his old team isn’t the only subplot surrounding Sunday’s Quinnipiac-UConn game at the Hartford Civic Center. There will be a bit of family rivalry at play, as well.

Quinnipiac’s Baker brothers (junior Jeremy and freshman Evann) are second cousins of UConn sophomore guard Jerome Dyson. Jeremy Baker, a transfer from Garden City Community College, has yet to pass NCAA clearinghouse standards and likely won’t be playing on Sunday. But Evann Baker, a 6-foot-3 guard, could very well end up guarding his cousin at times throughout the contest.

“It’s just another game to me,” Evann insisted.

Evann and Jeremy grew up in Washington, D.C. while Dyson was in nearby Rockville, Md. Evann said Jeremy knew Dyson better, since the two played against each other in AAU a lot.

“We got real, real close when we were going into 10th grade,” Evann recalled. “Then, he left to go to Proctor Academy.”

Evann was a four-year letterwinner at D.C.’s Archbishop Carroll High before attending Maine Central Institute prep school for a year. Dyson’s AAU coach was instrumental in hooking up coach Moore with the Baker brothers.

Since enrolling at Quinnipiac, Evann hasn’t had the chance to meet up with his second cousin (on his mother Sheryl’s side), but has talked to Dyson a few times.

“I sent him an IM (on Tuesday) over the computer,” Evann said. “He didn’t respond yet.”

Baker wouldn’t say if he has or intends to do any trash-talking with Dyson, and he stopped short of predicting a big upset on Sunday for his Bobcats.

“I’m not going to say that,” he said, “but it’s going to be fine.”

Nate Miles, the talented yet mercurial University of Connecticut recruit, has been dismissed from The Patterson School basketball team in Lenoir, N.C.

However, according to a source with direct knowledge of the situation, it wasn’t a disciplinary action, but rather an attempt to allow Miles to concentrate on his academics over the final two weeks of classes. UConn is hoping Miles will be able to enroll at the university for the second semester and join the team.

“It wasn’t a negative thing,” said the source. “The coaches are still there for him.”

Miles, a 6-foot-6 swingman, is at his sixth different school in the last four-plus years. He is considered a postgraduate student. Before he’s able to enroll at UConn, he must shore up his academics at Patterson and pass NCAA Clearinghouse standards.

Miles was heavily recruited by Tom Moore, the former UConn assistant who is now the head man at Quinnipiac. He’s also close with Beau Archibald, UConn’s first-year director of basketball operations. One of Miles’ many outposts, the Cornerstone Christian School in San Antonio, is right down the road from the University of Texas-San Antonio, where Archibald was an assistant in 2005-06.

Miles is also well-known by many current UConn players, leading some to believe that he’ll be able to make a seamless transition onto the team, even if he becomes the focal point of the Huskies’ offense.

Majok Man

The Huskies are focusing a great deal of their recruiting efforts on Ater Majok, a power forward from Australia via The Sudan. Majok stands at 6-foot-10 but boasts a 7-foot-4 wingspan and is generating a lot of interest from schools while playing for a club team down in Virgina. He is a Class of 2008 player who has been sending his schoolwork back to Australia via the Internet.

Majok will fly home to Australia on Sunday for a month. He’ll make an official visit to UConn upon his return, probably some time in late-January. Matok has already made an official visit to Maryland and an unofficial to Baylor.

Said one source: “He’s real skilled. If he was (in the United States) the whole year, he would be a top-five (recruit).”

David Borges may be reached at dborges@nhregister.com

Here's an article that ran in today's New Haven Register on a pair of New Haven natives (Keith Cothran and Lamonte Ulmer) who are providing energy and production on both ends of the floor for the 10-1 University of Rhode Island men's basketball team. It's not UConn-related, though it's worth noting that neither player was recruited at all by the Huskies (not criticizing, just stating fact):

http://www.nhregister.com/WebApp/appmanager/JRC/BigDaily;jsessionid=Hv9LHdLTYZcTjqxRs623nrJkD2njGvZppwZxns2FgXksydY7Dh5h!-217594362?_nfpb=true&_pageLabel=pg_article&r21.pgpath=%2FNHR%2FSports%2FUConn+Men&r21.content=%2FNHR%2FSports%2FUConn+Men%2FContentTab_Feature_1239873

This one is a bit UConn-reltated -- a brief sidebar on Ben Eaves, who transferred to URI after seeing precious little playing time at UConn last year as a freshman. Ben harbors absolutely no ill will towards the Huskies, and in fact is very happy with the way his transfer was handled:

http://www.nhregister.com/WebApp/appmanager/JRC/BigDaily?_nfpb=true&_pageLabel=pg_article&r21.pgpath=%2FNHR%2FSports%2FUConn+Men&r21.content=%2FNHR%2FSports%2FUConn+Men%2FTopStoryList_Story_1239891