UConn trails West Virginia 42-36 at the half, and the Huskies have to consider themselves a bit lucky to be down just six. The Mountaineers are shooting 53 percent from the floor, have buried five 3-pointers and have caused some problems switching back and forth from a match-up zone to man-to-man, forcing 9 UConn turnovers.

Meanwhile, the Huskies can't stop Joe Alexander (7-for-12, 15 points), no matter what they do: Jeff Adrien, Gavin Edwards, Jerome Dyson and Stanley Robinson took turns guarding him, and UConn even switched to a 2-3 zone briefly. Nothing really worked.

Adrien started on him, and Alexander burned him for 9 points in the first 11 minutes. Dyson took over and did a respectable job, but got called for a blocking foul with 5:38 left and went to the bench. Robinson took over and quickly gave up a 12-footer. Alexander also burned UConn's zone with a tough bank jumper.

The Huskies have been kept in the game offensively by A.J. Price (13 points), Adrien (9) and Robinson (8). Hasheem Thabeet has five points but picked up his second foul with 0.1 seconds left. Craig Austrie, Doug Wiggins and Jerome Dyson have bombined for exactly one shot attempt and one point.

UConn has to tighten up on its perimer 'D' and/or find a way to limit Alexander. Otherwise, it'll be a quick visit to Manhattan.