The two hottest teams in the Big East match up Wednesday night in Storrs, Conn., when No. 20 Notre Dame (18-4, 8-2) visits No. 17 Connecticut (18-5, 7-3).
It also will be a matchup of arguably the conference's two best sophomores in the Irish's Luke Harangody and the Huskies' Hasheem Thabeet.
Harangody has led Notre Dame to a five-game winning streak, averaging 25.0 points and 12.4 rebounds over those games.
Last week against Marquette, Harangody notched his fifth consecutive double-double when he finished with 18 points and 11 boards. The last Notre Dame player to record five straight double-doubles was Ryan Humphrey in 2001-02.
Harangody leads the Irish in both scoring and rebounds with 20.3 points and 10.2 rebounds and tops the Big East Conference in both of those categories at 23.5 points and 11.7 rebounds. He has scored in double
figures in 21 of the 22 contests and owns a career-best 20-game double-figure scoring streak.
"He has been playing awesome," Irish guard Ryan Ayers said. "He has just gotten so much better, not even making jump shots, but on the defensive game he attacks the ball, rebounds and is more physical out there. He is a guy who just keeps pushing and works hard every day. So expect more of that from Luke."However, in the Irish's 73-67 victory over UConn on Jan. 5, the 6-foot-8 Harangody was just 5-of-23 from the field while the 7-foot-3 Thabeet matched a career high with 10 blocked shots. UConn was down 21 points before rallying to lead with 6:25 left before the Irish pulled away at the end.
"That game tells us that next time, if we start well, we can do anything," Thabeet said. "We could win the game, but when we start slow, this is what happens."
UConn is a different club from that one, having won seven games in a row.
"I think they're better than when we played them in the second game of the (conference) season, but I also think we're better," Irish coach Mike Brey said. "I know that they want to get their hands on us."
The Huskies have won five of those seven straight games without suspended starting guard Jerome Dyson, who is in the midst of a 30-day suspension for a failed drug test.
Junior forward Jeff Adrien leads UConn with 14.7 points and 9.3 rebounds per game, but the surge has been sparked by the improvement of Thabeet, who’s coming off a career-high 24 points along with 15 rebounds and six blocks in Saturday's 80-68 win over Georgia Tech.
"We've got a great tool that most teams don't have," guard A.J. Price said of Thabeet.
While Thabeet and the Huskies have held their last five opponents to an average of 62.4 points, they will be facing an Irish squad which leads the Big East in scoring at 80.8 points per game.
A win for Notre Dame would match the best 23-game start overall and best 11-game start in conference play in eight seasons under Brey.
The Irish have played just once at Gampel Pavilion, losing 85-65 during the 1995-96 season. They're 1-7 all-time against the Huskies in Connecticut, mostly playing at the Hartford Civic Center.
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