Jerome Dyson's loss won't hurt UConn's national championship hopes all that much. In fact, I'm not sure if it'll hurt the Huskies at all.

Sure, Dyson was second on the team in scoring (13.2 ppg) and is capable of exploding. But the Huskies proved they could win without him when he was suspended last season.

In fact, they were a better team when Dyson was out.

UConn was 8-1 - with the lone loss coming at Villanova.

I'm not saying here that UConn couldn't use Dyson in order to win a national title, but what I'm saying is that even if he doesn't return from the knee injury he suffered early in the win against Syracuse the Huskies can still cut down the nets in Detroit.

In fact, Jim Calhoun's team remains the frontrunner.

Freshman Kemba Walker should benefit with Dyson out of the lineup - and if I'm an opponent, I'm more fearful of a Walker-A.J. Price backcourt because of Walker gives you speed and a natural point guard.

If Walker logged 30-plus minutes per game and was the focal point of an offense, he'd be a legitimate candidate for National Freshman of the Year.

UConn can also bring insert veteran guard Craig Austrie, who has started 34 games in his career, into the starting lineup.