UConn Men's Basketball: A Pre-Conference Play Check-In

Finally, we're done with the made-for-TV tilts, let's get into some classic Big East bare-knuckle basketball

Here we stand: at the tail end of out-of-conference play in college basketball, primed and ready for the powerhouse conferences to turn inward and cannibalize themselves for the next 3-ish months before the big dance. As such, it’s an optimal time to take stock of where a roster currently stands and what we can expect from them moving forward - and there’s no other squad that I’d rather look into than my alma mater, the back-to-back defending champion University of Connecticut Huskies. If you don’t know anything about college basketball, or UConn for that matter, it’s important to understand the personality of the program: high octane, aggressive, and fueled by their near-psychopathic head coach Dan Hurley - who received a technical foul in the 2024 national championship for shoving one of his players on the court. In line with this attitude, I don’t root for close games, I root for ruthless blowouts that leave the other roster questioning their futures in basketball. With that mindset established, let’s take a mosey through the season so far.

Dan Hurley mean-mugging it during what could be any single game in his tenure at UConn. In case you were unaware, this is now the official State Facial Expression of the Connecticut.

Overview

Sitting at 8-3 and ranked 18th nationally, their record is significantly uglier than that of their previous two seasons, leading many around the college basketball universe (including me) to conclude that they might not have the same juice as those line-ups. With that said, their out-of-conference performance has failed to answer any other questions about the team’s capabilities. They’ve taken care of virtually all the cupcake early-season match-ups, bulldozing Sacred Heart, New Hampshire, Le Moyne, East Texas A&M, and Maryland Eastern Shore - none of which realistically lend any significant insight into their firepower. All three of their losses came during the Maui Invitational - against Memphis, Colorado, and Dayton - which notably was six hours behind eastern standard time, and marred by questionable officiating across the entire schedule. That’s not to excuse three ugly losses to teams that should’ve been taken care of, but simply to seek some sort of explanation. The picture only gets murkier from there, as Dan Hurley pulled a leaf out of Connecticut native Mark Twain’s book, hitting us with the “reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated” after returning home from the Aloha State. Since being back in balmy New England, the Huskies have defeated the #15 Baylor Bears, the Texas Longhorns, and the #8 Gonzaga Bulldogs at Madison Square Garden on Saturday.

So what does it all mean? In short, I’m not quite sure. The Huskies clearly have the X-factor needed to win big games on bigger stages, but it’s not as easy to say that they’re consistent in that ability. Sure, they were able to play a top-10 Gonzaga team tight the entire game and eventually pull out a six-point win, but they dropped two 1-point losses to inferior Memphis and Colorado squads - what gives? If they can continue to maintain their focus and ward off complacency, I’d expect to see more results like those post-Maui, but the collapse in Hawaii was significant enough that I’m more nervous than I’d prefer heading in the conference slate.

Liam McNeeley asking for some girl’s number mid-game against Gonzaga. Talk about cool, calm, and collected in big-time situations!

Roster

Losing Guards Tristen Newton, Cam Spencer, and Stephon Castle, and Center Donavan Clingan to the NBA draft was both extremely exciting and hit me like a punch in the gut when I reviewed the line-up for this year’s go around. In all fairness, there were other losses - glue-guy and nepotism benefactor Andrew Hurley, deep-threat-who-never-learned-defense Apostolos Roumoglou, and Andre Johnson Jr. (who will never be Andre Jackson) - but to put it bluntly, they simply aren’t anywhere near the type of losses as the former four mentioned. So who’s stepped up to fill the empty Nike’s left in the locker room?

As expected, Forward Alex Karaban has stepped up into the spotlight for the ‘Skies continuing his evolution into one of the most underappreciated rangey forwards in the NCAA. Ask him to drive to the hoop through traffic? Done. Hit a corner three in crunch time? Done. Be really awkward during a beach interview with Jay Bilas? Done. Averaging 15.6 points per game, along with 5 rebounds and 3.1 assists, he’s not quite as explosive as the keystone players of the last few seasons, but his consistency and confidence are huge advantages. I’ll always want more, but his performance so far has met expectations. No qualms here.

The most exciting fresh face is true freshman Forward Liam McNeeley out of powerhouse Montverde Academy, who’s posted 13.6 points, 6.1 rebounds, and 2.1 assists in his first campaign with the Huskies. McNeeley’s ability to seamlessly adapt to the college game was apparent even in his debut against Sacred Heart, where he threw up 18 points. In fact, he’s only failed to score ten points or more twice this season. There’s certainly room for growth, but under Hurley’s tutelage, I can see him developing into one of the next great UConn ballplayers.

An interesting personnel storyline to watch moving forward is at the Center role, where the hole left behind by the monstrous 7’2” Donavan Clingan has been so far handled by committee, with Samson Johnson and Tarris Reed Jr. splitting minutes. Reed currently has the edge, averaging 20.4 minutes per game against Johnson’s 16.9, but not by much - though I expect that to change. Reed’s 8 rebounds per game is substantially more impressive than Johnson’s 2.5, and while 11.1 points per game isn’t miles ahead of 7.4, it’s enough that I would expect Reed to continue to outpace his counterpart in usage moving forward.

Lastly, the biggest disappointment this season has been St. Mary’s transfer Aidan Mahaney, who’s been unable to smoothly make the adjustment from the California sun to the frozen tundra of northeastern Connecticut. Despite averaging 13.9 points per game in both his seasons for the Gaels, he’s only managed to squeak out 4.6 points, 1.8 assists, and 1 rebound per game for the Huskies so far this season. The disparity isn’t lost on Dan Hurley either, who pulled Mahaney from the starting line-up after the overtime loss against Memphis on November 25th. We’ll see if Mahaney manages to pull out of his slump during conference play in the Big East, but my feeling is the talent jump from the West Coast Conference (minus Gonzaga, who’s departing for the new Pac-12, anyways) to the arguably meanest conference in college basketball may prove too much.

Alex Karaban hanging on the rim against Illinois during last year’s tournament, while Cam Spencer no doubt is talking enormous smack to that poor Fighting Illini. I miss him dearly.

The Future

Looking ahead, the rest of the season is composed of a 20-game in-conference stretch in the Big East, a conference that used to exist solely so angry East Coast schools could beat the snot out of each other on the court - but now extends to our more gentle cousins in the Midwest (looking at you, Creighton, Marquette, and DePaul). If you don’t believe me about the animosity, I’d challenge you to set foot in an arena for a UConn-Providence game and tell me you don’t feel the mutual hatred that hangs over the place like a great smokey haze.

As with the Huskies, the Big East is simply not as strong as it’s been over the past few seasons, with the only other ranked program being the Marquette Golden Eagles at #6. However, part of the beauty of college basketball is that conference play is always an absolute zoo, so don’t expect the next few months to be any sort of cake walk. With a combined record of 72-34 so far, the Big East does contain legitimate talent that will no doubt test UConn’s metal - notably Marquette’s Kam Jones (20.1 points, 4.7 rebounds, 6.4 assists per game), Villanova’s Eric Dixon (25.8 points, 5.9 rebounds, 2.1 assists per game), Xavier’s Zach Freemantle (16.9 points, 7.7 rebounds, 2.5 assists per game), and the ever-familiar juggernaut in the paint for Creighton, Ryan Kalkbrenner (17.4 points, 8.3 rebounds, 1.3 assists per game).

Tristan Newton receiving an elbow to the head against Providence last season. I’ll just say it, this is the energy we need to bring back to sports as a whole.

While I’m not personally prescient enough to predict the outcomes for each game left, ESPN’s match-up predictor currently has UConn tearing through conference play going 19-1 - splitting Marquette home-and-home - for a full season record of 27-4. While I don’t necessarily believe that will come true, after all it’s all but guaranteed to drop an off game to a lesser team during conference play, it’s a nice thing to daydream about. And if there’s one thing a man can do when it comes to college hoops, it’s dream.

Dan Hurley and I share a fashion sense. Makes sense why neither of us are in the fashion world.