The 2024-25 UConn men’s basketball team got its first taste of Big East basketball on Wednesday night, earning a win in an overtime thriller against hot-shooting Xavier.
That game featured the physicality, unpredictability and grit that is synonymous with the league, which coach Dan Hurley prepared his group of newcomers for when they joined the program.
Liam McNeeley described his first experience in Big East competition as “probably the most emotionally intense I’ve ever been during a game,” as he scored all 14 of his points in the second half and was juggled on and off the court with foul trouble, doing all he could to make his mark on a matchup that featured 22 lead changes.
Pulling that one out gave the Huskies momentum as they carry a five-game winning streak into Hinkle Fieldhouse on Saturday – a tough and historic environment that has played host to some gutty UConn wins since its return to the Big East.
“How could you not get excited about playing at Hinkle, playing college basketball at Hinkle in the state of Indiana, where they just love basketball, they love college basketball,” Hurley said on a Zoom call Friday. “They’ve lost a couple in a row, we’re on a win streak and feeling better about ourselves than we did a few weeks ago. But at noon tomorrow at Hinkle, there is gonna be a life or death desperation for both teams to do whatever they possibly can to win the game.”
Butler (7-5) has lost four games in a row and sits as the No. 73 team in KenPom.com’s rankings and No. 74 in the NET. Thad Matta’s team has quality nonconference wins over SMU, Northwestern and Mississippi State on its resumé, but also some bad losses to Austin Peay (KenPom No. 272) and North Dakota State (No. 124). Still, the Bulldogs led No. 9 Marquette at halftime in their Big East opener on the road and hung on until the Golden Eagles pulled away midway through the second half.
UConn holds a 9-0 advantage in the series against Butler, which began in the 2011 national championship game. The Huskies are 1-0 in true road games so far this season, having beaten Texas in Austin during the current winning streak.
None of that matters once the ball is tipped.
“You can throw all the NET rankings and the KenPoms and all the different analytical things out the window when Big East conference play starts,” Hurley said. “It always lives up to the hype and it always exceeds expectations. Last year we made it look easy to win Big East games. Our reality this year is we’re gonna have to battle. And we’re gonna have a lot more nights like (Wednesday) night, where we’re gonna have to reach down deep vs. a team that was absolutely hitting everything they were looking at and played incredible ball.
“This league, it lived up to what we told Liam it was gonna be like, what we told Tarris (Reed Jr.) and Aidan Mahaney, all of the new guys, it was what we told them it was gonna be.”
Johnson returned to practice, will be game time decision
Reed starred in his first UConn start, posting 20 points, 13 rebounds, four blocks and two steals with Samson Johnson in concussion protocol. The Huskies could get Johnson, their “heart and soul,” according to Hurley, back after he was cleared for a full practice on Friday.
“He went through all the aspects of practice and he looked good, he feels great. Obviously we’ve got to see how he feels (Saturday) relative to any symptoms, but he’s been feeling really good the last couple of days,” Hurley said.
After a slow start to the year out of the center position, Johnson had his best start to a game before he went down early in the first half against Gonzaga at Madison Square Garden, finishing plus-12 in just six minutes played. He and Reed have combined to shoot 75% from the field thus far, and have helped the team lead the nation in blocks per game with 7.1.
“What we have at center this year won’t be the reason why we don’t achieve our goals,” Hurley said. “We have a lot at center, we’ve got the heart and soul of the team with Samson and we’ve got Tarris, who, obviously you can see is a much different player at UConn through this first third of the year.”
Battle plan for Butler
UConn doesn’t have a defensive stopper on the perimeter like it has in recent years with guys like Andre Jackson Jr. or Stephon Castle, who would make the game plan a lot simpler for Saturday. But the Huskies have steadily improved on the defensive end, despite the ridiculous shooting numbers Xavier put up on Wednesday (50% from the field, 54% from beyond the arc).
Butler relies heavily on its big, experienced forwards in Jahmyl Telfort (6-foot-7, 16.2 points per game) and Pierre Brooks (6-foot-6, 15.2), who each returned from last year’s team. They added Patrick McCaffrey, a 6-9 forward who spent five years at Iowa and is shooting 47.1% from beyond the arc, and Kolby King, a 6-2 guard, who spent last season at Tulane after a year at St. John’s and is shooting 44.4% from 3 off the bench.
“Where Butler really hurts you is when you can’t guard Telfort or Books one-on-one and you have to put two on the ball because you’ve got to trap it out of the post. Or you’ve got to bring early help and you’ve got McCaffrey, you’ve got King, you’ve got their finishers at center, you’ve got (point guard Finley) Bizjack, you’ve got (Landon) Moore – some real firepower on the perimeter,” Hurley said.
“But I just think overall for us on the perimeter right now, we’ve got to get a mentality about us where we’re going to shut our matchup down. I’m not gonna need help off the dribble, I’m gonna take away the 3-point line. We need some stoppers and some perimeter defenders to emerge for us. In the past, it was very clear.”
What to know
Site: Hinkle Fieldhouse, Indianapolis
Time: Noon
Records: No. 11 UConn: 9-3 (1-0 Big East), Butler: 7-5 (0-1)
Series: UConn leads, 9-0
Last meeting: Feb. 6, 2024 – UConn 71, Butler 62 at the XL Center in Hartford
Streaming: Peacock – Noah Reed, Tim Welsh
Radio: Fox Sports 97-9 – Mike Crispino, Wayne Norman
Pregame reading:
- UConn men’s basketball outlasts Xavier in 94-89 overtime thriller to begin Big East play
- Xavier’s Sean Miller on Alex Karaban: ‘I don’t know if college basketball has ever had a better winner’
- Dom Amore: Tarris Reed Jr. was the ‘Kodiak bear’ for UConn men’s cardiac win over Xavier
- UConn men’s basketball notes: Clutch Solo Ball helps Huskies adjust to playing close games
