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What we learned about the UConn men’s basketball team through three exhibition wins
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- What we learned about the UConn men’s basketball team through three exhibition wins
(Aaron Flaum/Hartford Courant/TNS)
The UConn men's basketball team cruised again in its final exhibition game Tuesday night, showing glimpses of Final Four potential as it continued to turn heads with a defensive effort that made Purdue look noncompetitive in the 76-53 drubbing.
Beating Syracuse, Michigan State and the Boilermakers, the Huskies only trailed for a total of six minutes and 46 seconds over three games.
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"We didn't play great, but I think that we're going to be able to learn a lot from this. And knowing that we were able to win by 23 and we didn't have a great night, it just gives us more confidence that we're gonna go to work and just continue to chip away and build on it," said Jayden Ross , who started the show with a pair of corner 3-pointers and rose above the rim twice to dunk in transition.
UConn men's basketball rolls past Purdue, 76-53, in final preseason exhibition
Ross is one of the six starters Hurley said this team has to work with, alongside Silas Demary Jr., Braylon Mullins, Nik Khamenia, Na'jai Hines and freshman Colben Landrew, who seems likely to start the season off the bench as a high-impact rookie. All six, UConn coach Dan Hurley said, will play "starter minutes" when the team plays true to its rotation next week.
UConn opens the season on Monday at 9 p.m. against Gardner-Webb at PeoplesBank Arena.
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"The thing with programs like ours, the bigger programs that are really talented, guys are gonna have to sacrifice," Hurley said. "It looks like a team that could contend, and I think that's all you're hoping to see at this point."
What we learned through three exhibition games:
Defense is calling card
Hurley said Tuesday night that this UConn team has more, better perimeter defenders than the championship teams in 2023 and '24, which included a slew of NBA players on the perimeter like Stephon Castle, Cam Spencer and Andre Jackson Jr. The Huskies had 22 steals and 10 blocks over three games, and combined to hold their opponents to 56 of 163 (34%) shooting from the field.
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"It has the makings of a great defensive team," he said. "Obviously there were some mistakes made today in ball screen coverages, hedging too far from the basket, there's some things that we've got to kind of get back to and get fixed."
Freshmen stand out
It is impossible to ignore Landrew at 6 feet 6, 236 pounds, and once your eyes get stuck on him, they can't help but be impressed. His physicality was always going to allow him to make an impact on the defensive end from the wing, but his offensive game, cutting, driving to the basket and even nailing a pair of 3-pointers as he led the Huskies in scoring Tuesday night with 15 points, has been very impressive.
Freshman Junior County , trusted to be a ball-handler off the bench and back up Demary Jr., didn't have his best game on Tuesday but showed his capabilities as a 3-point shooter with three triples against Syracuse and the impact of his length on the perimeter defensively at Michigan State.
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Strong, but not yet dominant on the glass
Hurley was happy to see 11 rebounds from Duke transfer Nik Khamenia in the box score, but he didn't like the rest of what he saw in the rebounding column as the Huskies finished plus-six on the glass. They were plus-eight against Syracuse and minus-three at Michigan State.
Meanwhile, Khamenia is under a microscope as he begins his first year at UConn, after transferring away from a Duke fan base that seems obsessed with microanalyzing and tearing him down since he opted to find a better basketball fit in the portal.
Meanwhile, UConn fans are getting their own impression of the wing set to replace Alex Karaban, and it hasn't been anything short of positive. Khamenia averaged 13 points over the three exhibition games, including a team-high 19 in a true road environment against the Spartans. He's averaged 8.3 rebounds and 2.3 assists, and made 6 of 14 attempts from beyond the arc (42.8%).
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Mullins working his way back
Braylon Mullins made his return from an undisclosed injury and his preseason debut against Purdue, getting involved early as a playmaker with three assists in the first five minutes and four in the first half. He made three shots from the field on nine attempts, including a midrange jumper from the free throw line, a floater in the paint and a wing 3-pointer, to finish with seven points in 24 minutes. Every time he came off the court, gassed, Mullins strapped on two high-tech-looking knee braces and stayed loose on the exercise bikes off to the side of the Huskies' bench.
"The second half, things started to look a little cleaner, a lot smoother, a lot easier," Hurley said. "This was really important for him to be able to get one of these under his belt before we start playing games that have real consequences."
