UConn men’s basketball hosts Texas at PeoplesBank Arena on Friday night, looking to wrap up another great run through non-conference play, the way it did in the championship seasons of 2023 and 2024. It will be the 12th meeting in a series that dates back to 1991, with the Huskies holding an 8-3 edge.
Dan Hurley’s squad went undefeated (11-0) out of conference in 2022-2023, a sign of greatness to come, and went 10-1 in 2023-2024 with a loss on the road to Kansas with Stephon Castle, the future No. 4 overall NBA draft pick and Rookie of the Year, sitting out injured. The 2024 team’s run ended in even more dominant fashion than the year before, as the Huskies tore through Big East play and the NCAA Tournament.
This season is shaping up for another push into April, with UConn sitting at 9-1 despite injuries to two key players, leading to the lone loss that’s as far from concerning as can be, by four points to now top-ranked Arizona.
“We [probably] played five of the top 15 teams in the country,” Hurley said. “These are teams you're going to be playing in an Elite Eight game.”
On Friday night, the Huskies meet a 7-3 Texas team that offers a dose of Big East flavor with Sean Miller, the twice-former Xavier coach who led Arizona from 2009-2021 and also played at Pitt.
The Longhorns have former Xavier forwards Daryl Swain (15.7 PPG, 6.9 RPG) and senior Lassina Traore (5.0 PPG, 7.0 RPG) as their top two rebounders. Traore sat out all of 2024-’25 due to a preseason knee injury after transferring from Long Beach State. Rotation guard Simeon Wilcher (9.4 PPG) transferred in from St. John’s and is hitting 43.2 percent from deep.
Miller’s squad is ranked 51st in KenPom (26th Offense, 103rd Defense), which projects an 81-68 Husky win.
UConn is 7th in overall efficiency (14th Offense, 7th Defense) with offensive strengths in avoiding turnovers and shooting while maintaining elite shooting defense and pretty good rebounding considering the time Tarris Reed Jr. has missed.
“I think, when it's all said and done, we're going to have a top [5 to 10] defense, top [5 to 10] offense,” Hurley said after the Florida game. “I think right now my biggest concern is probably rebounding.”
The Huskies were handily outrebounded in the loss to Arizona, but still are top-half in the country in offensive rebounds and 76th in allowing offensive rebounds. They won on the glass against Illinois with a limited Reed, and at Kansas without him, but were handily outrebounded by Florida with him in the lineup.
Matas Vokietaitis, a 7-foot transfer from FAU, is the Longhorns’ leading scorer at 15.9 PPG, while also pulling down 6.6 RPG, third on the team behind Swain. This dude can ball.
Texas also returns senior guards Jordan Pope (12.5 PPG, 3.1 APG) and Tramon Mark (9.9 PPG, 2.8 RPG, 2.5 APG), both in their second year on the team. Pope is a proficient shooter from deep, hitting 37.5 percent of his team-high 64 three-point attempts.
Barring any unforeseen setbacks, UConn will have the benefit of a fully healthy Reed in this matchup against a team that’s strong in rebounding on both sides of the court (51st nationally in offensive rebound percentage, 25th in OR% allowed) and has a lot of different dangerous scorers. Freshman Eric Reibe (9.6 PPG, 4.6 RPG), a surprise story of the season, will also take on this low-post challenge.
It all runs through Vokietaitis, who dropped 28 points in their last game against Southern and started the season with eight straight double-digit scoring performances before he was held to seven in the Longhorns’ blowout loss to UVA last week.
Texas has also lost to Duke and Arizona State; its best win came over NC State (23rd KenPom) at the Maui Invitational.
Offensively, Texas is top-10 in the country in free-throw rate, led by Vokietaitis’ 68.8 percent mark on a team-high 80 free throws. The team is also top-50 in turnover percentage and top-75 in eFG%.
On the shooting front, in addition to Wilcher and Pope, Purdue transfer Camden Heide has hit an impressive 15 of his 25 three-point attempts (60%), while Mark is currently under 30 percent but was in the mid-30s the last two seasons.
Solo Ball and Alex Karaban lead the way for the Huskies, averaging 15.0 PPG and 13.4 PPG, respectively. The scoring mix may change with Reed and Braylon Mullins now in the mix. The five-star freshman was crucial to the victory effort at Kansas (17 points, 6-12 FG in 23 mins off the bench) and also contributed late in the Florida win despite first-half foul trouble.
“What he gave us in the second half changed the game for us, and he's only a freshman,” Karaban said on Tuesday night. He added that after missing the first six games of the season, Mullins “basically got thrown into the fire with these types of games.”
Silas Demary Jr. is looking to shake off a bit of a slide after starting the season with 10 or more points in five of the six games, including 21 points in the BYU win, 13 points against Arizona, and a triple-double against Bryant in Gampel Pavilion. He dealt with foul trouble against Illinois but still finished with a solid stat line. Since then, he’s put up just two points at Kansas and six against Florida.
Along with Mullins, Malachi Smith has been there to fill the gap, dropping 14 in the win over Illinois and scoring five second-half points to help the Huskies stay ahead of the Gators on Tuesday night, as he also dished out nine assists.
In Smith, Hurley said UConn has “the luxury of a guy who was a great player at Dayton that is able to give you what he gave us.”
The Huskies have also gotten great effort from Jaylin Stewart and Jayden Ross as UConn boasts a rotation that is legitimately nine deep.
That depth promises to be a core strength as they look to be the last team standing once again.
“It was a pretty daunting task to play the schedule, especially the frontcourts, with Tarris out too,” Hurley explained. “To be able to win those games, just a testament to Karaban and his leadership and the group in general.”
Their head coach suggested that this run through non-conference play may be even more impressive than that of its predecessors. He’s hoping the home fans will show their appreciation in the last contest before the Big East slate.
“This group deserves just the best home crowd...because this team has really, really worked for its fan base,” Hurley said. “As great as the '23 non-conference slate was for us when we went undefeated, this would be our most impressive non-conference performance if we're able to get the game [against Texas], just based on the teams we played and the health of the group.”
Tip-off is at 8 p.m. on FOX from Hartford.
