2024 was a historic year for the UConn men’s basketball team (10-3, 2-0 Big East). With January arriving, many have flashbacks to the 2022-23 season, when the Huskies went 3-5 and at one point lost three consecutive games.
“I want to thank 2023 and I want to thank 2024 as we turn to 2025,” head coach Dan Hurley said during a Zoom call on Tuesday afternoon. “I want to thank those years for how good they were to us. They were good to us because we had two-way players for the most part throughout our rotation.”
On New Year’s Day, the Huskies look to start 2025 right, beginning with a road game against the DePaul Blue Demons (9-4, 0-2 Big East).
The Blue Demons are already having a better season than last year, tripling their win total (3) just 12 games into the season. The last time DePaul had nine wins going into the New Year was during the 2021-22 season, with a 9-2 record as they hosted Providence during what ended up being a 0-5 start in Big East play.
DePaul is on pace to break a program record for most 3-pointers made in a single season. They are averaging 11.6 made per game, with an overall percentage of 38.9% (22nd in the country) which could give UConn trouble, as the Huskies rank 349th nationally in opponent 3-point percentage (38.8%). According to CBB Analytics, DePaul ranks in the 96th percentile in 3-point attempts per game (29.8) and the 94th percentile in 3-point percentage. They shoot 49% of their shots from deep, making the team impressive because of how tough it is to sustain those percentages.
“There’s some technique issues, there’s some awareness issues, there’s been some scheme issues,” Hurley said when asked about perimeter defense. “I do think we’ve been
a little bit unlucky in terms of teams shooting just way above the norm that they would on [3-point] shots.”
“If we can’t fix our on-ball defense, our ball screen defense, our rim protection when Samson [Johnson’s] out of the game and then our perimeter defense… it’s going to be a very frustrating year,” Hurley added.
Hopes are high, and head coach Chris Holtmann, in his first year at the helm, is looking to bring the Blue Demons to the national spotlight. Holtmann has a lot of credentials, with successful tenures at his previous two stops: Butler and Ohio State.
“Chris [Holtmann] has done an unbelievable job of getting in some really old, experienced, tough players both at guard and at the center position,” Hurley said. “[He’s] going to have [DePaul] viable as an NCAA Tournament team I think pretty soon. He’s a really, really good coach.”
The key player in DePaul’s starting lineup is sophomore shooting guard Jacob Meyer, who leads the team with 14.5 points per game. He has come off the bench for most of the season before starting in the Blue Demons’ loss to Providence.
DePaul heavily relies on point guard Connor Enright, who they use at the position 78% of the time according to KenPom. He leads the Big East in assists, averaging 7.1 per game. That ranks eighth in the nation.
No bench in the Big East has been more prolific than DePaul’s as they lead all Big East teams with 34.62 bench points per game, which ranks 14th in the country.
According to KenPom, UConn ranks just outside the top 100 nationally in adjusted defensive efficiency. However, that could be improved if they win as the Blue Demons currently rank last in the conference in adjusted offensive efficiency during Big East play so far.
“Right now, we’re a national championship contender and a Big East championship contender offensively,” Hurley said. “Defensively, we’re not contenders. We’re defending like pretenders.”
Connecticut has done well in Chicago, with a 9-1 record, including a 7-1 record against DePaul. UConn has only lost once to the Blue Demons in the first 20 games of the all-time series, with a win at home on Jan. 31, 2007.
The Huskies have not played a game since defeating Butler on Dec. 21. DePaul last played on Dec. 28, stomping Loyola (Md.) thanks to a season-high 24 second-chance points and 52 points in the paint.
UConn will face the Blue Demons at 2 p.m. ET at the Wintrust Arena in downtown Chicago on CBS Sports Network.