There is one more week left in the college basketball regular season and the UConn men’s basketball team (20-9, 12-6 Big East) can improve its Big East Tournament seeding as they look to sweep the No. 20 Marquette Golden Eagles (22-7, 13-5 Big East) on Wednesday night at the Harry A. Gampel Pavilion.
The final two games for the Huskies are set to be played at Gampel Pavilion for the final two games of the regular season. With a win against Marquette, Connecticut can move into a prime position to earn the No. 3 seed in next week’s conference tournament. They can finish as high as the No. 2 seed, but that is unlikely after splitting the regular season series with Creighton.
UConn can be as low as the No. 6 seed in the Big East Tournament, but that is unlikely with a 3% chance according to Matt Hackman. Marquette, on the other hand, has clinched a first-round bye and can finish as high as No. 2 and as low as No. 5. The most likely scenario for the Golden Eagles would be the No. 3 seed.
“You just want to finish as high as possible in the Big East and you just want to be the closest to the top as possible,” Alex Karaban said at a pregame media availability. “So, we’re fine with any path for the Big East [Tournament]. It’s just more so we want to finish as high as we possibly can.”
In the first meeting of the regular season, Connecticut stunned the Golden Eagles in Milwaukee, Wis. Solo Ball had arguably his best game in a UConn uniform, scoring 25 points and grabbing 11 defensive rebounds while shooting 7-9 from the 3-point line.
Tarris Reed Jr. has been on a tear for UConn and was named to the Big East Weekly Honor Roll. He had a career day on Saturday at Providence, scoring 24 points, grabbing 18 rebounds and blocking six shots on 10-13 shooting.
He will face another big who made the Big East Honor Roll as Marquette’s Ben Gold is heating up at the right time. Last week, the stretch-big averaged 16 points and five rebounds in wins over Providence and Georgetown.
Samson Johnson was nearly invisible on Saturday, much due to Reed’s dominance. However, he had a massive impact in the first meeting, finishing the night with 13 points.
Liam McNeeley was named the Big East Freshman of the Week for the seventh time this season after averaging 15.5 points, 3.5 assists and three rebounds in two games played last week.
Marquette has a lethal backcourt with Kam Jones, Stevie Mitchell and Chase Ross. Jones is considered a contender for Big East Player of the Year and serves as the frontman for the No. 30 offense according to KenPom. He averages 18.4 points, which ranks third in the conference behind Villanova’s Eric Dixon and Creighton’s Ryan Kalkbrenner. With Tyler Kolek gone, Jones has taken the role of creating opportunities for his teammates and averages 6.2 assists per game (15th in the country).
“People thought there would be a drop off since they lost Kolek and Oso [Ighodaro], but there hasn’t been a drop off at all,” Karaban said.
What makes Marquette a tall task for the Huskies is their defense, which ranks 19th in the country in terms of efficiency.
The anchor of that defense is Mitchell, who would be a contender for Big East Defensive Player of the Year if Kalkbrenner did not exist. He ranks second in the Big East in total steals with 69 and leads the conference in steal percentage at 5.4%. His steal-to-turnover ratio is at the top of the league as well, with an average of 2.76.
“We definitely want to cut the turnovers down,” Ball said. “That’s all we were working on in practice today.”
Their defense has been better lately, with a rating of 94.9 in the last five games (99th percentile nationally).
It will be the 21st meeting between the two, dating back to 2006. The Huskies hold a 12-8 record over the Golden Eagles, including a 9-2 record since joining the new Big East. It will be the first meeting in the Northeast since the 2024 Big East Championship game.
Tip-off is set for 8:30 p.m. and will be televised on FS1. It is promoted to be a white-out game in Gampel Pavilion.