After an up-and-down Big East season that concluded with a 72-61 semifinal loss to the Creighton Bluejays, the UConn men’s basketball returns to postseason action to start their national championship defense. To have a chance at pulling off the historic three-peat, Connecticut must take care of business this Friday in Raleigh against the Oklahoma Sooners.
For as good as the Huskies have looked at times, to emerge victorious and have a chance at playing, most likely No. 1 Florida, on Sunday, the program must do a better job defending. In the first half of their Big East Tournament Semifinal showdown against Creighton, Connecticut allowed their Big East rivals to score 46 points in the first half on 75% shooting.
Seventy. Five. Percent.
For how poor UConn’s defense has played at times, it has never delved down to this level, with Connecticut allowing Creighton whatever they wanted on offense. Despite this, head coach Dan Hurley expressed confidence in his side’s ability to lock up Oklahoma scorers and how dangerous the program becomes when they play excellent defense. The two-time national champion head coach believes that Connecticut “becomes very, very dangerous” if they bring their A-game defensively and use it to escape the first round. In order to escape the first round, UConn must contain Jeremiah Fears.
Despite only being a freshman, Fears has done an excellent job impacting the game in many ways, averaging 17 points a night on over 32% shooting. Despite only being a 6-foot-4 guard, Fears has demonstrated an ability to snag over four boards a night, mostly on long rebounds. From there, this creates fastbreak offense for the Sooners’ as Fears and the program take off running; this is also an area where Jalon Moore excels.
Moors is coming off an excellent 2024-2025 campaign, scoring 16 points a night on solid 44% shooting. Despite being a 6-foot-7 forward, Moore can stretch the floor, hitting shots from beyond the arc 42.4 percent of the time. While Oklahoma’s 6-12 Southeastern conference record is enough to fool some fans on their true talent, the SEC was one of the most loaded conferences in recent memory, with a record 14 programs receiving an NCAA Tournament bid. Alex Karaban acknowledged this point ahead of his side’s Friday night matchup and noted that the Sooners have a talented cast.
“Super talented team, super well-coached. They’ve played in the gauntlet of the SEC, so they’re battle tested,” Karaban told the media. “So we’ve got to be ready from the jump. They’ve got terrific players — Fears, Moore, their surrounding cast. They’re a really good team, super well coached. They get it after it defensively. So we have to really bring our A game if we want to beat them.”
Among other Big East coaches, Hurley has raised an interesting point regarding the officiating of these tournament games. Going out of conference benefits Big East teams, as it is not as physical as a game, and programs have more freedom of movement to do what they want defensively. Ahead of Friday night’s contest, Hassan Diarra acknowledged this and believes it will play into the program’s strengths.
“The Big East is very physical. The [Big East] teams like to blow up a lot of our actions and make us play a slowed-down game. When you get outside of the Big East, it’s more up-and-down, more freedom, a lot of transition. I think that’s beneficial for us,” Diarra said.
The Huskies will play for their tournament lives this Friday at 9:25 p.m. For as shaky as the Huskies have played, they have shown flashes of excellence throughout this season, whether against Villanova at the Garden or twice against ranked Marquette. The program has the potential to beat anyone on any given night. As the story has been so many times before, the version of UConn on display Friday night will decide whether this year’s Connecticut squad is a first-round bounce or a genuine Final Four threat.