For most of Wednesday night’s game at Providence, it looked like the fourth-ranked UConn men’s basketball team (15-1, 5-0 Big East) would see its win streak end at 11 in a row.
However, a 13-point comeback got the Huskies to overtime, where they ultimately stunned the Friars, 103-98. Now, Connecticut returns to the PeoplesBank Arena in Hartford, Conn., in search of its 12th consecutive win with the DePaul Blue Demons (10-6, 2-3 Big East) coming to the state capital.
UConn and DePaul have already met earlier this season, as the Huskies defeated the Blue Demons at Wintrust Arena in Chicago on Dec. 21, 72-54. Alex Karaban, coming off a 23-point outing on Wednesday, excelled in the first contest with 21 points on 7-of-12 shooting from the floor. Tarris Reed Jr., who had a big second half against Providence, recorded a 14-point, 11-rebound double-double.
Karaban and Reed, along with Silas Demary Jr. and Braylon Mullins, were the four players who hit the 20-point mark on Wednesday at Providence. That combined performance marked the first time in program history that four players scored at least 20 points in the same game.
Even more history was made on Wednesday night. Demary became the first Husky to record a 20-point, 10-assist double-double, and his 15 assists were the third-most in a single game in the school’s history. According to Stathead’s Katie Sharp, he is the only Division I player in the last 15 seasons with at least 23 points, 15 assists, and five steals in any game.
Braylon Mullins became the first UConn freshman since Jerome Dyson to hit six 3-pointers in one game. Dyson did it twice in his freshman season, against Syracuse and Louisville. The program record for 3-pointers made in a game by a freshman is Khalid El-Amin’s seven against Hartford during the 1997-98 season. To be in the same paragraph as Dyson and El-Amin is special.
In addition to a tremendous game from Mullins, the team as a whole made history. The Huskies’ 18 3-pointers broke the program’s single-game record, previously set in wins over Xavier (Jan. 18, 2024) and Oregon (Nov. 24, 2022) with 17 made in each contest.
This season marks the first time since the 2001-02 season that the Huskies have started Big East play with five-straight wins. To put that in perspective, that ’01-’02 team had Caron Butler, Emeka Okafor, Ben Gordon, Taliek Brown and Tony Robertson, and they swept the Big East regular season (in the East division) and tournament championships. Unfortunately for that team, eventual national champion Maryland prevented the Huskies from advancing to the Final Four in the East Regional Final.
Like Providence, DePaul is also starting to pick up some momentum. For the first time since 2022, the Blue Demons earned back-to-back home Big East wins with victories over Xavier and Georgetown. The latter included the Blue Demons holding Georgetown to just one shot made in the second half, tying an NCAA record.
Against Xavier, DePaul finished the game with six players scoring in double-figures, the first time the program has had that happen in a Big East game since Jan. 3, 2008.
However, in the last five games, DePaul’s offense ranks one of the worst in the country (318th in offensive rating). On the bright side, thanks to a historic second half against Georgetown, the Blue Demons are now inside the top-50 in defensive efficiency on KenPom. In conference play, no team has been better at defending shots inside the 3-point arc than DePaul, holding opponents to 40.1% shots made.
This is the third time this week that the Huskies are playing a game, leaving little room for rest.
“We play another team that played the day before we played,” Dan Hurley said on Wednesday after starting the season 15-1 for the first time in his career. “I think that’s, like, the sixth time now that we’re playing a team that’s had an extra day of rest before we play.”
Hat-tip to CT Insider’s David Borges for looking into the stat, where he found that Saturday’s game against DePaul will be the fourth time that this has happened.
Chris Holtmann’s team has earned the praise of Hurley, who called the team “brutal to play against.”
Indeed, they are. Like Hurley’s teams, Holtmann likes to run sets on offense, resulting in ranking 14th in the country in assist percentage (64%). Do not expect UConn to make 18 3-pointers like the Huskies did on Wednesday. DePaul’s opponents shoot just 18.9 3-pointers per game, 22nd-lowest in the country. That can disrupt a team that is coming off a historic performance from downtown.
Tip-off from Hartford on Saturday is set for 12:30 p.m. and will be televised on TNT.