UNCASVILLE — The last time UConn forward Nik Khamenia and Syracuse Head Coach Gerry McNamara shared a court, they were doing so under far difference circumstances.
For one, both were wearing different colors. Khamenia was sporting royal blue, fittingly as a member of the No. 1-seeded Duke Blue Devils, and McNamara was covered in Siena green as he made his first NCAA tournament appearance leading the No. 16-seeded Saints.
Khamenia scored just three points as a member of the Blue Devil bench. However, McNamara nearly became a household name. Coaching Siena to an 11-point halftime lead, the Saints had the basketball world on edge for a few hours waiting to see if they could pull off the early upset, coming up just short in the end.
Half a year later, Khamenia had traded in one shade of blue for another by transferring to UConn, while McNamara was sporting the familiar threads of his alma mater and where he had spent the first decade and a half of his coaching career after being named Syracuse’s head coach in late March.
When the pair met again on Tuesday night at the Mohegan Sun Arena for an exhibition game, admittedly with drastically lower stakes, it was Khamenia playing spoiler this time around.
While Duke gutted their way to an early 4-1 lead, it was Khamenia who turned the Huskies’ tides around after a sloppy start. With McNamara just inches away, crouched down and clapping furiously at defender Sadiq White Jr., Khamenia drained a three pointer. That field goal, the Huskies first almost five minutes into the contest, tied a game that the Orange would never again lead.
Khamenia ensured McNamara began his latest Syracuse tenure on a loss, leading UConn to 72-52 victory in his UConn debut.
After the game, UConn Head Coach Dan Hurley said he was not worried about how Khamenia would look in his first real minutes as Husky.
“Having trust from coach, that means a lot,” Khamenia said. “He wants me to be successful, do a lot of things for this team. Ever since the summer it’s been that way. He let me mess up a lot when I first got here; like, a lot. I mean, even now, I’m still making mistakes today. [I’ll] just continue to grow throughout the season so that, by the time we get to the Big East play and things like that, I’ll be ready.”
With former UConn head coach Jim Calhoun sitting courtside and Syracuse legend Carmelo Anthony in attendance to watch his son, Orange guard Kiyan Anthony, the opening minutes of the contest harkened back to the trademark physicality that defined the original Big East.
The two teams combined for five fouls within the first three minutes. The Huskies had contributed four fouls, including a trio of offensive fouls, by 16:53.
While those fouls and a backcourt violation prevented the UConn offense from scoring a field goal until almost five minutes into the contest, it began to find its footing when Seton Hall transfer center Na’jai Hines made his team debut with 16:53 to go in the first.
Though the Huskies’ expected starter made his UConn debut as a substitute in deference to fellow newcomer Oskar Giltay, the 6-foot-11 center showed immediately the presence he brings to the paint when in the contest. Helping to settle the UConn offense after the shaky start, Hines gave a taste of his capabilities by cleaning up on a missed Silas Demary Jr. jumper before dishing out an alley-oop slam to extend the UConn lead to six with 11:49 to play in the first.
Finishing the contest with a team-high 17 points, the sophomore shined in both the paint and from the line, mixing in a 7-for-8 performance at the foul stripe between multiple loud dunks.
“He’s talented like Adama [Sanogo]; he’s talented like Tarris [Reed Jr.],” Hurley said. “I don’t want to throw Donovan [Clingan’s] name in there with any of these guys yet, because Donovan was just like a different animal, but [Hines] was the most impressive player on the court.”
While the Orange tied the contest twice more before halftime, Khamenia suffocated both attempts with a pair of momentum-shifting plays. When Syracuse tied the game at 13 with 8:32 left to play in the first, it was Khamenia who put the Huskies back up by five with a three-pointer that forced a Syracuse timeout.
Coming out of the timeout, Syracuse posted a trio of three pointers in the final five minutes of the first to set up a game-tying second-chance make in the paint from Kiyan Anthony with just under two minutes to go in the half.
Once again, it was Khamenia ensuring the Huskies went into the half with momentum. Missing an open three-point attempt off the front of the rim, the rebound shot straight back at Khamenia, who dumped it off to Demary Jr. at the top of the key. Demary Jr. made his attempt from beyond the arc and Nils Machowski added in two more points as the clock expired to send the Huskies into halftime with a five-point lead.
The Orange again threatened out of the break, with junior guard Gavin Doty landing a turnaround jumper 20 seconds in. As if on cue, Khamenia again found the ball on the other end of the floor and sank his third three-pointer of the contest.
Finishing with a team-high plus-22 rating, Khamenia scored 12 points, going 4-for-12 from the field and 3-for-5 from three.
Demary Jr., the Big East Preseason Player of the Year, scored one more, rebounding from a slow start to score 13, including six points from the line. The 2026 All-Big East defender also contributed a team-high two steals. Khamenia and forward Colben Landrew also posted two takeaways.
In addition to Khamenia and Giltay, Landrew made his UConn debut as a member of the starting lineup in place of the injured Braylon Mullins. The freshman, who has been competing with returner Jayden Ross for a starting role, scored eight points in 28 minutes and pulled in four rebounds.
Another freshman, guard Junior County, came on in the second half, posting all nine of his points after the break. Even more impressive was his seven rebounds, just one behind Hines and Khamenia for the team lead. UConn outrebounded Syracuse by eight on the evening.
Ross flirted with foul trouble and was limited to 20 minutes, though the senior finished the contest tied with Khamenia with a team-leading three assists.
For Syracuse, White paced the Orange with 17 points, going 6-for-9 from the field and going a perfect 3-for-3 in the first half. As a team, the Orange struggled to a 30.6% shooting percentage on 49 attempts.
Moving forward, Hurley said he hopes the matchup between the former Big East rivals can return to being a regular season affair rather than an exhibition. Hurley called McNamara one of the best young coaches in the sport and said that he expects him to return Syracuse back to its previous heights as a program.
“I think it’s always pretty cool when UConn plays Syracuse,” Hurley said.