No. 11 Huskies Open BIG EAST Play vs. Xavier At XL

On By Littum

HARTFORD – UConn no. 11 men’s basketball team (8-3, 0-0 BIG EAST) begins its dual BIG EAST title defense Wednesday night when it hosts Xavier (8-3, 0-0 BIG EAST) in the league opener for both teams. Tip-off from the XL Center is set for 19 on FS1 with Alex Faust and Bill Raftery on the call.

UConn is coming off a top-10 win over then-No. 8 Gonzaga on Saturday night and won their 10thth– right in New York City with a 77-71 triumph at Madison Square Garden. It was Connecticut’s fourth straight win after their tumultuous trip to Maui and put the Huskies right back in the national conversation. Xavier is coming off a tough setback in the rivalry game at Cincinnati on Saturday. Both teams were picked in the top-three of the BIG EAST Preseason Coaches Poll as they begin league play on Wednesday.

Connecticut aims to add to its league records of 11 regular season titles and eight tournament titles when the 20-game true round-robin begins. Oddly enough, despite those titles, UConn is just 18-20 in BIG EAST openers since joining the league at its inception for the 1979-80 season and returned after a seven-year hiatus in 2020. Dan Hurley are 1-5 in league openers at UConn, and the Huskies haven’t won a conference opener at home since 2011.

The Huskies are 6-4 against Xavier in a series dating back to the second round of the 1991 NCAA Tournament. The last eight meetings have come as league mates. The two teams met three times a season ago, with Connecticut sweeping the regular season series before a 27-point victory in the BIG EAST Tournament Quarterfinals. Xavier’s last trip to the XL Center was in January 2024, a memorable trip in which UConn hit a program record 17 3-pointers and posted the third-highest scoring margin in a game in conference history in the 99-56 victory.

Liam McNeely led the Huskies against Gonzaga on Saturday, earning BIG EAST Freshman of the Week honors with a career-high 26 points, a game-high eight rebounds and four assists with no turnovers. This season McNeely is second both on the Huskies and among BIG EAST freshmen in scoring (13.6 ppg) and rebounding (6.1 rpg). Alex Karaban is UConn’s leading scorer at 15.6 points per game. game, adding 5.0 rebounds and 1.9 blocks per game. competition. Solo ball (12.5 ppg) and Tarris Reed Jr. (11.1 ppg, 8.0 rpg) also averaged double figures for the Huskies.

Xavier is off to an 8-3 start this season with quality wins over Wake Forest and South Carolina in non-league play. Zach Freemantle leads Xavier with 16.9 points and 7.7 rebounds per game, but head coach Sean Miller announced this week that he will be out indefinitely with a lower-body injury. Ryan Conwell adds 16.5 points per game on 44.8 percent shooting from 3-point range, and Dayvion McKnight is scoring 10.3 per

After the league opener Wednesday night, UConn will hit the road to close out 2024 at Butler on Dec. 21.