No. 4 UConn is back in Storrs on Monday night, and the Huskies will do it with a little ceremony mixed into the basketball.
Wagner comes to the M&T Bank Center at Harry A. Gampel Pavilion for a 7:00 PM tip, with the game set to air on truTV and HBO Max and Brendan Glasheen, Jim Spanarkel and Andy Katz on the call.
It’s also the Huskies and Heroes Game, with UConn set to honor those who protect our freedoms and have given the ultimate sacrifice throughout the contest.
The Huskies arrive fresh off their first big test of the season, and they passed it. UConn knocked off No.
16 Michigan 85-77 on Friday night in the Hall of Fame Series Boston at TD Garden, a result that extended the program’s run of success in that building to four straight wins since 2024. Braylon Mullins and Silas Demary Jr. carried the scoring load, combining for 44 points with Mullins finishing at 23 and Demary Jr. adding 21.
Colben Landrew gave the Huskies another double-figure scorer with 14 points and a team-high eight rebounds in 23 minutes off the bench.
Demary Jr. stuffed the stat sheet in every direction, too. He added seven rebounds, a game-high four assists and two steals, and he did it without a turnover while logging a game-high 36 minutes.
That performance earned him MVP honors of the Hall of Fame Series Boston for the second year in a row. As a team, UConn held Michigan to 25.0 percent shooting from three and forced 14 turnovers.
Through two games, the Huskies look every bit like a team that has settled in quickly. They’re 2-0 for the eighth time in nine years under Dan Hurley, and the early numbers show a balanced attack.
Mullins leads the way at 21.5 points per game while shooting 41.2 percent from three and hitting 3.5 triples per game. Demary Jr. is averaging 13.0 points, 7.5 rebounds and 6.0 assists.
Landrew is right there at 12.5 points and 6.5 rebounds per game, and Nik Khamenia is putting up 10.5 points and 4.0 rebounds. Na’jai Hines has chipped in 9.5 points per game and ranks second on the team with 7.0 rebounds per contest.
Monday night also brings a familiar name back to campus. UConn and Wagner have met six times in a series that dates to 1953, with the Huskies winning the first five before Wagner pulled an upset early in the 2016-17 season.
The UConn victories came in a home-and-home in 1953 and 1954, along with wins in 1998, 2002 and 2011. The last three meetings have all been played in Storrs.
There’s another layer to this one for Hurley, whose first collegiate coaching job came at Wagner. He spent two seasons with the Seahawks from 2010-12, taking over after a 5-26 campaign and guiding the program to 13-17 in his first year before breaking through with a 25-6 season in 2011-12.
Hurley was on the Wagner sideline for UConn’s last win in the series on Nov. 14, 2011, the only time in his career he coached against the Huskies. Monday night will be his first game coaching against Wagner.
Wagner comes in at 0-2 after losses at Boston College and Miami. Kareem Watson leads the Seahawks with 11.0 points per game, while Cam Estevez is averaging 10.0. Former UConn big man Youssouf Singare has started both games and is putting up 3.0 points and 4.0 rebounds per contest.
In Other News...
UConn Just Got Another Early Reminder The Polls Need Convincing
UConns latest AP Top 25 placement offered a familiar kind of early-season reminder: even after beating Michigan 85-77 in a rematch of last years national championship game, the Huskies are still sitting at No. 4. The top of the poll remains crowded with Florida, Duke and Illinois ahead of them, which means Dan Hurleys team is already in the position of having to keep proving that its early work belongs right there with the nations best.
There will be chances to do exactly that later in the nonconference schedule, including meetings with Duke and Illinois that should give UConn a direct chance to reshape the conversation. For now, the Huskies can at least point to the start they have made, along with some individual recognition for Colben Landrew and Braylon Mullins, who earned Big East weekly honors for their play in the first two games of the season. [Read more 🡒]
UConns Fast Start Has Fans Eyeing A Bigger Early Climb
UConn stayed put at No. 4 in the first AP Top 25 poll of the season after opening with a 2-0 start that already offered a little bit of everything. The Huskies handled Gardner-Webb and then backed it up with a win over No. 16 Michigan, a useful early reminder that last seasons standard is still the one this group is chasing.
Freshman Colben Landrew gave the weekend even more of a lift by earning Big East Freshman of the Week honors, another sign that UConn is getting contributions beyond the usual headline names. The schedule does not ease up for long, either, with Wagner, Ohio State, Arizona and Duke all looming as the Huskies try to turn a promising start into something bigger. [Read more 🡒]
UConns November Statement Just Changed How The Huskies Look Nationally
November has already started to reshape the national picture, and UConn is right in the middle of it. Preseason exhibition results have carried more weight than usual in the early AP Top 25 conversation, with some teams getting pushed down after shaky tune-ups and others falling out altogether before the real games even settle in. For the Huskies, that kind of early movement matters because it changes the way the rest of the country is viewing the defending standard in college basketball.
Michigan States slide after exhibition losses is one sign of how quickly the rankings are being rethought, and Tennessees absence after a rough preseason is another. UConns place in that conversation is a reminder that one strong November statement can ripple beyond a single result, influencing how voters sort the top tier and how the next round of matchups will be judged. The bigger question now is how long that early impression holds once the schedule starts offering more chances for teams to answer back. [Read more 🡒]