UConn has two point guards on the national radar before the 2026-27 season even gets rolling.
KK Arnold and Silas Demary Jr. were both named Monday to preseason watch lists for the top awards at their position. Arnold, a senior on the women’s side, landed on the 2027 Nancy Lieberman Award watch list. Demary, the UConn men’s senior transfer, earned a spot on the Bob Cousy Point Guard of the Year watch list.
Both awards are handed out by the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame at season’s end, and the Lieberman Award is also sponsored by the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association.
Arnold is already on the 2026-27 Preseason All-Big East team, and she’s coming off a strong season. The 5-foot-9 guard from Germantown, Wis., set career highs with 174 assists, a 4.6 average per game, and a 54.4% shooting mark. She also piled up a full set of All-Big East honors last season: first team, all-defensive team and all-tournament team.
UConn has a long history with the Lieberman Award, and Arnold is stepping into some pretty elite company. The Huskies have won it 10 times since it started in 2000.
Sue Bird captured the first three, in 2000, 2001 and 2002, before Diana Taurasi took over in 2003 and ’04. Renee Montgomery brought it back to UConn in 2009, followed by Moriah Jefferson in 2015 and ’16 and Paige Bueckers in 2021 and ’25.
In between Bueckers’ wins, Iowa’s Caitlin Clark took the award in each of the three seasons, and Notre Dame’s Hannah Hidalgo won it in 2026. One other Big East player, Jasmine Bascoe of Villanova, also made the Lieberman watch list.
Demary’s first season in Storrs was enough to put him in the Cousy conversation right away. After transferring from Georgia before the 2025-26 season, he made an immediate mark for the Huskies, leading the Big East in conference games with 7.4 assists per contest while averaging 5.9 assists overall. He also added 10.1 points and 4.5 rebounds per game and was rewarded with Big East Preseason Player of the Year honors.
The AP preseason All-America team didn’t have him in the top five, but he did receive votes.
Demary is now in position to chase UConn’s next Bob Cousy Award winner. Three Huskies have already taken that prize: Kemba Walker in 2011, Shabazz Napier in 2014 and Tristen Newton in 2024.
He’s one of three Big East point guards on the watch list, alongside Quinn Ellis of St. John’s and Nigel James Jr. of Marquette.
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UConns Depth Just Sent A Strong Message Before The Real Games
The final tune-up before the real thing looked a lot like what has made UConn such a difficult team to pin down in recent years: size, depth and enough scoring options to keep rolling even when the rotation opens up. The No. 4 Huskies closed their exhibition slate with a 76-53 win over Purdue at PeoplesBank Arena, moving through the preseason unbeaten and getting a strong all-around showing from a bench that kept the pressure on throughout.
Colben Landrew was the loudest of those second-unit sparks, finishing with 15 points in just 18 minutes, while Jayden Ross, Oskar Giltay and Silas Demary Jr. also reached double figures. Just as encouraging for Dan Hurleys group was the defensive edge, as UConn held Purdue to 32.8 percent shooting overall and barely gave the Boilermakers anything from outside, a reminder that the Huskies may already be close to their regular-season form. [Read more 🡒]
UConn Is Walking Into A Big East Grind Fans Can't Ignore
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Preseason rankings only add to the sense that the conference is loaded from top to bottom, with UConn and St. Johns standing out nationally while other Big East programs sit firmly in the mix. For UConn, that means every trip through the league will demand focus, depth and the kind of consistency that separates title contenders from teams that merely survive the grind. The challenge is not just beating the usual suspects, but navigating a conference where almost every opponent arrives with enough quality to make a slip cost plenty. [Read more 🡒]
UConn Showed Promise Against Purdue But Bigger Answers Come Next
UConn closed the preseason with a 3-0 record and a convincing 76-53 win over Purdue, a result that offered a real glimpse of the teams depth and versatility heading into the regular season. The Huskies got production from across the roster, including transfers Najai Hines and Oskar Giltay working inside, while freshman Colben Landrew led the scoring in the finale and helped reinforce the feeling that this group has more than one way to beat teams.
Braylon Mullins also returned from injury and logged his first extended run of the preseason, another encouraging sign as UConn turns to games that will say much more about where it stands. Gardner-Webb is next, but the real measuring stick comes soon after, when the Huskies start seeing a string of Power Four opponents early in the schedule and the questions about their frontcourt rotation and overall ceiling get a lot harder to avoid. [Read more 🡒]