Dan Hurley had reasons to feel good about UConn’s defense before the season, and the early returns have only backed him up.
Back on Oct. 13 at Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Conn., Hurley talked up what he saw coming from his group on that end of the floor. He said the Huskies had real upside defensively, and he went so far as to call Silas Demary Jr. perhaps the most ball-hawking guard in the entire country.
That confidence has looked justified through UConn’s 3-0 preseason run. The Huskies handled Syracuse, Michigan State and Purdue, with the Purdue win coming by 23 points. The results were strong enough on their own, but one number jumps off the page even more.
UConn’s opponents shot just 9-of-64 from three across those three games, which works out to 14 percent.
The breakdown tells the story even more clearly: Purdue finished 2-of-25 from deep, Syracuse went 4-of-19 and Michigan State was held to 3-of-20. That is a brutal night for any offense, and UConn did it three times in a row.
There are more reasons to think the Huskies can keep squeezing teams. Transfer center Na'jai Hines still has room to grow, but he has a chance to become a truly elite shot blocker. If that happens, teams may find the paint even harder to attack and be forced outside.
And if the lane isn’t there and the perimeter isn’t there, the options get thin fast. At that point, an opponent is left hoping UConn cools off on offense and gets dragged into a low-scoring game, or hoping foul trouble opens the door at the free throw line.
The regular season starts Monday night against Gardner-Webb, a softer opener for a team about to face one of the toughest non-conference slates around. Before Big East play even begins, UConn is set to meet Duke, Arizona, Illinois, Michigan, Kansas, Ohio State and Virginia.
The opener is scheduled for 9 p.m. ET at PeoplesBank Arena in Hartford and will air nationally on Peacock and NBC Sports Network.
In Other News...
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
The Big East is shaping up as the kind of league that can wear a team down before March even arrives, and UConn is right in the middle of it. St. Johns enters the 2026-27 season with a chance to chase a third straight Big East regular-season and tournament title, but Rick Pitinos point about the conference getting better across the board is the bigger warning sign for everyone else. Xavier, Georgetown, Providence, Creighton and Marquette all drew mention as teams on the rise, which is a reminder that there may not be many easy nights left on the schedule.
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 🡒]