UConn men’s basketball enters the 2025-26 season as a legitimate national contender on paper for the third consecutive season. Two years ago, the Huskies lived up to the hype and delivered with another national champtionship, becoming the first program to go back-to-back in nearly 20 years. Last year, things didn’t really go to plan. UConn had plenty of talent, but injuries and some roster construction issues took its toll, and the Huskies fell short to eventual national champion Florida in the Second
Round.
This season, there’s once again significant hype around the Huskies, who brought in highly touted transfer Silas Demary Jr. from Georgia. Alex Karaban, Solo Ball and Tarris Reed all return and are projected to be some of the best players in the Big East. But those four won’t be able to do it all on their own. Just like how Karaban emerged as a contributor during the team’s 2023 title run and Hassan Diarra did in 2024, another player will have to rise to the occasion if UConn wants a shot at reaching the Final Four in Indianapolis. As part of our season preview series, our staff took a crack at figuring who might become this team’s x-factor for the upcoming season.
Zach Carter: There were times last year when Jaylin Stewart showed flashes that made me think he could be a true offensive scoring threat for this team. He scored 16 points against Memphis in Maui and then did it again against UMES three games later.
But as the non-conference waned, his minutes fluctuated and his role blurred. Then Liam McNeeley got hurt, and again he was in the starting lineup. His point totals in three of his first six games back in the starting five were 14, 14, and 15. The other three were zero, zero, and four.
Now, with Braylon Mullins expected to miss around six weeks with an ankle injury, Stewart will again be called upon to fill the void. His production does not have to materialize in points, but he needs to be taking up positive space on the floor. He has shown he can score when willing, but his game can be so much more. Dan Hurley has spoken ad nauseam about how his team was not good defensively last year — an area Stewart, too, had plenty of room for growth. If he does the little things right on both sides of the ball, he can help UConn win big games in Mullins’ absence. If his inconsistencies begin to resurface, his minutes could be dolled out elsewhere.
UConn’s aspirations this year are title or bust, and a championship-winning team needs the entire rotation to chip in. As the sixth-man turned fill-in starter, Stewart can set that tone with productive play in an undefined role, and hopefully, others will follow.
Patrick Martin: I’m going with Eric Reibe. We all know what Donovan Clingan provided in 2022-23. Samson Johnson was the perfect change of pace rim runner in 2023-24. A backup big man that can offer a different look, that can keep up the same level as the starter, is the secret sauce in a game of runs, what takes great teams and makes them elite.
The 7-foot-1 Reibe averaged 6.5 points and rebounds per game in the exhibitions, in 22 minutes per game. He missed some bunnies and was a little shaky in drop coverage, but held his own against power five talent as a freshman. Hurley seemed quite content with the performance, even alluding to Clingan’s exhibition debut looking much more rough back in 2022. Reibe is only going to get more comfortable with the pace and physicality. If he can offer that exhibition-level of production — and maybe a block or two — the whole season, UConn doesn’t have any real weaknesses.
Dan Madigan: Jayden Ross might be the ying to Jaylin Stewart’s yang. While Stewart is more adept offensively, Ross has always been a go-to off the bench for Hurley as a defensive stopper. With a reinvigorated emphasis on defense after a lackluster team defensive performance last season, Ross will get plenty of chances to see the floor as the team looks to clamp down on opponents.
The offensive side is coming along too. Ross scored 13 points and two 3-pointers in the exhibition win over Michigan State and made three of four free thows on the way to 13 points. Ross doesn’t need to light the world on fire offensively to be effiective; if he can hit open threes, get out and run in transition and crash the boards, the playing time will come. Ross’ emergence as a true three and D player would add more depth and versatility to a UConn team with seemingly a lot of options, even with Mullins out for a few months.
