UConn men’s basketball starts the season with a buy game as the nightcap of a double-header in Hartford, with the women’s team hosting Cornell at 5 p.m. and the men tipping off against Gardner-Webb at 9 p.m. from PeoplesBank Arena.
The Big South’s Runnin’ Bulldogs went 4-29 last season with two Division 1 wins, both against USC Upstate. They enter their third season under head coach Jeremy Luther, a former longtime assistant with the program.
They return guards Ace Talbert and Jacob Hudson from last
year’s team, two of their five leading scorers, as well as rotation wing Jamias Ferere, and otherwise are counting on a new cast of contributors, including a pair of transfer forwards from Vermont and Buffalo, Mikhail Pocknett and Jackson Skipper. They’ve also added three Division 2 transfers, including DJ Daniel and Seth Brown, who were both proficient scorers in their last stops.
This game will be a tune-up for Dan Hurley’s Huskies ahead of their Friday night matchup in Boston against Michigan. Gardner-Webb was 361st in KenPom to end last season, near the bottom of Division 1, and is expected to be near that level this season as well.
What to Watch For
Starting Lineup
UConn has six guys, maybe more, with a case to be in the starting lineup. It’s a good problem to have, and the answer may evolve over the course of the season, but for now one has to imagine a fully healthy Braylon Mullins will be out there along with Silas Demary Jr., Jayden Ross, Nik Khamenia, and Na’jai Hines. Colben Landrew off the bench represents a terror for opposing teams, and a luxury for the Huskies; he may be a starter down the road.
Hines didn’t get the start at center in the Syracuse game, and spent some time on the bench due to foul trouble in his starts against Michigan State and Purdue, but he will most likely be the starter on this night and going forward. Thankfully, Oskar Giltay has shown he has an ability to man the post effectively.
Freshmen Growth
We remain extremely excited for Colben Landrew and Junior County. Those two have a chance to develop into key contributors on a Husky team that has high hopes ahead of this season. Games like this are helpful for the freshmen to establish themselves ahead of the bigger games down the road.
Depth Matters
County and Nils Machowski have seen the most time after the five starters, Landrew and Giltay. This game will offer a chance to see more of those guys and also more of Jaye Nash, Egor Amosov, Jacob Ross, and Isaiah Shaw. We’ve seen the Huskies attempt a smaller lineup as well during the preseason, perhaps that lineup will get a look in this game as well.
