The No. 4 UConn men’s basketball team continued to impress in their preseason, dispatching the No. 6 Michigan State Spartans 78-70. Nik Khamenia led the team with 19 points and five rebounds. Silas Demary Jr added 16 points and four assists, while Colben Landrew chipped in with 13 points and five rebounds.
In front of an impressive (for preseason) Breslin Center crowd in Lansing Michigan, the Huskies showed remarkable potential on both ends of the court, especially without star sophomore Braylon Mullins,
who participated in warmups but sat out his second-straight preseason game. UConn had 21 assists on 27 made field goals, and shot 40% from three.
The battle of the Juniors — Silas Demary Jr. vs. Jeremy Fears Jr. — went to Silas once more, with the captain holding Fears to 5-12 shooting. UConn won’t play a better floor general this year. While the points in the paint and rebounding margins went to Michigan State, UConn’s length up and down the roster made life difficult for Sparty. Deflections, offensive rebounding, and overall physicality are Tom Izzo calling cards, and UConn looked more impactful at all three today. Sprinkle in the offense finding a rhythm, and there’s not a lot to fret about.
If you want to pick nits, fouling and free throws were bugaboos, with the Huskies shooting 64% from the charity stripe and Na’jai Hines fouling out.
UConn is still 0-0 on the season, this was an excellent litmus test for a relatively unproven team. Sparty will be right up there with Illinois in the Big 10, and UConn was thoroughly in control from wire to wire.
The Huskies played some exciting complementary hoops out of the gate. They were stout defensively, walling off high-flyer Coen Carr and the Sparty fast break. On the other end, Hines was active early with a dunk and nice kickout to Khamenia, who had a nice drive-and-kick of his own. Ball movement was crisp. .
Some to-be-expected sloppy finishing around the rim brought Sparty back into it. A step-back 3-pointer from Khamenia showed some off-script ability. The rest of the half was a defensive battle, with Hines sending Fears a fears layup to Port Huron.
(Fears would return the favor the next possession with a pretty sick poster.)
The physicality from both teams was noticeable, with immense pressure being put on both rims. UConn excelled at creating turnovers and second-chance opportunities but struggled to convert. But even going through a few scoring droughts, UConn made Michigan State’s offense look clunky.
A Demary Jr. triple gave UConn a 30-22 lead headed into the break.
Holding the sixth-ranked team in the country to 22 first half points? Very good, no matter the month.
Sparty came out much more intentional to start the second half, finally getting some of those patented Izzo fast-break buckets. But Landrew had the team on his back at that point, scoring UConn’s first eight points in the half and demonstrating some upperclassmen-level like finishing around the rim.
Another Demary Jr. three put UConn up nine, but foul trouble remained, with Giltay and Hines racking up four and three apiece. No matter though, back-to-back threes from Junior County and Nils Machowski stretched the lead to double digits. UConn was able to find success hitting Hines on pick-and-rolls, but the team really found its groove with a lineup of *checks notes* County-Machowski-Ross-Landrew-Giltay.
In the span of five minutes, fans that ponied up for the $8.99 for B10+ were treated to a Machowski triple, an impressive rip from County, a putback from Landrew, and a slew of offensive rebounds. A Khamenia floater put the ’Skies up 15 with five to play, effectively taking the air out of the Breslin Center, something everyone totally expected without Braylon Mullins.
Michigan State worked their way into a late-game rally but UConn closed it out with some crisp offensive sets that generated easy looks on cuts, curls and flares. Luke Murray would be proud. It was especially nice to see Khamenia flash playmaking chops with the clock running down.
The role players all chipped in nice stretches. Giltay put in a yeoman-like shift against Anton Bonke on his way to four offensive boards. Junior County held up defensively and nailed a big three. Jacob Ross broke up a Carr alley-oop and looked like he belong in spot minutes. Machowski is a flamethrower. The elder Ross is doing his best Andre Jackson impression.
Detroit is 90 miles from East Lansing. If UConn continues on this trajectory, Dan Hurley might want to stop by and check out some hotels before heading back to Storrs.
