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Marquette<\/a> didn\u2019t look like a contender for last place in the Big East<\/a> when it led the Friars by as many as 27 points in the second half and left Amica Mutual Pavilion with a 22-point win. It made the Golden Eagles\u2019 path to a shocking last-place finish a bit more complicated. They could climb as high as the No. 7 seed in the Big East Tournament with a win against UConn on Saturday in the regular-season finale for both and a series of other results<\/a> around the league going their way.<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re dangerous,\u201d coach Dan Hurley said. \u201cIt\u2019s a tough game, it\u2019s a scary game. But then I think they\u2019re a scary team for people in New York (in the Big East Tournament), too. They\u2019re just so much better than they were when we saw them the first time.\u201d<\/p>\n For UConn, a win secures at least a share of the regular-season championship, which would be the program\u2019s 12th and break a tie with Villanova for the most in league history despite a seven-year absence.<\/p>\n The Huskies didn\u2019t have any trouble with Marquette when they met at Gampel Pavilion in early January.<\/p>\n UConn held the Golden Eagles, who had lost five in a row at that point, to just 32.2% shooting from the field and led by as many as 23 points in a 73-57 win<\/a>. Solo Ball, who\u2019s had some of the best games of his career against Marquette, led the way with 17 points despite only making one 3-pointer as the teams both shot 5-for-24 from beyond the arc. Ball made seven 3-pointers on nine attempts when the Huskies visited Milwaukee last year.<\/p>\n Race to first place: UConn men\u2019s chances at Big East\u2019s No. 1 seed are in Seton Hall\u2019s hands<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n \u201cThis game that we\u2019re going into right now is a championship. Everything\u2019s on the line. That\u2019s all that we\u2019re thinking about,\u201d Ball said. \u201cFor myself, I think I need to just make sure I\u2019m always in the flow of the game. \u2026\u00a0 Running off screens, being physical, getting rebounds, diving on the floor, just doing what it takes, doing the little things that Coach has been talking about this whole week with me and the rest of the group as well.\u201d<\/p>\n The Huskies have gotten every opponent\u2019s best shot all season. It should be expected again on Saturday as the Golden Eagles recognize wing Chase Ross and stretch center Ben Gold on Senior Day.<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re gonna want to leave with a win,\u201d said Alex Karaban, who had the same feeling when he led the Huskies past Seton Hall in his final game in Connecticut on Saturday. Karaban is looking for the second Big East regular-season title of his career.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s extremely hard to do. This is a championship that we\u2019ve been working for since mid-December when we played Butler first,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s something we\u2019ve been working extremely hard for. Teams can get hot, teams could get cold, teams go through injury spurts and (the regular-season title) is really, who\u2019s the toughest team? Who\u2019s the most resilient? Who\u2019s willing to stay together? Winning a regular season championship, it\u2019s really hard to do and I think it\u2019s really impressive to win.\u201d<\/p>\n Hurley calls for more physicality from UConn men: \u2018I don\u2019t think we foul enough\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Nigel James, the Marquette point guard, has the best numbers of any freshman in the Big East. His team\u2019s success, and the play of UConn\u2019s Braylon Mullins and Villanova\u2019s Acaden Lewis, is all that is keeping him from running away with the league\u2019s freshman of the year award.<\/p>\n \u201cObviously (James is an) explosive player, steal your ball on defense, constantly attacking on offense,\u201d Hurley said. \u201c(Coach) Shaka (Smart\u2019s) really invested in a lot of these young players. You can see what he\u2019s building and how much they\u2019ve really improved since the first time we saw their team.\u201d<\/p>\n James had a team-high 15 points on 5-for-18 shooting from the field in the first matchup. It wasn\u2019t a great shooting night for Mullins, either, as he finished with seven points on 3-for-10 shooting, just 1-for-7 from beyond the arc. Hurley would like to see more from his star rookie down the stretch of what could be his final year in college.<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019d like to see him get more shots,\u201d Hurley said. \u201cWhen you look at a situation of our team now. \u2026 It\u2019s kind of like the 2024 team\u2019s balance. You\u2019re gonna have games where you only get eight or nine shots, you\u2019ve got to be efficient, you\u2019ve got to be a two-way player, you\u2019ve got to be on the backboard. That\u2019s why we recruited him, because he was a basketball player and a guy who wants to win. He was never a stat guy or a \u2018me, me, me\u2019 guy. That\u2019s what makes the kid so special and why we\u2019ve had the success we\u2019ve had.<\/p>\n \u201cThat kid, he won\u2019t say two words. He\u2019s one of the best shooters in the country but he\u2019s on the court with Silas (Demary Jr.), who\u2019s also talented, and Solo Ball, who\u2019s also talented, and Karaban and centers who could score. These guys have got to be efficient on the shots they get.\u201d<\/p>\n Sign up here to get UConn sports news straight to your inbox: UConn Alerts<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Site:<\/strong> Fiserv Forum, Milwaukee.<\/p>\n Time:<\/strong> 12:30 p.m., Saturday.<\/p>\n Records:<\/strong> No. 4 UConn: 27-3 (17-2 Big East), Marquette: 11-19 (6-13)<\/p>\n Series:<\/strong> UConn leads, 14-8.<\/p>\n Last meeting:<\/strong> Jan. 4, 2026 \u2013 No. 4 UConn 73, Marquette 57 at Gampel Pavilion in Storrs.<\/p>\n TV:<\/strong> FOX \u2013 Tim Brando, Donny Marshall<\/p>\n Radio:<\/strong>\u00a0UConn Sports Network on FOX Sports Radio 97-9 \u2013 Mike Crispino, Wayne Norman<\/p><\/div>\n MILWAUKEE \u2013 The UConn men\u2019s basketball team saw what happened in Providence on Wednesday. Marquette didn\u2019t look like a contender for last place in the Big East when it led the Friars by as many as 27 points in the second half and left Amica Mutual Pavilion with a 22-point win. It made the Golden … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22961,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22960","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/How-to-watch-UConn-men-go-for-regular-season-title.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22960","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=22960"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22960\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22962,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22960\/revisions\/22962"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/22961"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=22960"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=22960"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=22960"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
Top freshmen meet again<\/h4>\n
What to know<\/h4>\n
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Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"