Silas Demary Jr. is the point guard UConn desperately needed

Even in an epic game with dozens of twists and turns, even in a long climb back from a deep deficit, there is always that one play, the moment when you know the improbable is becoming possible, and trending toward “this is going to happen.”

I pick this 29-second span midway through the second half at Providence Wednesday night: Alex Karaban missed a layup, UConn recovered the rebound, then Braylon Mullins missed a 3-pointer, and again UConn got the ball back. After a scramble, Silas Demary Jr., as if to say enough was enough, buried his 3-point attempt from the top of the key.

Now, mind you, there was still 11:31 to go and the score was still to ebb and flow, but UConn, which appeared flattened in the middle of the road after Providence’s 21-4 run in the first half, was within five points now. It more was the feel, than the score or the stats, on a night when stats meant nothing. It now felt possible that UConn could win, and probable that Demary was not going to let them lose, or give in to the stomach-churning pressure sure to come.

“That’s what we knew we were getting in Silas,” coach Dan Hurley said.

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Neither of UConn’s back-to-back championship teams were 15-1 after 16 games, both stumbled a few times along the way. This had the makings of that kind of night for the 2026 Huskies. On the road, against their nearest and not-so-dearest rival, a Providence team coming off a big win vs. St. John’s, their players making shots they don’t normally make; UConn missing a lot of easy shots around the basket.  The Huskies fell 13 points behind with that one torrid Friar run and couldn’t get over the hump. Hurley drew a technical on his way to the locker room at halftime.

UConn was in a pickle, all right. … Maybe you sense where this is going.

If that 3-pointer with 11 1/2 to go doesn’t grab you, any one of his big buckets, steals or rebounds down the stretch would suffice as a turning point. Demary, the transfer from Georgia, had 23 points, 15 assists, five steals, three rebounds, only one turnover as the Huskies eventually caught the Friars and won in overtime, 103-98. UConn overcame an 11-point deficit over the last 3:12 of regulation, Demary’s finger prints all over that surge.

“I’m going to try to be as unselfish as I can until it’s time for me to be aggressive,” Demary told reporters after the game. “I learned why they win here and I learned why we practice so hard. The reason we practice so hard is for moments like this. Then our talent, the way we execute, takes us over the top.”

The Huskies weren’t going back over the top without better play at point guard. Hurley and his staff went into the portal and could not afford to miss. They needed another Tristen Newton-type of home run and made solid contact with Demary, snatching the best point guard out there when some well-resourced rivals had the same dire need.

His offense has come and gone, he’s occasionally gotten into foul trouble, but his defense has been a constant as UConn had to fix that, and his intangibles have showed out in big spots. On the other side of a momentum swing, Demary made a series of big plays when UConn held off BYU early in the season.

As Demary has helped restore UConn’s identity, he has developed one of his own. You may have heard, in a win at DePaul in December, Demary went suddenly sprinting off the court to find a trash can, sparing the TV viewers. Cramping up, he had taken some electrolyte fluids with a pickle juice chaser. “I think that just wasn’t a good mix,” he said.

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So Demary got sick to his stomach, and though it didn’t impact UConn’s victory, hurling captivates the middle schooler in all of us. Since then, UConn’s social media folks have started up a “pickle juice challenge” to spur donations to the Husky Ticket Project, which hooks up youth groups with tickets.

“I think it’s pretty cool to have a challenge named after me and have people donate for a good cause,” Demary said. “Although it’s from me throwing up, it’s for a good cause.”

Maybe it hasn’t caught on quite to the degree of the hot sauce challenge a few years ago, but that’s understandable. Who wants to drink something old pitchers used to heal blisters?

What is important is that Demary was out there for 41 minutes at Providence and created a far more satisfying defining moment. He’s averaging 9.9 points per game, 6.3 assists, and those stats meant nothing on a night that had as much to do with stats as the price of pickles. The game dictated the stats, not the other way around.

Surely, it computes to the worst defensive effort of the year, but that belies the defensive plays down the stretch that made the difference. UConn was outscored 41-3 off the bench, but those three, by Jaylin Stewart, came at a critical time and the starters carried the load, with four over 20 points.

Hurley has been trying to get in 25 minutes of brisk walking per day; if he can make it 26 minutes on game days, he could get from the floor to the locker room without getting into trouble. But there was some method to the madness here, as UConn, which didn’t take a free throw in the first half, took 18 in the second half and OT. Hurley pushed every right button, from running great sets, especially to get Braylon Mullins his six 3-pointers and 24 points, and keeping his leading scorer, Solo Ball, on the bench over the final minutes and all of overtime because Stewart, with his plus-minus of 18, created the better matchups.

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The metrics also would tell us that this was just one regular-season game, but the way it played out made it feel like much more, the kind of game that indicates pressure-packed, March Madness finishes won’t rattle this team. The Huskies don’t often win games like this because, especially in their championship years, they haven’t had to. But those six nonconference games against ranked teams paid dividends Wednesday night; having closed out a win at Kansas, the Huskies weren’t going to be scared to do it at Providence, or anywhere else in the Big East.

So the sun came up smiling the morning after for this UConn team, 15-1. Stomachs were settled. Forget the pickle juice; if UConn fans want to vomit, they can ask, “What if Silas Demary Jr. went to St. John’s?”