How to watch UConn men go for regular season title at Marquette

MILWAUKEE – The UConn men’s basketball team saw what happened in Providence on Wednesday.

Marquette didn’t 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 Eagles’ 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 around the league going their way.

“They’re dangerous,” coach Dan Hurley said. “It’s a tough game, it’s a scary game. But then I think they’re a scary team for people in New York (in the Big East Tournament), too. They’re just so much better than they were when we saw them the first time.”

For UConn, a win secures at least a share of the regular-season championship, which would be the program’s 12th and break a tie with Villanova for the most in league history despite a seven-year absence.

The Huskies didn’t have any trouble with Marquette when they met at Gampel Pavilion in early January.

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. Solo Ball, who’s 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.

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“This game that we’re going into right now is a championship. Everything’s on the line. That’s all that we’re thinking about,” Ball said. “For myself, I think I need to just make sure I’m always in the flow of the game. … 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.”

The Huskies have gotten every opponent’s 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.

“They’re gonna want to leave with a win,” 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.

“It’s extremely hard to do. This is a championship that we’ve been working for since mid-December when we played Butler first,” he said. “That’s something we’ve 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’s the toughest team? Who’s the most resilient? Who’s willing to stay together? Winning a regular season championship, it’s really hard to do and I think it’s really impressive to win.”

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Nigel James, the Marquette point guard, has the best numbers of any freshman in the Big East. His team’s success, and the play of UConn’s Braylon Mullins and Villanova’s Acaden Lewis, is all that is keeping him from running away with the league’s freshman of the year award.

“Obviously (James is an) explosive player, steal your ball on defense, constantly attacking on offense,” Hurley said. “(Coach) Shaka (Smart’s) really invested in a lot of these young players. You can see what he’s building and how much they’ve really improved since the first time we saw their team.”

James had a team-high 15 points on 5-for-18 shooting from the field in the first matchup. It wasn’t 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.

“You’d like to see him get more shots,” Hurley said. “When you look at a situation of our team now. … It’s kind of like the 2024 team’s balance. You’re gonna have games where you only get eight or nine shots, you’ve got to be efficient, you’ve got to be a two-way player, you’ve got to be on the backboard. That’s 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 ‘me, me, me’ guy. That’s what makes the kid so special and why we’ve had the success we’ve had.

“That kid, he won’t say two words. He’s one of the best shooters in the country but he’s on the court with Silas (Demary Jr.), who’s also talented, and Solo Ball, who’s also talented, and Karaban and centers who could score. These guys have got to be efficient on the shots they get.”