How to watch UConn vs. Michigan State in exhibition

HARTFORD – There are minutes for the taking after the injury bug bit the UConn men’s basketball team again, and Tuesday’s exhibition against Michigan State is a prime opportunity for players to earn them.

“We’re gonna use (Tuesday) night as like the last quiz before the test,” coach Dan Hurley said after the team practiced at PeoplesBank Arena on Monday. “We’re gonna try to play people enough for them to have an opportunity, whether it’s to earn a start on Monday or earn more minutes or a role. All those players – Jaylin Stewart, Jayden Ross, (Jacob) Furphy, obviously Malachi (Smith), Alec (Millender), Silas (Demary Jr.) is back – there’s a number of players that are vying to start or get minutes.”

Demary, the projected starting point guard who missed the first exhibition against Boston College with a calf issue, is set to make his debut in a UConn uniform against the Spartans.

Tarris Reed Jr., who also missed the BC game with a nagging hamstring injury, will continue to rest in order to hopefully be ready for the Nov. 3 season-opener. This time he will be joined in street clothes by the Big East Preseason Freshman of the Year, Braylon Mullins, who suffered an ankle injury in practice last week and was estimated to be in for a six-week recovery.

“We were very nervous that it could’ve been far worse for him, so we count our blessings and we thank God,” Hurley said of Mullins, without identifying the injury, but clarifying that it is different from the high ankle sprain that made Liam McNeeley miss a month last season. “He’s a tough kid and, according to his dad, he’s a fast healer,” Hurley said.

The exhibition against Michigan State, a team coached by a Hall of Famer in Tom Izzo and ranked No. 22 in the preseason AP poll, will help ramp up the speed before UConn begins its gauntlet of a nonconference schedule. Within Mullins’ six-week timetable, the Huskies’ ranked opponents include No. 8 BYU, No. 13 Arizona, No. 17 Illinois and No. 19 Kansas.

“It’ll be real beneficial just having scheduled it the way we scheduled it the way we scheduled it, playing an ACC team and then playing one of the classiest programs you can play against,” Hurley said. “You could test your team against one of the best programs in the last 30 years in college basketball, it’s gonna be very beneficial. They’re gonna expose some things, I’m a little worried about the freshman center (Eric Reibe) versus that front court and what that’s gonna look like, but it’s gonna be a great experience for Eric and the group.”

The Spartans – coming off an Elite Eight appearance last season – are known to be a physical group in the Big Ten, particularly in the front court with players like 6-foot-9 senior forward Jaxon Koehler and 6-11 senior center Carson Cooper. Izzo returns two experienced stars in 6-6 junior wing Coen Carr and redshirt-sophomore point guard Jeremy Fears Jr.

“You do a little bit (of preparation), we did a little bit with BC because you are trying to get your players to be able to absorb more information the way they’re gonna have to with New Haven and in the regular season games. Anytime you go out there, you want to try to win,” Hurley said. “You’re coaching your guys hard because you want to win the next possession, you want to win the exhibition, but I think your mindset right now is like, learn as much as you can about your team and just figure out what your rotation is gonna look like. Just hope that you could try to learn about some vulnerabilities and weaknesses that get exposed when you play Michigan State.”