No. 4 UConn men's basketball looks for 10th consecutive win with Marquette visiting: How to watch

This basketball season hasn’t exactly gone to plan for Shaka Smart and Marquette.

Hopeful that the Golden Eagles’ stream of high school recruits and their development of players would be enough to overcome rosters pieced together through the transfer portal, the program’s streak of four consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances was in serious jeopardy well before the new year began.

At 5-9 through 14 games, Smart’s team has yet to beat a power conference opponent.

Only three years removed from winning dual championships in the Big East with the league’s coach (Smart) and player of the year (Tyler Kolek, a George Mason transfer) in 2022-23, Marquette’s best nonconference win came at home in overtime against Valparaiso (No. 225 in the NET). The Golden Eagles lost to Indiana, Maryland, Dayton, Oklahoma, Wisconsin and Purdue before beginning Big East play with losses to Georgetown at home and Creighton on the road.

It looked like the disastrous season might take a turn when they led Seton Hall, 73-66, with three and a half minutes remaining on Tuesday, but the Golden Eagles turned the ball over a handful of times and went without a made shot from the field as the Pirates stormed back for a six-point victory on the road.

That was two days after the news came out that guard Zaide Lowery, a rotation player since he arrived in 2023 who was seeing increased usage and started the first nine games this season, had departed the program. It was apparently a mutual decision.

There is no bigger opportunity for a much-needed positive than on Sunday, when Marquette visits Gampel Pavilion for its first matchup against No. 4 UConn, the only ranked team in the Big East.

UConn men’s notes: This freshman’s career game at Xavier is just the beginning, Dan Hurley says

With freshman guard Nigel James Jr. joining the mix and averaging 12.4 points and 3.8 assists per game, Smart’s squad is led by familiar faces in leading scorer Chase Ross (averaging 16.6 points, 4.0 rebounds and 3.3 assists), and the frontcourt duo of Royce Parham and stretch center Ben Gold.

No other Golden Eagles are averaging more than 6.5 points per game.

UConn enters the matchup headed in the opposite direction having won 13 of 14 with its only loss during what was potentially the toughest nonconference stretch in program history coming to the No. 1 team in the country (Arizona) while missing two starters. The Huskies rung in 2026 with a dominant, wire-to-wire victory at Xavier.

Limiting turnovers (11 per game) and developing a killer instinct being the main areas of focus, UConn has a legitimate nine-man rotation with four players scoring in double-figures, led by a Big Three of Alex Karaban, Solo Ball and Tarris Reed Jr. Freshman Braylon Mullins is coming off a career performance against the Musketeers and is averaging 10.3 points per game while he continues to learn the Huskies’ system. Point guard Silas Demary Jr. ties the group together while leading the charge in improving the defense to third best in the country, per KenPom.

UConn has won five consecutive games against Marquette since the 2023 Big East Tournament semifinal, which kicked off the run to the first of back-to-back national titles.