UConn men meet Florida in Jimmy V Classic battle of last two national champions at MSG on Tuesday

UConn’s run of consecutive national championships came to an end at the hands of clutch point guard Walter Clayton Jr. and the top-seeded, eventual champion Florida Gators in the second round of the NCAA Tournament last March.

The Huskies, ranked fifth in the country and looking like a championship contender again, have a chance to avenge that loss as they make their second trip to Madison Square Garden this season as part of Tuesday’s Jimmy V Classic.

“You have to watch the (second round) game as part of your game prep because they run some of the same things this year that they ran last year, so did we. You’re trying to see how you guarded them, how they guarded you, things that were effective, anticipate the adjustments that we’ll each make with the game,” coach Dan Hurley said over Zoom on Monday.

“You have to relive the game as part of the preparation for this game, and it didn’t make me too sad. It made me think about how worthy of a champion they were and how far off we were last year, that we still played our way into an opportunity.”

UConn certainly didn’t let its run end without a fight, holding a lead until Clayton hit a massive 3-pointer to swing the momentum with three minutes left. Going into that game, with the way UConn had played on the defensive end, the 77-75 final score was closer than most expected.

But the Huskies’ defense, seventh in efficiency by KenPom, has gone from an Achilles heel to their strength at this point in 2025-26.

“We’re bringing a defense to the court that can sustain us when we have off shooting nights and when we’re playing against another really good defense, we could win a game with our defense,” Hurley said. “Last year we could literally never win a game with our defense, because our defense sucked.”

No. 18 Florida, 5-3 with losses to Arizona, TCU and Duke, hasn’t been the same level of dominant with its all-new backcourt after losing its top three scorers from last season in Clayton, Alijah Martin and Will Richard. The Gators do, however, have the same frontcourt players who served as the engine behind their run last spring and are one of the biggest and best rebounding teams in the country.

UConn could see the return of senior center Tarris Reed Jr., who has missed the last two games with an ankle injury. He was designated as a “game-time decision” again, though this time he was a full participant in practice in the two days leading up to the game, whereas he was limited before sitting out the Kansas and East Texas A&M bouts.

Eric Reibe, the 7-foot-1 freshman meant to fill the reserve role in the Huskies’ two-headed monster at center, has stepped up big, thrown into the starting lineup in five of nine games to start his college career. He enters Tuesday’s matchup averaging 9.7 points, 4.9 rebounds and 1.4 blocks in 20 minutes per game.

“I’m floored by how well and how tough big Eric has been for us. Eric has done an incredible job and deserves probably the most credit of anyone in the program for the position we’ve been able to keep ourselves in considering losing maybe the most impactful player on the team relative to our offense, defense, rebounding,” Hurley said.

“That being said,” he continued, “we’ve had the success we’ve had here because we’ve had the two-big system, and this is a game where, with a healthy Tarris, you could play the two bigs together. And I think both men are skilled enough that when Tarris is back healthy, you’re gonna see them both on the court together more than we’ve played two centers in the past.

“Tarris’ return is real important for what we’re trying to accomplish and the team has held the line and fought really hard to win some games against some really big teams and some really good teams. We’re just kinda holding down the fort until he feels healthy enough to get back.”

Florida had a bit more time off to prepare for Tuesday’s game after nearly pulling off an upset win over Duke last week, while UConn was playing at Kansas’ Allen Fieldhouse. Forward Thomas Haugh had 24 points in that game and, in addition to being the Gators’ leading scorer, is one of three players averaging more than 7.5 rebounds per game. He, 6-11 Alex Condon and 6-10 center Rueben Chinyelu – all three of whom UConn held a lid on when they met in the NCAA Tournament – have helped Florida’s all-new backcourt adjust to a new system.

Coach Todd Golden brought in guards Xavian Lee and Boogie Fland, both highly-touted recruits in the transfer portal from Princeton and Arkansas, respectively, but hasn’t quite seen the production from his backcourt that most expected. Florida’s best 3-point shooter, its only player over 35% from beyond the arc, is Slovenian junior Urban Klavzar. But the Gators have made up for their missed shots by grabbing extra possessions of the backboard, where they have the second-best rebounding margin in the country at plus-14.

“The elephant in the room is the rebounding. With or without Tarris, that’s a challenge either way,” Hurley said. “Each game presents its own challenges. They also have a backcourt that has the potential to be really dynamic as well, so for us, I think we’re gonna have to gang rebound, we’re gonna have to be at our most physical and most forceful without fouling.”