UConn men's basketball set for another New Year's Eve matchup at Xavier: How to watch

STORRS – Only three Big East arenas have hosted multiple UConn losses over the last four seasons.

There is the Prudential Center in Newark, N.J., where Seton Hall has sent the Huskies home in a “casket on wheels” in their last three trips, and there is CHI Health Center in Omaha, Neb., where UConn won for the first time behind a historic effort from freshman Liam McNeeley last February.

Then there is Cincinnati’s Cintas Center, where the Huskies were welcomed to a chorus of “(Bleep) Dan Hurley!” chants before Sean Miller’s Xavier team took them down at home for the second time in three years last January. The first came on New Year’s Eve, 2022, when Hurley’s late technical foul contributed to UConn’s first loss after a 14-0 start and began a dreaded month of January with six losses over an eight-game stretch.

The Huskies already got back at Miller, who left to coach Texas, in their final nonconference game on Dec. 12, and now find themselves a top-five team again, rolling into the Cintas Center to ring in another new year with their first matchup against Richard Pitino’s version of the Musketeers.

“Xavier is an explosive team offensively, they do a great job of shooting threes; do a great job of getting out in transition. They’re hard to guard because they’ve got five guys playing on the perimeter, it makes you uncomfortable because it puts your centers in uncomfortable positions playing defense out at the 3-point line,” Hurley said. “They’re not playing with a traditional center, but we’ve had five days here to prepare for the way that they play. So, it’s always a challenging place to play, Richard’s an excellent coach. Winning road games in-conference is always hard.”

Xavier, 9-4, opened Big East play with a 41-point blowout loss to Creighton at home before pulling off a tight road victory at Georgetown ahead of the holiday break.

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The five-out philosophy will be challenging for UConn’s more traditional bigs in Tarris Reed Jr. and Eric Reibe, who can shoot it well themselves but not at the same rate as 6-foot-10 Jovan Milicevic, who’s shooting 42% on 5.3 attempts from beyond the arc per game. Xavier is led by 6-8 senior wing Tre Carroll, an FAU transfer averaging 16.5 points, 5.6 rebounds and 2.8 assists per game – all career-highs.

“It’s an emphasis on me and E being able to guard different positions, knowing they’re not traditional bigs, they like to space the floor a lot,” Reed said. “So being really active on the perimeter, closing out with high hands and really guarding the 3-point line, that’s the keys to the game.”

UConn’s defense, No. 4 nationally by KenPom’s overall efficiency metric, has allowed opponents to shoot just 26.2% from the 3-point line, which is also the fourth-best percentage in the nation.

“We know if we stick to our identity, just playing defense every single day, defense and rebounding, it’s going to put us in a great position win every single game. If we stick to our identity, do what we’re supposed to do and play to that standard, the pieces are gonna fall where they’re supposed to and whatever’s supposed to happen to this team’s gonna happen just based on what we do out there on the court,” said captain Alex Karaban, who is quietly having the most efficient season of his career shooting 52.4% from the field, 43.9% from 3 and 87% from the free throw line.

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The Huskies will have all of their weapons at their disposal on Wednesday with leading scorer Solo Ball set to return from the wrist injury that kept him out of the Dec. 21 road win at DePaul. He will have practiced five straight days on Tuesday. Reed, who’s dealt with nagging hamstring and ankle injuries, is also getting close to full strength along with highly touted freshman Braylon Mullins, who is continuing to find ways to impact a loaded group.

“Once I really get back right, it’s gonna be different for us as a team,” Reed said. “But the important thing is just going out every game, giving it my all, giving my hardest, and really playing for each other. I feel like we have a really special group and I’m blessed enough to even be playing right now. It’s my last year, I have to give everything I’ve got.”