Dan Hurley sat in his hotel room at the Mohegan Sun Casino agonizing over what he was convinced would be a 15-point loss to Rhode Island in UConn’s first preseason exhibition game last season, he wrote in his new book.
His team, the reigning back-to-back national champions, was picked third in the preseason media poll. Hurley argued they should be No. 1 until they were dethroned, but he understood early on that there were some massive holes to be plugged before dreams of a three-peat could become realistic.
Still, he talked the team up, using “dynasty” as a constant watchword.
Complacency, he says, crept in and played a role – along with roster construction and uncharacteristically inconsistent defense – in not reaching those historical expectations.
Now, believing he has the right pieces in place, Hurley has talked up the 2025-26 group in similar fashion. He’s not hesitant to compare its construction and depth to the first national championship roster he had in 2022-23. At this point in the preseason, with the first exhibition less than a week away back at Mohegan Sun – 366 days after what ended up a crisis averted in a 102-75 win over URI – Hurley is rooting out complacency.
“When you lack in defense, you lack in will,” he said after an event promoting his book, “Never Stop: Life, Leadership and What It Takes To Be Great,” last Wednesday.
“When you’re hovering around top-100 defense in the country, you lack will. You lack a fight. And right now, I challenge this team to fight every day in practice,” he said. “That was a huge part in the ’23 and ’24 teams, and in today’s basketball you can’t take for granted that your team’s gonna have that. So I’m making sure that I coach my team to have that. So yes, I’m fighting with them right now. And you can see some of them were sad in here. But my job is to drive the team.”
This team has national championship potential, Hurley is convinced.
Enough to keep him from dreaming up worst-case scenarios on Monday, before the Huskies take on Boston College at 7 p.m. in Uncasville? Probably not.
But that’s par for the course.
Here are a few storylines to watch as this UConn team takes the court in an arena full of fans for the first time:
Changing of the (point) guard
If it wasn’t obvious enough already, Silas Demary Jr. is fully embracing the Tristen Newton comparison.
The Georgia transfer already has a similar look to the two-time national champ with his size and his playstyle, even his long hair, not to mention he’ll also wear No. 2, which was left unoccupied last year. Behind him, similar comparisons can be made between Malachi Smith and Hassan Diarra, who worked so well as a pace-changing, gritty New York City guard off the bench.
Demary has shown he’s capable of contributing in a well-rounded manner – most importantly, playing defense at the point of attack. He is the type of player that topped Hurley’s wish list going into the offseason.
The first exhibition, three weeks before the Nov. 3 season-opener against New Haven, should show how far the Huskies’ new-look backcourt has come in its offseason indoctrination.
The fifth starter
Hurley established in his mind how he wanted last year’s team to look and stubbornly stuck with it, even when he knew it might be better to go in a different direction.
Players will have to earn their opportunities this year, with defense being a non-negotiable. Still, 80% of the starting lineup feels obvious to predict with Demary and the “Big Three” of Alex Karaban, Solo Ball and Tarris Reed Jr.
The final starting spot will likely come down to sharpshooting five-star freshman Braylon Mullins and Jaylin Stewart, a junior determined to make a consistent impact in his third year with the program. Both have shown to be more-than-capable offensive pieces but, as seems to be the theme of the season, defense will be the ultimate separator.
A new dicephalous duo
Being dicephalous, or two-headed, at the center position has been critical to UConn’s success. First it was the “two-headed monster” of Adama Sanogo and Donovan Clingan, then Clingan and Samson Johnson, and last year Johnson and Tarris Reed Jr.
Now Reed, hyped-up to be one of the best centers in the nation after major offseason growth, steps into the lead role with McDonald’s All-American freshman Eric Reibe, a 7-footer, behind him. Hurley imagines a minutes distribution similar to how Sanogo worked with Clingan – about 25-30 minutes for the starter and 10-15 for the reserve.
That would require some of Reed’s foul trouble and inconsistency to be cleaned up from last season and for Reibe to make a quick and smooth transition to the college level. Hurley believes both are possible.
Impact of the reserves
What made UConn’s 2022-23 team so great was when the second unit came in, there wasn’t much of a fall-off in intensity or efficiency. Opponents couldn’t keep pace.
This year’s group, with enough depth for a full 10-man rotation, should have a similar element of that.
Keep an eye on players like junior Jayden Ross and freshman Jacob Furphy in the first scrimmage as they look to establish their place in the mix, likely to be determined in large part by their defense.
Happenings at Boston College
After making its deepest postseason run in 13 years – to the second round of the NIT – Boston College struggled to a 12-19 finish last year, 4-16 in the ACC, without winning any of its 10 road games. The Eagles, in their fourth year under head coach Earl Grant, return eight players from last year’s roster, including star guard Donald Hand Jr.
The Eagles added four freshmen and four transfers: Chase Forte (Gr., South Dakota), Aidan Shaw (Sr., Missouri), Boden Kapke (Jr., Butler) and Jason Asemota (So., Baylor). They have been picked to finish last (USA Today) or second-to-last (The Athletic, Hoops HQ) in preseason ACC media polls.
Early-season gauntlet
UConn’s season starts in the summer. The Huskies take pride in the work they put in while other teams might be focused elsewhere, and it is especially necessary this year with the beast of a nonconference schedule they put together.
Hurley will know what he has, and what he doesn’t, with six early tests against teams that will likely be ranked in the preseason top 25. The two preseason games, first against Boston College, then Michigan State in Hartford, are (relatively) risk-free measuring sticks before sharing the court with the likes of BYU, Arizona, Illinois, Kansas, Florida and Texas in games that will validate, or invalidate, preseason expectations.
Originally Published: October 7, 2025 at 3:49 PM EDT
