UConn Men’s Basketball: 3 Takeaways From Huskies Exhibition Season

The UConn Huskies men’s basketball team rolled over Purdue on Tuesday night in the final exhibition game of the season, and is now ready to embark on the regular season, which begins on Monday night against Gardner-Webb.

Dan Hurley’s team took on a challenging exhibition slate, beating Syracuse, Michigan State and Purdue, and they won all three games by at least eight points. They won Tuesday’s game against the Boilermakers by 23 (76-53).

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With the preseason now behind us, here’s a look at the three main takeaways from these three games:

When you lose an NBA interior player like Tarris Reed Jr., it’s expected that you’ll lose something on the rebounding and defensive end. However, this UConn team looks excellent defensively.

They bottled up a rebuilding Syracuse team in the opener and then held Purdue to just 53 points on 2-of-25 shooting from three-point range.

Hurley spoke about his team’s defensive ability after the SU win, and he said that Silas Demary Jr. might be the best ball-hawking guard in the country. We don’t have a problem with that assessment either.

Connecticut guard Silas Demary Jr. (2) dribbles the ball around Michigan guard Trey McKenney (1) during the second half of the NCAA national championship game at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis on Monday, April 6, 2026. Junfu Han / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Hines was the best player on the floor in the win against Syracuse, but he didn’t replicate that exact impact in either of the two other games. Hurley said they needed to get Hines more consistent, so this is not necessarily a surprise. He had nine points and six rebounds in 17 minutes against Purdue, so the impact is clearly there, but can he do it often enough to earn 28 and 30-minute outings? If he can, the ceiling for this team is incredibly high. He needs to stay engaged, and out of foul trouble, which is something that bothered him against Michigan State.

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Oskar Giltay had 12 points in 21 minutes on Tuesday.

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Publish date : 2026-10-28 13:13:00

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