UConn men tip off challenging week with No. 10 Marquette on Tuesday: Time TV info, everything you need to know

After the miserable slide that followed a 14-0 start, the UConn men’s basketball team has won three of its last four, albeit against the bottom three teams in the Big East, and appears to have made strides back to where it started.

How far have the Huskies come?

They’ll find out this week.

It starts with No. 10 Marquette in Hartford on Tuesday. The Golden Eagles are surprisingly the highest-ranked team in the conference and tied atop the standings despite being picked to finish ninth in the preseason. Then, the Huskies will fly out to Omaha for a tough matchup against red-hot No. 23 Creighton.

Marquette, 11-2 in conference play with four weeks until the Big East Tournament, beat UConn 82-76 at Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee Jan. 11. The Huskies’ main contributors in that game were freshmen Donovan Clingan and Alex Karaban, who produced a combined 37 points and 17 rebounds. Clingan added five blocks.

Jordan Hawkins and Tristen Newton, who’ve stepped up as main scorers for the Huskies lately, scored a combined 15 points on 4-for-16 shooting in that one. Adama Sanogo mustered 10 points and three rebounds with five turnovers in the game; he played under 20 minutes for the first time since the season opener.

“You can look at it I guess in one or two ways,” UConn head coach Dan Hurley said Monday. “Obviously we were fortunate to be in the game under the circumstances and I guess you could take some confidence from that, but [we’re] obviously gonna have to play a whole lot better, especially on the defensive end.”

Stopping the Golden Eagles won’t be an easy task. They push the pace behind point guard Tyler Kolek, who was named a Top 10 candidate for the Bob Cousy Award on Monday, which recognizes the best point guard in the country.

Kolek is averaging 11.3 points and is second in the nation with 7.9 assists per game.

“Shaka (Smart) has done a great job with them. They create turnovers, they play athletic, they attack your ball so if you’re not sharp they make it tough,” Hurley said of Marquette. “[Olivier-Maxence] Prosper was very physical with Jordan off the ball, I mean really, really physical and they really extended screens with Jordan.

“Defensively, they’re really hard to guard. They’ve got one of the best quarterbacks in the country in Kolek, [Oso] Ighodaro is an NBA draft pick, Prosper’s gonna play in the NBA. [Kam] Jones is one of the most underrated guys in our league probably in terms of the scoring. They’re just a tough team.”

Here is everything you need to know about the ranked matchup:

Site: XL Center, Hartford

Time: 6:30 p.m.

Series: Tied, 7-7

Last meeting: Jan. 11, 2023 – Marquette 82, UConn 76 at Fiserv Forum

Last UConn win: Feb. 8, 2022 – UConn 80, Marquette 72 at the XL Center

TV: FS1, Kevin Kugler and Bill Raftery

Radio: UConn Sports Network on 97.9 ESPN, Mike Crispino and Wayne Norman

Notes

Kara-beard? Alex Karaban has let his beard grow since before the DePaul game last week and, since the Huskies haven’t lost with it, “I’m currently not allowed to shave it,” he said. “Coach Hurley and all of the other coaches make a big emphasis on me to keep it so I’m gonna keep it for now.”

Karaban wasn’t a big fan of the facial hair at first, but as more people told him they liked it – and as it has really filled in – he decided to continue letting it grow.

“Bad stretch, you know how like after a breakup people will be dyeing their hair and stuff? That was my version of it,” Karaban said, laughing.

Hurley said his fandom of the beard isn’t about superstition, as it might have been for assistant Tom Moore who has also allowed his beard to grow in.

“Two separate things,” Hurley said. “I just think it makes [Karaban] look like an even better player, I think it’s just a good look for Alex. I like the beard. Tom’s a different deal.”

Big week: The Huskies have struggled this season against the top teams in the conference, with their best win being at Gampel Pavilion against Creighton. They’ll have more of a true measuring stick this week, though.

“This is a get-back week for us. We can’t get swept again like we did against Xavier, so we’ve got to beat [Marquette] at our home court, protect it,” Karaban said. “Creighton, I mean, we all know what Creighton’s about so just playing them on the road will be a big test for us too. Just to continue to build up our resume, we had some pretty bad losses during this season, so if we can get a win against No. 10 Marquette and another one, No. 23 against Creighton, that would just get back a little that we’ve lost.”

Hurley said the focus remains one game at a time, noting that at 18-6 the Huskies are a game better than they were through 24 games last season.

“We’ve played ranked and obviously an unbelievable non-conference, we’ve not played as well in the league. The league is playing a lot harder than a lot of people give it credit for because we didn’t have teams that crushed the non-conference schedule,” Hurley said. “So the league isn’t getting credit for how tough the league is to play in night in and night out.”

The end is near: With just seven games left and about four weeks until the conference tournament begins, the season has flown by for the Huskies.

“You try to remind the players that this is precious, man. We’ve got seven more of these left in the regular season to put ourselves in the absolute best position we can and let’s take advantage of these seven,” Hurley said.