STORRS – Gampel Pavilion will play host to its first top-five showdown in men’s basketball in almost two decades when the third-ranked UConn welcomes No. 4 Arizona on Wednesday night.
There has only been one other matchup of its kind in the on-campus arena since it opened in 1990 and UConn won that game on Feb. 26, 2006, taking down No. 2 Villanova, 89-75, as the No. 3 team in the country.
Wednesday’s game against the Wildcats could end up being one of the biggest home games in the program’s history. Coached by Tommy Lloyd and led by 6-foot-9 freshman Koa Peat, who has two veteran guards in Jaden Bradley and Anthony Dell’Orso by his side, Arizona has one of, if not the best resume in the country to this point in the season. Behind a mammoth, 30-point debut for Peat, the Wildcats opened their season with a thrilling 93-87 win over reigning national champion Florida at the Hall of Fame Series in Las Vegas, and come into Wednesday’s game after taking down a top-15 UCLA team, 69-65, in a semi-road environment at the Hall of Fame Series in Los Angeles.
“To go win two games at that level, it just creates a fun night on a Wednesday night when there’s no college football going on, it’s gonna be a game that people are excited to watch,” UConn coach Dan Hurley said after his team held off another top freshman and projected top NBA Draft pick, A.J. Dybantsa, and No. 7 BYU at TD Garden on Saturday.
Hurley plans on giving UConn fans more exciting games like Wednesday’s. The Huskies have five opponents on their nonconference schedule this season who were ranked in the latest AP Top 25 poll, plus an additional high-major game against Texas. Next year and moving forward, there could be more.
“(We have) the ability to hand pick the best opponents we could possibly play, and maybe even head to a point where you’re even more imbalanced where maybe you’re playing seven or eight games like this and maybe three or four buy games,” Hurley said ahead of the BYU matchup.
“It’s just a question I’d like to know from the selection committee: If you end up with more losses, will you reward playing that schedule? Because I think once you get to a certain level of the amount of losses on your record, now you’re eliminated from a No. 1 seed, a No. 2 seed, a No. 3 seed,” he expanded after the game. “So will they reward, if you play eight or nine of these types of games and you go 6-3 or 5-3 and you don’t stack up this gaudy record, will that be rewarded?”
For now, having a win over No. 7 BYU and No. 4 Arizona would certainly be rewarded.
But UConn will be challenged to get there.
Peat will be atop the scouting report, just as Dybantsa was. He is more of a physical post presence than Dybantsa, who can play anywhere on the floor, as the Huskies learned, can create mismatches and dominate on the glass, while being a prolific scorer inside. His numbers have taken a bit of a dip as he’s played only 21 minutes in the Wildcats’ last two games, but the Wildcats have additional weapons in players like freshman Brayden Burries, a high-profile recruit who hasn’t quite found his efficiency in college yet, and 7-foot-2 center Motiejus Krivas, who can be a force inside.
“No one’s had a better start to the year than those guys,” Hurley said.
What to know
Site: Gampel Pavilion, Storrs
Time: 7 p.m.
Records: No. 3 UConn: 4-0, No. 4 Arizona: 4-0
Series: UConn leads, 5-2.
Last meeting: Dec. 2, 2018 – Arizona 76, UConn 72 in the XL Center in Hartford
TV: FS1 – Jason Benetti, Bill Raftery
Radio: UConn Sports Network on FOX Sports Radio 97-9 – Mike Crispino, Wayne Norman
Pregame reading:
- No. 3 UConn men hold off late surge from No. 7 BYU to win, 86-84, at TD Garden
- Karaban vs. Dybantsa homecoming showdown lives up to hype as UConn earns marquee win over BYU
- Alex Karaban named Big East Player of the Week as UConn men’s basketball holds spot in AP poll