HARTFORD – The UConn men’s basketball team has never lost in 11 all-time meetings against Butler, but the Bulldogs have come close to ending that streak multiple times in recent years.
They will meet again in Hartford on Monday as the Huskies begin Big East play in the same building where Jahmyl Telfort and Finley Bizjack pushed them to their limit last January, combining for 42 points and forcing overtime, where UConn squeaked out a two-point victory. They had already played a tight, four-point game at Hinkle Fieldhouse just a few weeks prior.
Now UConn has built another championship-caliber roster and made it through its nonconference gauntlet with only one blemish – a four-point loss to Arizona, the current top-ranked team in the country. And Butler, which is still led by the sharpshooter Bizjack (18.8 points per game and 38.9% from deep) and new Gonzaga transfer Michael Ajayi (17.4 points, 11.9 rebounds, 3.2 assists per game), has a group that figures to be much better than its preseason 10th-place in the league’s coaches’ poll.
“They look like a team that’s ready to compete at the top of the league and look like a team that’s got legitimate NCAA Tournament – they did well enough in the nonconference that I think they’re in the mix to be an at-large team if they have a good enough Big East,” coach Dan Hurley said.
It was Ajayi and Bizjack who combined for 54 points in the Bulldogs’ Big East-opening win in double-overtime over Providence on Saturday. Butler holds one of the league’s four Quad One nonconference victories outside of UConn – which has four of its own – after taking down Virginia in November.
“Coach (Thad Matta) has built that roster around (Ajayi) and Bizjack, and the guy looks like Telfort, really, there’s a lot of similarities,” Hurley said. “So he looks like that type of player, a guy who played there last year who’s currently in the NBA. He’s that talented and so is Bizjack and then they’ve got multiple centers and some 3-point shooting around those guys.”
It will most likely be Alex Karaban who draws the matchup against Ajayi, second in the nation in rebounding, on Tuesday night.
“He’s a force to be reckoned with,” center Tarris Reed Jr. said. “Overall, we’re just gonna play our game defensively. We know his tendencies, his strengths and weaknesses, so we need to lock in on that side of the ball and rebound, that’s gonna be the keys to the game tomorrow, rebounding and our defense.”
For the Huskies, the focus at the start of league play is on improving their own operation. They have five high-major victories, mostly in decisive fashion, but they haven’t been able to put teams away like the championship teams in 2023 and 2024 used to.
“Our rebounding has not been what championship teams do, our ball-screen defense has not been what championship teams do, we’ve turned the ball over at a level that championship teams don’t and we don’t have a killer instinct,” Hurley said.
“Some of (those things) come down to the man being a monster, the man being a destroyer, the man wanting the championship glory so badly that they’re relentless in their pursuit of rebounds and getting out in ball-screen defense or getting out in transition so we could score more, or have such great ball security because the man is so determined and so ambitious to be a champion,” he said. “Guys like Andre Jackson and Cam Spencer, Adama Sanogo and Donovan (Clingan), Hawk, these guys would not be denied a rebound and that’s a lot of times what rebounding comes down to. You’ve got to be a killer.”
Mullins begins Big East play with a taste of home
UConn freshman Braylon Mullins, from Greenfield, Indiana, his high school about an hour east of Hinkle Fieldhouse, was recruited by Matta and received an offer from Butler way back in October, 2023.
“Being from Indy, it kind of gives it a little something to play for kind of game, but all of these games are the same. Just come out, play hard, play to win,” Mullins said ahead of his Big East debut.
“AK was saying like with the Texas game, that’s how a Big East game is going to be officiated, so we got to see that a little bit and going forward it’s gonna be more physical games and we’re just gonna have to play through it,” said the ever-confident, reigning Indiana Mr. Basketball. “I get to play for UConn, so why wouldn’t I have the most confidence in the world?”
Reed got a crash course in the toughness of the league when he came to UConn from Michigan last year, though he didn’t necessarily know what he was stepping into at first.
“The Big East is the Big East, that’s the best way to put it,” he said. “It’s physical, every game’s competitive, every game’s gonna demand your all. It’s like an all-out war out there, refs not gonna call all the fouls. I didn’t believe it my first time around, but best believe this time around I’m ready for it. Knowing every game’s gonna be a battle. We just had a grueling nonconference schedule that we came out on top, so, really being able to lock in on every team, every scout and be ready to dominate.”
What to know
Site: PeoplesBank Arena, Hartford
Time: 8:30 p.m.
Records: No. 5 UConn: 10-1, Butler: 8-2 (1-0 Big East)
Series: UConn leads, 11-0.
Last meeting: Jan. 21, 2025 – UConn 80, Butler 78 (OT) at the XL Center in Hartford
TV: Peacock/NBC Sports Network – Justin Kutcher, Donny Marshall
Radio: UConn Sports Network on FOX Sports Radio 97-9 – Mike Crispino, Wayne Norman