No. 4 UConn hosts No. 22 Michigan State in preseason finale
To care or not to care. To underreact or to overreact. To fantasize or to ignore completely.
There’s a lot of emotion wound up in college basketball preseason exhibitions – ask CBS insider Jon Rothstein. That emotion is felt ten-fold when two top 25 teams square off less than a week before the start of the regular season.
The fourth-ranked University of Connecticut men’s basketball team will host No. 22 Michigan State in the newly renovated (and renamed) PeoplesBank Arena in Hartford on Tuesday night.
They’ll be clashing with Sparty without a pair of key offensive pieces on the floor. Tarris Reed Jr. and Braylon Mullins were ruled out by Dan Hurley on Monday with hamstring and ankle injuries, respectively.
The injuries
Reed, a preseason All-Big East First Team selection, has been hampered by a soft tissue injury for multiple weeks, which held him out of UConn’s exhibition versus Boston College on Oct. 13. Hurley is hopeful that Reed will return for the opener versus New Haven next Monday.
“[He is] still working his way back,” Hurley said. “[He is] feeling better, but still not ready to go.”
True freshman Eric Reibe is in line for his second start this preseason. The seven-footer chipped in eight points and six rebounds on 3/9 shooting versus Boston College in his first taste of collegiate action.
“They’re going to expose some things,” Hurley said of Michigan State. “I am a little worried about the freshman center versus that frontcourt.”
Mullins was selected as the Big East Preseason Freshman of the Year on Tuesday. It was announced that he’d miss six weeks due to an ankle injury on Friday. The true freshman’s flat tire will alter the Huskies’ starting lineup, which was thought to comprise Mullins and Reed alongside Silas Demary Jr., Solo Ball and Alex Karaban.
“The guy’s got some of that Indiana, Midwest air or dairy [in him],” Hurley said of Indiana’s 2025 Mr. Basketball. “He was fortunate – we were fortunate. We were very nervous that it could’ve been far worse for him.”
The consensus five-star recruit is expected to miss games against BYU, Arizona, Illinois and Kansas but return for Florida and Texas in the first weeks of December.
“He’s a tough kid and, according to his dad, a fast healer,” Hurley said with a smirk. He also noted that Mullins’ injury, which wasn’t elaborated on specifically, is different than the one former Husky Liam McNeeley suffered in January.
Jaylin Stewart is expected to fill the role left vacant by Mullins. The junior wing has started 12 of his 72 career games as a Husky, averaging 7.9 points on 54.8% shooting in those 12 starts, respectively.
“I’m not going to do as much of the prognosticating with a lot of the players anymore,” Hurley said of Stewart and Jayden Ross. “As juniors [we want to] see these guys go out and be assertive. I want to see assertive men out there, men that are assertive with their actions and the way they carry themselves.”
The history
It won’t count towards the official standings, but the Huskies and Spartans will meet for a ninth time on Tuesday, with the series split at 4-4. The two teams split the most pivotal of them; a 2009 Final Four matchup swung the way of Sparty before UConn stole an Elite Eight matchup in 2014 en route to a national title.
Hurley has only faced Tom Izzo once while at the helm in Connecticut, a six-point loss in Atlantis back in 2021. UConn will travel to East Lansing, MI to complete the home-and-home exhibition series next fall.
The projected starting line – who are they matching up against?
Demary, Ball, Stewart, Karaban and Reibe.
Demary will see his first action as a Husky on Tuesday and will most likely get the start over Malachi Smith, who handled point guard duties versus Boston College in Demary’s absence (calf).
He’ll be tabbed with guarding the fiery Jeremy Fears Jr. on the perimeter, who ranked eighth nationally in assist percentage last year (38.9) in 36 starts for the Spartans.
Ball will shoulder Trey Fort responsibilities. Fort, a Samford transfer, pairs a terrific mid-range jumper with a reliable three-pointer (37.9), making him one of Sparty’s top scoring threats and best athletes.
The Spartan frontcourt duo of 6-foot-9 Jaxon Kohler and 6-foot-11 Carson Cooper gives Izzo a bedrock of stability to rebuild his defense on. The two returning bigs combined to average 7.6 defensive rebounds per game last year, including a combined 18 in a victory over Bryant in the NCAA Tournament. Kohler finished with 15 points and 10 rebounds in MSU’s win over Bowling Green last week.
You’ll find Izzo’s X-factor on the wing, however. Or in the air. Or around the rim. He’s all over the place. Coen Carr emerged last season as one of the nation’s top high-flyers and will be matched up against one of Stewart or Karaban – perhaps the most dynamic threat the two will matchup against all season.
It’ll be the men’s team’s first action inside ‘PBA’ — the Connecticut women trounced Southern Connecticut 105-39 on Sunday. Hurley is hoping for some of the same on Tuesday.
“Anytime you go out there, you want to try to win,” Hurley said. “You’re coaching. Why? You’re coaching because you want to win the next possession, win the exhibition.”
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