Hartford, check. Boston, check.
Now, after beating No. 16 Michigan at TD Garden on Friday, No. 4 UConn (2-0) will make its season debut on campus in Storrs in a Monday night clash with Wagner (0-2).
The Huskies started their impressive line of nonconference tests with a bang against the Wolverines, overcoming significant foul trouble to take a 13-point lead into halftime and never look back. The Huskies led for all but 52 seconds in an 85-77 win against the team that beat them for the national championship in April.
“For us, (Friday’s) game was just maybe a confidence builder going into this slate of nonconference games that are just gonna be one monster after another,” said UConn coach Dan Hurley, whose team plays Ohio State, Arizona and Duke consecutively, beginning Friday and running through Thanksgiving Eve.
After the holiday, UConn has Illinois, Kansas and Virginia on the schedule.
Big East Preseason Player of the Year Silas Demary Jr., who fouled out of the title game with just two points, and Braylon Mullins combined for 44 points to lead the Huskies against Michigan. Demary scored 21 points and added seven rebounds and four assists, while Mullins netted 23 points.
“I think I was just able to come out here and play healthy, play my game and really showcase how effective I can be … at 100%,” Demary said.
Mullins recorded 20 points in the season-opening 86-46 win against Gardner-Webb last Monday to lead the Huskies in scoring.
Freshman Colben Landrew continued a hot start to his college career with a 14-point, eight-rebound performance off the bench against Michigan.
“(Landrew’s) a stud,” Hurley said. “There’s not that many freshmen in the country that are better than that guy, and that guy’s going to look a lot different in January.”
UConn is now 59-7 in nonconference games since the start of the 2022-23 season, with three of those losses coming at the 2024 Maui Invitational.
Wagner recently faced back-to-back opponents from the Atlantic Coast Conference, falling 76-50 to Boston College and 83-57 to No. 14 Miami on Tuesday and Friday, respectively.
Second-year coach Dwan McMillan, who had an interim tag removed entering this season, knows that lessons learned against high-major programs can pay off in Northeast Conference play.
“(Last season) taught me perseverance, just staying with it,” McMillan said. “We had seven games on the road to start. Kind of like this year, but this year is more of a gauntlet.”
An ultra-challenging slate helped the coach reel in 10 Division I transfers. The Seahawks also will meet Maryland of the Big Ten, as well as Marquette and St. John’s of the Big East.
Tajae Jones, formerly of Siena, led Wagner at Miami with 13 points and 11 rebounds for his first career double-double. Cam Estevez (Fairfield) and Ryan Pettis (Fordham) both sank a pair of 3-pointers as the team totaled seven.
“Opportunity is worth more than money. That was my recruiting pitch — ‘I’m going to give you an abundance of opportunity to prove yourself not only daily, but against the best in the country,'” McMillan said.
Hurley led Wagner from 2010-12, taking over a team that won five games before he arrived and going 25-6 in his second season. He subsequently was the head coach at Rhode Island before moving on in 2018 to UConn, where he has led the Huskies to two national championships and a runner-up.
Hurley has never coached against Wagner.