The Huskies look for a win in their penultimate game of 2025.
The No. 5 UConn men’s basketball team passed its first test of Big East play on Tuesday with a 79-60 win over Butler in Hartford. Next up, the first road test in conference play for Dan Hurley and his Huskies as they travel to Chicago to face DePaul (8-4, 0-1) on Sunday afternoon at Wintrust Arena.
The Blue Demons rank No. 120 in KenPom, with the No. 173 offense in the country, and 146th in NET. These numbers aren’t great for a Big East team, no doubt about that, but Chris Holtmann has his club playing pretty decent basketball as of late. Before dropping their Big East opener in Queens against St. John’s, DePaul won six of its last seven non-conference games including a win over Georgia Tech in the Emerald Coast Classic.
As for UConn, the Huskies sit No. 7 in both the KenPom NET. They have the fourth rated defense in the country per KenPom, a continued step in the right direction from last season. The 11-1 Huskies’ only loss was to now- No.1 Arizona by four points in a game where Tarris Reed Jr. and Braylon Mullins were both out with injuries.
They’ll try and keep things on track headed into a 10-day layoff after this game for Christmas break before one more clash in 2025 on New Year’s Eve at Xavier.
Date/Time: Sunday, Dec. 21, 4:30 p.m. EST
TV/Stream: FS1, Streaming on the Fox Sports App
Radio: UConn Sports Network, Sirius XM 201, Sirius/XM online streaming
Odds: UConn -14.5; O/U 136.5
Location: Wintrust Arena — Chicago, Illinois
KenPom Predicted Score: UConn 75, DePaul 62 (89 percent win probability)
Series History
The Huskies and Blue Demons have played 21 times in their history with all but one of those matchups coming in Big East play. UConn has won all 20 of the 21 matchups including in the second round of the 2004 NCAA Tournament. They last faced off on January 29, 2025 when UConn beat DePaul, 72-61 at Gampel Pavilion. Solo Ball and Tarris Reed Jr. led four Huskies in double figures with 16 points each
Inactives report
As of this writing, the injury status of Jaylin Stewart remains unknown after the junior went down with a shoulder injury in the first half against Butler. All other Huskies are expected to be available Sunday.
What to Watch For
Career Night Encores?
In the win over Butler on Tuesday, both Solo Ball and Jayden Ross had perhaps their most memorable nights in a Husky uniform. Ball poured in a career-high 26 points and, perhaps most notably, only drilled three triples to get there. In his previous career-high performance at Marquette last season, he scored 25 points and knocked down seven treys, showing how his game has evolved over the summer into the type of player that can score at all levels.
As for Ross, the junior had undoubtedly the best game he’s had in his UConn career. He scored 13 points – all in the second half – and had a team high eight rebounds to spearhead the Huskies’ +19 night on the glass against the Bulldogs. He had three highlight reel slams, none as incredible as his putback he had off a missed triple from Ball. With Stewart going down with the injury and Alex Karaban being in foul trouble, the lane was there for Ross to be on the floor and he made the most of his minutes.
Now comes the fun part. How will they respond on Sunday? It isn’t a secret that Ball has had his struggles this season, but maybe he’s finally unlocked that new gear that everyone expected him to have coming into the year and he’ll keep it up from here. Ross has shown flashes before, albeit nothing like Tuesday. Was it a one-off or will he continue being this “new toy” that Hurley has to use at his disposal?
Keep it up on the boards
DePaul comes into play on Sunday last in the Big East in both points (76.4) and rebounds (33.8) per game. Rebounding particularly has been a point of emphasis for the Huskies all year and their inability to do so. After what the team did on Tuesday in the win over Butler on the glass, having another opponent that gives you an opportunity to have a positive night rebounding is critical for the team’s development as the year goes on.
The only Blue Demon averaging more than four rebounds per game this season is center NJ Benson with 6.5. The Huskies have four players getting at least four a night in Reed, Karaban, Silas Demary Jr. and Eric Reibe. Controlling the glass and getting out in transition will be a point of emphasis on Sunday.
UConn and DePaul are actually ranked last and second-to-last in the conference in offensive rebounds per game, so that’s another area where either side could emerge and take advantage. Look for guys like Ross and Karaban to create second opportunities by using their athleticism and IQ to secure offensive boards after missed shots, a la what Ross did with that putback slam on Tuesday.
The Bank is open on Sunday
Tulane transfer Kaleb Banks has been playing some of his best basketball of the season for DePaul as of late. The senior scored 19 points and hit three triples in the Blue Demons loss at St. John’s earlier this week and had 18 points in a win over Morgan State a couple of weeks ago. Banks was the only player on his team to shoot a respectable percentage from three against the Red Storm as the rest of the squad went a combined 4-20.
Expect Karaban to draw the assignment of Banks and look to limit his looks from the perimeter. Fun fact, this won’t be his first time facing the Huskies. He played for Indiana two years ago when UConn beat the Hoosiers in the Empire Classic at Madison Square Garden. Banks didn’t score in 10 minutes and came off the bench along with current DePaul teammate CJ Gunn.
Familiarity on both sides.
UConn and DePaul as of writing are the only two teams in the Big East whose top three scorers all were on the team last season. You just don’t see that very often with the prominence of the transfer portal. Ball, Karaban and Reed of course for the Huskies, but for the Blue Demons Chris Holtmann was able to retain Gunn, Benson and Layden Blocker and convince them all to come back. The trio scored a combined 45 points in DePaul’s memorable 2-OT loss to Creighton in the Big East tournament and bought back in to the program for another year.
Road opener struggles or…?
There is always a lot of talk on social media when the UConn Big East opener comes around because of how often the Huskies struggle in them. In the program’s first game back in the Big East in 2020 they lost against Creighton in the opener in the game James Bouknight dropped 40. The next year, they lost in Hartford to a Providence team that ended up having a historic season, but at the time wasn’t even ranked. Two years after that, the Huskies lost at Seton Hall in a game that Donovan Clingan went down with an injury, one of the team’s three losses all year.
With all of those struggles, I think there’s some misinterpretations that leak over to road openers in conference play. That memorable Seton Hall loss is actually the loss UConn has had in its Big East road opener since rejoining the league, going 4-1 with a pair of wins at Marquette and Butler. All of the noise that league road openers doom the Huskies is false, in fact they’ve fared quite well.
Category: General Sports
