UConn men’s basketball (27-3, 17-2) returns to action for the final time in the regular season this weekend, as the Huskies make a trip to the Milwaukee to take on Marquette (11-19, 6-13) on Saturday afternoon at Fiserv Forum.
The Golden Eagles rank No. 91 in KenPom, with the No. 128 offense in the country, and 99th in the NET. Marquette has been one of the more surprising teams in the conference, and not for a good reason. Shaka Smart had led the team to four-straight NCAA Tournament bids in his first four years in Milwaukee, but now would need the miracle of all miracles to make it a fifth. The Golden Eagles are coming in hot, handling Providence earlier this week at the AMP.
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As for UConn, the Huskies sit at No. 4 in the AP Poll, No. 10 in KenPom, and No. 8 in the NET. They have won three-straight quality games against the other top teams in the conference, most recently winning 71-67 over Seton Hall last weekend on an emotional Senior Day for the home finale behind 23 points from Alex Karaban on the day he was inducted into the Huskies of Honor.
Saturday’s matchup is a Quad 2 game for UConn according to the NET, in which the Huskies are a perfect 9-0 as of writing. In the top two quadrants overall, UConn is 16-2 and slots in as the final one seed in most bracketology predictions with Selection Sunday less than 10 days away.
The Huskies are looking to clinch their 12th Big East regular season title with a win, either outright or in a tie with St. John’s depending on what happens on Friday night when the Red Storm take on Seton Hall in Newark. Can UConn close the schedule out strong and finish the season sweep?
Date/Time: Saturday, March 7, 12:30 p.m.
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TV/Stream: FOX, FoxSports.com
Radio: UConn Sports Network, Sirius XM 205, Sirius/XM online streaming
Odds: UConn – 9.5, O/U 143.5
Location: Fiserv Forum — Milwaukee, WI
KenPom Predicted Score: UConn 76, Marquette 66 — 82 percent win probability
Series History
The Huskies and Golden Eagles have played 22 times in their history with all of them coming while together in the Big East. UConn has a 14-8 advantage over Marquette with an 11-2 lead since it rejoined the Big East in 2020. They last faced off on Jan. 4, 2026 when UConn beat Marquette, 73-57 at Gampel Pavilion. Solo Ball led three Huskies in double figures with 17 points.
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Availability report
Jaylin Stewart has missed the last two games with right knee inflammation. We’ll know more when the injury report comes out three hours before tipoff.
What to Watch For
A lot at stake
Only one UConn team — the 2024 national title squad — has ever won 18 games in a single conference season. This year’s rendition of the Huskies has a chance to do so as well with a win. The team’s magic number to clinch at least a share of its 12th Big East Regular Season crown is down to just one as well, needing either a St. John’s loss Friday night or a win Saturday to get there.
Seeding is up for grabs too. By the time the teams tip-off in Milwaukee, UConn will already have a pretty good idea of what they’ll need to do to get each seed. If St. John’s wins Friday night, UConn will be locked in to the two seed next week at Madison Square Garden. If the Red Storm lose, the Huskies will be the one seed regardless of result on Saturday, as they would hold the tiebreaker going 2-0 against Seton Hall while the Red Storm, in this scenario, would be 1-1.
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Now, for your weekly Alex Karaban update. The newest Husky of Honor is five triples behind Rashad Anderson from becoming UConn’s all-time leader in made threes. Saturday will also put him one game from tying Shabazz Napier for most games played in the uniform. He’s also 72 minutes behind Napier for most minutes played as a Husky, a number he’ll likely surpass during the Big East Tournament next week.
Shooters gym?
Since rejoining the Big East, UConn has had a surprising amount of great individual shooting performances, surprising in a sense that there seems to be one every single time the Huskies trek out to Milwaukee. It all stemmed from Tyler Polley’s 23-point, five 3-pointer performance back in 2021 in a game in which UConn trailed by double digits in the first half. Then in 2024, Cam Spencer and Karaban each buried five treys as a part of a potent perimeter attack in a win. Last year, Solo Ball tied his career high by knocking down seven shots from beyond the arc.
Who will it be this year, Ball or Karaban again? Perhaps Braylon Mullins? It feels inevitable based on the past handful of years that someone will have a memorable afternoon from distance.
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Rookie Race
It feels like Marquette’s Nigel James Jr. is all but a lock to win the Big East Freshman of the Year, but Mullins is attempting to make it a much harder decision with how he’s played over the past few weeks. Mullins has scored in double figures in eight of his past nine games including a career-high 25 in the Huskies’ surprising loss to Creighton. Overall, he’s averaging 13 points per game in conference play, knocking down 2.7 threes a night.
Still, he would probably need a herculean effort to surpass James for the award. The Golden Eagle star has three games of 30+ points in Big East play, averaging 19.3 points in league action. In what’s been overall a year to forget in Milwaukee, James has been one of the few bright spots for the program.
Pound the post
The interior defense of Marquette hasn’t been great this year, one of their many flaws overall. In the first matchup back in January in Storrs, Tarris Reed Jr. and Eric Reibe combined to score 22 points and grabbed 15 rebounds, five on the offensive end. The Golden Eagles just didn’t have many answers to the post presence that the Huskies brought, and it was needed seeing they shot just 5-24 from three on the afternoon.
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Look for Reed to get touches early and often, and Reibe to roll off of screens to set up post hook opportunities. Seeing how much some of the other guys struggled in the first matchup (Mullins 3-10 FG, 1-7 3pt and Karaban 2-11 FG, 0-5 3pt), Hurley and the staff may look to lean on the bigs to build an early advantage.
Road warriors
Should UConn knock off Marquette on Saturday, it would mean that it finished with a 9-1 road record in conference play. The last time that Huskies lost just one conference road game in a season was 2008-09, where their lone defeat away from home in Big East play came at Pitt. Even the dominant 2024 team lost multiple road games during league play.
