Big East Tournament Semifinal: No. 2 UConn men’s basketball vs. No. 11 Georgetown | 8:00 p.m., FS1
· Yahoo Sports
UConn men’s basketball (28-4, 17-3) looks to keep things rolling at MSG, as the Huskies are set to take on Georgetown (16-17, 6-14) at Madison Square Garden in the semifinal round of the Big East Tournament on Friday night.
The 11-seed Hoyas rank No. 76 in KenPom, with the No. 83 offense in the country, and 92nd in the NET. Georgetown kept its Cinderella run through the Big East Tournament going on Thursday night, shocking the Big East world by not only picking off three seed Villanova, but doing so by double digits. Ed Cooley’s bunch finished tied for last in the league, last place in the bracket via the tiebreakers, and has played phenomenal basketball all around in the postseason so far.
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As for UConn, the Huskies sit at No. 6 in the AP Poll, No. 10 in KenPom, and No. 9 in the NET. They are fresh off of a dominant quarterfinal win over 10-seed Xavier 93-68 in a game that saw Tarris Reed Jr. put up a dominant 17 and 14 and the key reserves of Jayden Ross, Malachi Smith and Eric Reibe combine for 24 points off the bench. UConn washed away its shocking loss in Milwaukee on Saturday with a statement performance in the quarters.
After picking up such a surprising loss to Marquette, UConn fell off of the one line on most bracketology’s, getting leaped by Florida. At this stage in the year, the Huskies would likely need a combination of a Big East Tournament title and a somewhat early SEC Tourney exit from the Gators to have a chance to be a 1-seed, amongst other things in other conference tournaments.
The Huskies have made the semifinals in now six straight years in the Big East tourney, but just have one championship and title game appearance to their name. Can UConn reverse its recent trends and advance to Saturday night?
Date/Time: Friday, March 13, 8:00 p.m.
TV/Stream: FS1, FoxSports.com
Radio: UConn Sports Network, Sirius XM 204, Sirius/XM online streaming
Odds: UConn -13.5, O/U 140.5 points
Location: Madison Square Garden — New York, New York
KenPom Predicted Score: UConn 76 Georgetown 65
Series History
The Huskies and Hoyas have played 78 times in their history, with UConn holding a slim 42-36 advantage. The Huskies have won 12-straight games against Georgetown dating back to 2021. The last time they lost to the Hoyas was in a non-conference game in January 2017 while UConn was in the American Conference. They last faced off on Feb. 14, 2026 when UConn beat Georgetown 79-75 in Storrs. Solo Ball led five Huskies in double figures with 20 points.
In terms of Big East Tournament history, UConn and Georgetown have faced off eight times during the conference championships with the Huskies up 6-2 all time. They last faced off in 2011, when the Huskies knocked off the Hoyas 79-62 in the second round on the way to their five win in five day title. Kemba Walker scored 28 points to lead UConn, the second game of his historic 11-game postseason run. UConn is 3-0 against the Hoyas in the semifinals.
Availability report
Jaylin Stewart will miss the Big East Tournament with right knee inflammation.
What to Watch ForSemifinal struggles
As mentioned, UConn has advanced to the semifinals in every Big East Tournament its played in since rejoining the conference in 2020. It’s record in five matchups? 1-4. The Huskies have only been able to get over the hump of the Big East’s “Final Four” one time, in 2024 when they ran through the league during their most recent national championship run.
Let’s look at the opponents they’ve played and recapping what went wrong during the stretch. Back in 2021, UConn fell to Creighton 59-56 and was held without a field goal for the final six minutes of the game while shooting 33% from the field overall. James Bouknight and Tyrese Martin went a combined 5-21 from the floor. The next year, the Huskies fell to eventual champ Villanova 63-60, this time shooting 38% from the field.
Then in 2023, UConn lost to the eventual champ again, this time Marquette by a score of 70-68. I’m sure you’re catching on to the trend of narrow, gut-wrenching defeats. In that one, Tristen Newton and Jordan Hawkins combined to shoot 4-21 from the field and 1-10 from three. The Huskies broke through and won the whole thing in 2024, but they were back to their semifinal exit ways last year, falling to Creighton 71-62, a blowout compared to the other three game. That one will be infamous for the theatrics after the game in which the Bluejays’ Jamiya Neal broke the unwritten rules and dunked with time expiring, igniting some back-and-forth between the two teams.
Now that I’ve got your hopes up after listing all of the heartbreaking losses of the past few years, the beauty of March is that each season and each team is its own story. Just because the team has history losing in this round, doesn’t mean ”this” team will. It’s a clean slate and a new opportunity.
Hoyas have been handfuls
Both games between UConn and Georgetown this year provided the Huskies with great challenges and obstacles to overcome. In the game in D.C., UConn was able to squeak by with a 64-62 win after playing with their food a bit, missing a surprising amount of free throws down the stretch. The Huskies led by seven with less than a minute to play, but nearly coughed it up and gave the Hoyas a chance to tie the game with 15 seconds to play.
Then, in Storrs on Valentine’s Day night, UConn escaped with a 79-75 win. The late game execution was arguably worse in that game, as the Huskies saw a seven point lead with 33 seconds remaining turn into a two point game with 11 seconds left, just for Karaban to ice it at the line and clinch a four point win after leading by as many as 14.
“We’re going to play one of the best teams in America, and they’ve earned that right,” Cooley said after his win Thursday.
Cooley mentioned after the loss in Storrs that his team lost by a combined six points to one of the best teams in the nation, taking that as a positive for his group. Now, he get’s a chance on Friday night to try and guide his squad over the hump and another step closer to the NCAA Tournament.
Let the Bear eat!
Reed had arguably his best game of the year in UConn’s quarterfinal win Thursday, grabbing a season high 14 rebounds and being his usual force underneath the basket. In fact, this 17 and 14 stat line was the first time that a Husky had at least those stats and played fewer than 30 minutes in a BET game in program history.
“Tarris is the difference between us getting to the Final Four,” Hurley said after the win. “That combination of Tarris and Eric, the best version of Tarris is one of the best centers in the country, bar none.”
Reed will certainly have his hands full with both Julius Halaifonua and Vince Iwuchukwu in the post. Halaifonua was the star for Georgetown in its quarterfinal win, going for21 points and 10 rebounds in the win over Villanova on Thursday, while Iwuchuckwu went for 17 and 14 in the first round win over DePaul and averaged 14 PPG and 10.5 RPG in the Hoyas’ two games against the Huskies.
Second unit stardom
The biggest story outside of Reed’s dominance on Thursday was the play of the Husky bench. Ross, Smith & Reibe combined for 24 points and played some crucial minutes, making impactful plays when the team needed them to.
Ross had a pair of breakaway dunks uncontested and knocked down a three, finishing with nine points. Reibe finished with an efficient nine as well, spelling Reed and giving him much needed breathers. Smith hit a pair of three pointers in the first half, helping the Huskies extend their lead in the early going and providing the spark on both ends he was brought in for.
”If we get that type of bench production, we’re going to win a lot of games the rest of this college basketball
season,“ Hurley emphasized after the win.
In a conference tournament setting, having your bench to rely on could be the difference maker. Having to potentially play three games in three days can be taxing on the starters, so having quality relief is huge. On Thursday, Mullins was the only starter to play north of 30 minutes, playing 33. A typical UConn game, you’d probably see Demary, Karaban, maybe even Ball all also over that 30 mark, so mixing in the bench more in the blowout will benefit the team in the long run.
Backcourt breakout
The guard room for Georgetown has been on another level the past few days, with different players stepping up each night. On Wednesday, it was Jeremiah Williams and Malik Mack leading the way with 17 and 16 points respectively. On Thursday, while both of them had double figure nights, Kayvaun Mulready stole the show with 14 points off the bench including back-to-back threes to all but ice the game with five minutes left.
Guards win you games in March, especially in the Big East Tournament (as Huskies fans are well aware of with Kemba), so having these players break out at the right time after iffy regular seasons is huge for Georgetown. It will be intriguing to see Hurley’s game plan to try and limit them, or at least a couple of them, on Friday night.