The fifth-ranked UConn men’s basketball team (6-0) returns to Gampel Pavilion with a chance to make history in its 120th all-time meeting with New Hampshire on Monday.
The Huskies tied North Carolina (2008-09) for the longest streak of double-digit wins over nonconference opponents when they beat Manhattan by 30 on Friday. A double-digit win over New Hampshire would make for the program’s 24th in a row since the start of last season and set it alone in the NCAA record book.
UConn has won its last 11 matchups with New Hampshire dating back to 1983, when Dom Perno was head coach. Only four of those meetings were decided by less than 20 points. The first meeting of the two programs came during the 1906-07 season with New Hampshire winning, 33-11.
The Wildcats, under first-year head coach Nathan Davis, have begun their season 4-2, with competitive performances in losses to Syracuse (83-72) and George Washington (79-67). They enter Monday’s game off consecutive wins by three points over Marist (74-71) Nov. 21 and Fairfield (83-80) on Friday.
“Coach (Dan Hurley) always reminds us before the game that we’re going out there playing like this is the championship and we can’t take any team or any game lightly,” sophomore center Donovan Clingan said Friday. “We’re trying to prepare for the Big East, we’re trying to prepare for a big game next Friday, we’re just trying to prepare for the best game possible. Every time we step on that court we’ve got to give everything we got and something we always tell each other is we’ve got to play a full 40, we’ve got to play a full game the same way and just leave everything out there on the court.”
Monday’s game could be seen as a “look-ahead” spot with a trip to face top-ranked (at least for now) Kansas at Phog Allen Fieldhouse on Friday. But UConn hasn’t fallen into any nonconference traps in the 620 days since losing to New Mexico State in the first round of the 2022 NCAA Tournament.
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“It tells the story of what our program is all about,” Hurley said. “There still are old-school families out there and kids that are old souls that are about winning and allow us to coach them and are always ready to play.”
This year, even as Clingan continues to work his way back from the foot injury that hampered his preseason and Stephon Castle remains out with a knee injury, UConn has won all of its games by an average of 29 points. The Huskies rank ninth in Division I offensively, scoring 89.5 points per game while shooting 52.5% from the field (also ninth) and have held their opponents to 60 points per game, 14th in the nation.
UConn put together its best shooting performance of the season against Manhattan, a team sure to be competitive in the MAAC , making 36 of 62 shots from the field and 9 of 20 from beyond the 3-point line.
So far, the backcourt duo of Tristen Newton (Mr. Triple-Double) and Cam Spencer has been the highlight. Alex Karaban, ever-consistent, is second on the team in scoring (16 points per game) and tied with Clingan for third in rebounds (5.8). Samson Johnson and Hassan Diarra have been exactly what Hurley imagined them being as key players off the bench in the last three games.
“I think we just have a team that’s very unselfish and shares the ball very well so you never have to go force anything, I think the ball will just find you. And if it doesn’t, then just maybe it’s not your game,” Spencer said.
What to know
Site: Gampel Pavilion, Storrs
Time: 7 p.m.
Records: No. 5 UConn: 6-0, New Hampshire: 4-2
Series history: UConn leads, 94-25
Last meeting: Dec. 22, 2019 – UConn 88, New Hampshire 62
TV: CBS Sports Network – John Sadak, Steve Lappas
Radio: UConn Sports Network on 97.9 ESPN – Mike Crispino, Wayne Norman
Pregame reading: