The UConn men’s basketball program enters the 2023-24 campaign ranked No. 6 in the preseason Associated Press poll, which was released Monday.
It is the program’s highest preseason ranking since it started the 2011-12 season at No. 4 on the back of the 2011 national championship.
The program has been ranked in the preseason top-10 nine times in its history and, on two of those occasions (1998-99 and 2003-04), went on to win the NCAA Tournament.
After losing its “Big Three” in Jordan Hawkins, Andre Jackson Jr. and Adama Sanogo to the NBA as well as Joey Calcaterra (graduation, G League) and Naheim Alleyne (transferred to St. John’s), UConn comes into 2023-24 rated No. 4 by KenPom and is projected to have the No. 8 offense and the No. 4 defense in the nation.
The defending national champions are set to play at least six teams ranked in the preseason top 25 this season, the first being a road test against No. 1 Kansas on Dec. 1.
In ranked, non-conference competition the Huskies will also take on No. 11 Gonzaga (Dec. 15) and No. 19 North Carolina (Dec. 5), and could meet No. 18 Texas on the second day of the Empire Classic Nov. 20.
UConn is among four ranked Big East programs with Marquette ranked highest at No. 5, Creighton at No. 8 and Villanova at No. 22. St. John’s, in its first year with Rick Pitino as head coach, is in the “others receiving votes” category along with Xavier.
No. 2 Duke, No. 3 Purdue and No. 4 Michigan State round out the preseason top five.
The Huskies began the 2022-23 season in the “others receiving votes” category and used it as motivation as they rattled off 14 straight wins and climbed all the way up to No. 2 in Week 7. After a stretch of six losses in eight games in January, the Huskies dropped as low as No. 24 and finished the regular season ranked 10th before beginning their national championship run.
Now with his first top-10 preseason ranking in his six years at UConn, head coach Dan Hurley says he won’t have trouble finding a new source of motivation.
“I’m gonna create something anyway,” he said on Oct. 5.
“Things that other players and other teams in the league said at the end of last season or are saying in the preseason, or those little subtle shots that other coaches have – there’s always something. I think for us it’s reflecting on (how) we have a chance to be special, not many programs can respond with another big-time year coming off of a championship.”
The Huskies want to improve on their 13-7 record and fourth-place finish in the Big East standings last season, when they lost to eventual champion Marquette in the semifinal round of the conference tournament.
“If you really look at the history there hasn’t been many teams that have come back with a Final Four appearance or had a big-time year, so I think that’s the motivation though,” Hurley said. “We were national champs but, to follow that up with going for something (like the) Big East regular season, Big East Tournament championship, getting back to the Final Four, no one’s done that a lot in the last 60-70 years, so, gotta be special to do that.”
UConn opens its season against Northern Arizona on Nov. 6, when it will unveil the 2023 national championship banner in a pregame ceremony.
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