The fifth-ranked UConn men’s basketball team returns to Madison Square Garden to meet No. 9 North Carolina in its second of three AP top-10 matchups this month. Tuesday’s game will be the program’s seventh all-time meeting with the Tar Heels.
It will be UConn’s fifth time participating in the Jimmy V Classic, which helps to raise funds for cancer research. The Huskies, 2-0 at MSG already this year, lost all four of their previous appearances in the event (2012 vs. NC State, 2015 vs. Maryland, 2017 vs. Syracuse, 2019 vs. Indiana).
Now 7-1 after a road loss to new-No. 2 Kansas despite a 31-point performance from graduate point guard Tristen Newton, UConn will need to receive more contribution across the board to compete with the Tar Heels, who were the runners-up in Kansas’ 2022 national championship. The Huskies do have help on the way with touted freshman guard Stephon Castle likely to make his return from a knee injury he suffered in the second game of the season against Stonehill.
North Carolina, since losing to Villanova in the Battle 4 Atlantis, 83-81 in overtime on Thanksgiving, responded by winning three in a row over Arkansas, Tennessee and Florida State. R.J. Davis, the Tar Heels’ 6-foot senior guard and leading scorer, averaged 28 points, three rebounds and three assists over those three games while shooting 48% from the field (25 of 52) and 40% (10 of 25) on 3-point attempts.
“We’ve got to stop giving up the 3s. My teams historically have guarded the 3-point line as good as anyone in the country and I think some of it is Kansas struggles shooting the ball and then goes 9-for-14 from 3. Some of it’s been some bad luck and some of it’s been not getting after people the way my teams can get after people,” UConn head coach Dan Hurley said Monday. “We’ve been real soft and reactionary and if we do that with R.J. and this team, we will get scored on a lot.”
In 6-foot-11 fifth-year Armando Bacot, North Carolina presents the third center named alongside Donovan Clingan on the watch list for the Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Award, which goes annually to the best big-man in college basketball. Bacot, a third team AP All-American last year, is averaging 16.3 points, 11.8 rebounds and 1.8 blocks per game this season. Getting his opportunities against some of the nation’s best, Clingan had seven points and nine rebounds while matched up with Indiana’s Kel’el Ware and eight points, seven rebounds against Kansas’ Hunter Dickinson.
North Carolina, the fifth-best offensive team on KenPom and one of the most experienced rosters in the country, ranks No. 196 in points allowed per game (72) and is 20th in points scored (86.2). UConn has the No. 18 scoring defense (61.6 points allowed) and the No. 21 scoring offense (85.8 points per game).
Here is all you need to know to watch this blue-blood matchup from home:
Site: Madison Square Garden, New York
Time: 9 p.m.
Records: No. 5 UConn: 7-1, No. 9 North Carolina: 7-1
Series history: North Carolina leads, 5-1
Last meeting: February 13, 2005 – North Carolina 77, UConn 70 at Gampel Pavilion, Storrs
Last UConn win: January 19, 2002 – UConn 86, North Carolina 54 at Gampel Pavilion, Storrs
TV: ESPN – Dan Shulman, Jay Bilas, Angel Gray
Radio: UConn Sports Network on 97.9 ESPN – Mike Crispino, Wayne Norman
Pregame reading:
- UConn men’s basketball drops one spot to No. 5 in AP poll after first loss at Kansas
- Big names, title-contending tests: A look at UConn men’s basketball history vs. North Carolina
- UConn head coach Dan Hurley nudges top programs for home-and-home series’: ‘You owe it to college basketball’
- Dan Hurley credits Kansas fans for having an impact on UConn’s performance in loss to Jayhawks
- Takeaways from UConn’s loss at Kansas, a top five matchup that lived up to the hype
- Tristen Newton’s 31 points not enough as Kansas rallies past UConn at Allen Fieldhouse
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