The 2024-25 UConn men’s basketball team got its first taste of Big East basketball on Wednesday night, earning a victory in an overtime thriller against hot-shooting Xavier.

This game featured the physicality, unpredictability and courage typical of the league that coach Dan Hurley prepared his group of freshmen for when they joined the program.

Liam McNeeley described his first experience of Big East competition as “probably the most emotional I’ve ever been in a game,” as he scored all 14 points in the second half and dealt with foul trouble on and off the court as he did everything he could to put his stamp on a match that featured 22 lead changes.

That win gave the Huskies momentum as they snapped a five-game winning streak entering Saturday at Hinkle Fieldhouse – a difficult and historic environment in which UConn has picked up some strong wins since returning to the Big East.

“How could you not be excited to play at Hinkle, play college basketball at Hinkle at Indiana State where they just love basketball, they love college basketball,” Hurley said on a Zoom call Friday. “They’ve lost two games in a row, we’re on a winning streak and we’re feeling better than we were a few weeks ago. But tomorrow at noon in Hinkle there will be a life and death desperation for both teams to do everything they can to win the game.”

Butler (7-5) has lost four straight games and is the No. 73 team in the KenPom.com rankings and No. 74 in the NET. Thad Matta’s team has quality non-conference wins against SMU, Northwestern and Mississippi State on its resume, but also some tough losses against Austin Peay (KenPom No. 272) and North Dakota State (No. 124). Still, the Bulldogs led No. 9 Marquette at halftime in their Big East road game and held on until the Golden Eagles pulled away midway through the second half.

UConn holds a 9-0 lead in the series against Butler, which began in the 2011 national championship game. The Huskies have a 1-0 record in true away games so far this season, with their current winning streak including beating Texas in Austin.

Once the ball is tipped, it no longer matters.

“You can throw out all the NET rankings and the KenPoms and all the different analytical things when the Big East conference starts,” Hurley said. “It always lives up to the hype and always exceeds expectations. Last year we made winning Big East games look easy. Our reality this year is that we must fight. And we’re going to have a lot more nights like (Wednesday) night where we have to dig deep against a team that hit absolutely everything they wanted to see and played some incredible ball.

“This league lived up to what we told Liam it was going to be, what we told Tarris (Reed Jr.) and Aidan Mahaney, all the new guys, it was exactly what we told them it was going to be would.”

Johnson returned to training, it will determine playing time

Reed starred in his first UConn start, posting 20 points, 13 rebounds, four blocks and two steals with Samson Johnson in the concussion protocol. The Huskies could bring back Johnson, their “heart and soul,” according to Hurley, after he was cleared for a full practice Friday.

“He went through all aspects of training and looked good, he feels great. “Obviously we’ll have to see how he feels (on Saturday) relative to the symptoms, but he’s been doing really well the last few days,” Hurley said.

After a slow start to the year at the center position, Johnson had his best start to a game before going down early in the first half against Gonzaga at Madison Square Garden, going a plus-12 in just six minutes played. He and Reed have combined to shoot 75% from the field so far and have helped the team lead the nation in blocks per game with 7.1.

“What we focus on this year will not be the reason we don’t achieve our goals,” Hurley said. “We have a lot of focus, we have the heart and soul of the team with Samson and we have Tarris, who as you can see is a completely different player in this first third of the year at UConn.”

Battle plan for Butler

UConn doesn’t have a defensive stopper on the perimeter like it has in recent years with guys like Andre Jackson Jr. or Stephon Castle, who would make Saturday’s game plan much easier. But the Huskies have steadily improved defensively, despite the ridiculous shooting numbers Xavier put up on Wednesday (50% from the field, 54% from distance).

Butler relies heavily on its tall, experienced forwards Jahmyl Telfort (6-foot-7, 16.2 points per game) and Pierre Brooks (6-foot-6, 15.2), each returning from last year’s team. They added Patrick McCaffrey, a 6-9 forward who spent five years at Iowa and shot 47.1% from distance, and Kolby King, a 6-2 guard who spent last season at Tulane, after one year at St. John’s, shooting 44.4% from 3 shots off the bench.

“Butler really hurts you when you can’t guard Telfort or Books one-on-one and you have to put two on the ball because you have to hold it to the post.” Or you have to bring early help and you have McCaffrey, you have King, “You’ve got your finishers up the middle, you’ve got (point guard Finley) Bizjack, you’ve got (Landon) Moore — real firepower at the rim,” Hurley said.

“But I think overall we need to adopt a mentality on the touchline at the moment where we will finish our match. I won’t need any help dribbling, I’ll take away the 3-point line. We need some stoppers and some full-backs to step up for us. That used to be very clear.”

What you should know

Website: Hinkle Fieldhouse, Indianapolis

Time: Midday

Records: No. 11 UConn: 9-3 (1-0 Big East), Butler: 7-5 (0-1)

Series: UConn leads 9-0

Last meeting: February 6, 2024 – UConn 71, Butler 62 at XL Center in Hartford

Streaming: Peacock – Noah Reed, Tim Welsh

Radio: Fox Sports 97-9 – Mike Crispino, Wayne Norman

Reading before the game: