Instead of resolutions, Dan Hurley made three wishes on New Year’s Day 2024.

The UConn men’s basketball coach called for more leadership, toughness and more playable players as the eventual 11-2 national champions prepared to host DePaul for its first game of the new year. The Huskies responded with a 13-game winning streak to start 2024, making up for the month of January that was so brutal the previous year. They lost just one more game and finished the season with a program record 37 wins, a major East record of 18 in league play.

UConn enters 2025 with a 10-3 mark, capping the winningest calendar year in program history (36-4) with a six-game winning streak since returning from the Maui Invitational, where the much less experienced group didn’t win a game.

With the page turned, the team will travel to Chicago for a New Year’s matinee against DePaul after an extended break. Defense is at the top of Hurley’s wish list.

While KenPom ranks UConn’s offense as the second most efficient in the country, its defensive efficiency ranks 102nd nationally, despite improvement since returning from Maui. The trio of two-time champions Alex Karaban, Hassan Diarra and Samson Johnson take the lead, and the team’s strength has also improved. Depth is something that could continue to get better as the Huskies look to move St. Mary’s transfer Aidan Mahaney into a Joey Calcaterra-like role in 2022-23 and look for more consistency from sophomores Jayden Ross and Jaylin Stewart.

But the development of the team’s defense will be most crucial to how far it can go in March.

“I want to thank 2023 and I want to thank 2024. As we head into 2025, I want to thank those years for how good they were for us, but they were good for us because we had two-way players for the most part in our rotation,” Hurley said Tuesday. “And right now offensively we’re a national championship contender and a Big East championship contender, but defensively we’re not contenders. We defend like pretenders.”

UConn has won 18 straight games against DePaul, but Chris Holtmann has breathed new life into the Blue Demons in his first year as head coach.

DePaul won its first seven games and even received some votes in the AP Top 25 poll — a dramatic difference for the program that hasn’t been ranked since 2000 and has gone 3-37 and 0 in the Big East over the past two years :20 scored last season. Holtmann’s team has cooled off lately, losing four of its last six – including an overtime home game against Providence and a loss at St. John’s.

The Blue Demons rank 27th nationally in 3-point shooting percentage (38.9%) with 29.8 attempts per game, good for 19th in Division I. Defensively, UConn ranks 350th nationally in allowing opponents to shoot 28.8% from beyond the arc.

“The technique, the awareness, the ability to understand the scouting report, understand the scheme – those are the biggest problems. And then I think there’s a small portion of it that was maybe a little bit unfortunate, people are making an awful lot of 3s that we would call semi-contested to contested,” Hurley said. “But just in general on defense, if we can’t fix our ball defense, our ball screen defense, our rim protection when Samson isn’t in the game, and then our perimeter defense at the 3-point line, it’s going to be a very frustrating year. “

Sophomore guard Jacob Meyer, a transfer from Coastal Carolina, leads the Blue Demons with 14.5 points per game on 43.2% 3-point shooting. Isaiah Rivera, a senior from UIC, is averaging 11.4 points on 43.5% shooting from distance, and junior point guard Conor Enright of Drake leads the team with 7.1 assists per game while posting 41.3 % shoots from a distance.

DePaul may be without 6-foot-1, fifth-year senior David Skogman, who is the team’s leading rebounder with 6.5 per game and can extend beyond the ball, where he has a 47 shooting percentage this season. achieved 4%. Skogman missed the team’s Dec. 28 win over Loyola Maryland because of a lower leg injury.

“It’s the new college basketball now. When a new coach takes over from a sacked coach, you’re usually playing against a young team… Chris has done an incredible job bringing in some really old, experienced and strong players, both at defense and at center position. Hurley said. “It’s not the same DePaul, this is a DePaul team that’s going to be really hard to beat, especially with them. I think Chris will be able to turn this program into an NCAA tournament team soon. He’s a really, really good coach.”

What you should know

Website: Wintrust Arena, Chicago

Time: 14 o’clock

Records: No. 11 UConn: 10-3 (2-0 Big East), DePaul: 9-4 (0-2)

Series: UConn leads 19-1

Last meeting: February 14, 2024 – UConn 101, DePaul 65 at Wintrust Arena

TV: CBS Sports Network – John Sadak, Steve Lappas

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

Reading before the game: