The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Outside looking in
Huskies receive votes in AP preseason poll, fall short of Top 25
UConn isn’t back in the Top 25 yet, but it is getting votes.
The Huskies received six points in the Associated Press’s preseason Top 25 poll, which was released on Monday afternoon. It’s just the second time in the past three years UConn has received votes. The Huskies earned a couple of votes one week early last season.
UConn still hasn’t been ranked since Oct. 31, 2016, when it was ranked No. 18 in the preseason poll. The following week, after a home loss to Northeastern in their season-opener, the Huskies were out of the Top 25.
Villanova was the top-ranked Big East school in this year’s preseason poll and was ranked No. 3 overall. Creighton is the only other Big East team in the poll, ranked 11th.
Providence (nine points), UConn and Seton Hall (two points) also received votes.
UConn, which practically resided in the Top 25 through most of Jim Calhoun’s tenure, hasn’t been nationally-ranked during the regular season for the past four seasons. Prior to that, the last time a Husky team wasn’t ranked at all throughout a season was in 1996-97, when UConn went 18-15 overall and finished third in the National Invitational Tournament. Before that, the only unranked Husky teams were the first two under Calhoun — 1986-87 and 1987-88.
UConn’s players are currently being quarantined after a player tested positive for COVID-19 on Thursday. Players have been tested multiple times since then to determine if anyone else has the virus, though the school isn’t expected to announce whether there are any other cases. Team members were seen on Instagram over the weekend working out on campus, but it was something the players did on their own, not a team function.
UConn’s non-conference schedule, and the 2021 portion of its Big East slate, could be released this week.
So far, the only games officially on UConn’s schedule are a pair of Legends Classic games at Mohegan Sun Arena (Dec. 1 vs. Vanderbilt, Dec. 3 vs. either BYU or USC) and a spate of five Big East games in December — vs. St. John’s (Dec. 11), at Georgetown (Dec. 13), at Providence (Dec. 17)
vs. Creighton (Dec. 20) and at DePaul (Dec. 23).
As of now, UConn is slated to open its season on Nov. 25 against Central Connecticut State at Gampel Pavilion. The Huskies are also due to host Hartford on Nov. 27 and could play NC State on Dec. 5 at
Mohegan Sun.
Fans will not be allowed at games at Gampel, at least to start the season. Fans are also not expected to be allowed at any early-season games at Mohegan Sun, according to Jon Rothstein of CBS Sports and confirmed by Hearst Connecticut Media.