MEN’S BASKETBALL GAMEDAY No. 18 MARQUETTE at No. 24 UCONN
When: Tuesday, 6:30 p.m.
Where: XL Center, Hartford
Records: UConn 15-6 (6-4 Big East), Marquette 16-7 (8-4 Big East)
TV: FS1
Radio: UConn Sports Network, 97.9 FMESPN Hartford, Sirius-137, XM-206, SXM App-965, WAVZ-New Haven (1300 AM), WGCH- Greenwich (1490 AM), WATRWaterbury (1320 AM), WILI-Willimantic (WILI 1400 AM)
KEEP AN EYE ON
Hawk watching: Freshman Jordan Hawkins broke out of a shooting slump by knocking down a trio of 3-pointers in the second half of Saturday’s loss to Villanova. Granted, the game’s outcome had pretty much been decided already, but Hawkins’ breakthrough effort was important — and will likely lead to more playing time.
“You look at the top teams in this league, there’s not a lot of freshmen that are even playing,” coach Dan Hurley said. “It’s tough. This is probably the most physical league in the country. He definitely has something to build on. His confidence going into the Creighton game at home is a lot different, I think, than going into this game at home. We need to get him going. He’s very important.”
Off the scouting report: UConn has allowed players that aren’t among their respective teams’ top scorers to burn them often this season. Seton Hall’s Kadary Richmond, who averaged 8.7 points per game, poured in a career-high 27 off the bench on Jan. 8. Creighton’s Ryan Hawkins torched the Huskies for 23 last week, then scored just two against Seton Hall on Friday. Villanova’s Eric Dixon, who averages 9.7 point and 6.7 rebounds, posted a careerhigh 24 points and 12 boards on Saturday against UConn.
“We just overall have to do a better job defensively,” Hurley said. “We need to be an elite defensive team. At times we’ve had trouble stopping guys that were not at the top of the scouting report.”
Justin time: Justin Lewis, a bruising, 6foot-7, 245-pound redshirt freshman forward, hurt the Huskies with 20 points in their first meeting with Marquette on Dec. 21. Since then, he’s emerged as one of the
top players in the Big East, second in the league in scoring (conference games only) at 17.7 points per game — including a 33point outburst at Seton Hall a couple of weeks ago. UConn had trouble dealing with a similarly-built player against Villanova, when 6-8, 255 Eric Dixon burned the Huskies for career-highs of 24 points and 12 rebounds.