Men’s Top 25

Dan Hurley said Saturday. “Those teams returned all of the big guys.”

Hurley lost three of his pro-level starters and two important bench pieces in the offseason. He and the staff built this year’s roster around returners Tristen Newton, Alex Karaban and Donovan Clingan, added one major transfer in Cam Spencer and have relied on a talented incoming freshman class highlighted

by Stephon Castle. Returners Samson Johnson and Hassan Diarra have also seen increased roles with a more limited bench.

“Obviously when you put the roster at the end of last season and you’re working through the summer, you see (that) we have five starters that are all going to be (scoring in) double figures and they’re gonna range between 10-11 (points) a game to 15-16 a game,” Hurley said. “There’s not many teams in the country that have probably as good a starting five as we have. We’re potentially

elite on offense, elite on defense and we really rebound it well.

“So we’re not vulnerable in a lot of spots right now.”

The Huskies are No. 1 in the USA Today Coaches Poll, No. 3 by Kenpom and No. 4 in the NCAA’S NET rankings.

Purdue held at No. 2 in the AP poll and received 16 first place votes to the Huskies’ 45 with a 20-point win over Indiana. As Kansas and North Carolina each dropped out of the top five, Houston moved up to No. 3 and Marquette, who Uconn still has to play twice in Big East play, jumped up to No. 4. Arizona rounds out the top five.

Saturday’s matchup against Marquette in Hartford will be the third-ever top five matchup in Connecticut and the first since the top-ranked Huskies hosted Pittsburgh on Feb. 16, 2009.

Creighton, up two spots to No. 17, made for three Big East teams ranked in the top 25 for the seventh week in a row. Uconn will play consecutive ranked games as it travels to Omaha Feb. 20.