KEEP AND EYE ON
Center of attention: Another game, another top-notch opposing center for the UConn men’s basketball team.
The Huskies will play nine of their 31 regular-season games against players named to the Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Award preseason watch list for the nation’s best center. They’ve already dispatched of five of them: Kel’el Ware (Oregon), Charles Bediako (Alabama), Osun Ossunniyi (Iowa State), Moussa Cisse (Oklahoma State) and Colin Castleton (Florida).
On Saturday night, in their Big East season-opener at Butler, UConn faces a 6-foot-11, 240-pound center who was not named to the Jabbar preseason list. But he may be the best of the bunch so far, and there’s a pretty good chance he’ll be on the Jabbar midseason list next month.
Manny Bates is a grad transfer from NC State who has two seasons of eligibility remaining for Butler. In his two years at NC State, Bates blocked 147 shots — good for fourth on the school’s all-time list. He also shot 64.7 percent from the field in those two seasons.
Bates has kept it going and is one of the chief reasons why there is more optimism around the Bulldogs’ program than there has been since at least 2018, the last time it reached the NCAA tournament. Bates leads the Big East in blocked shots at 2.8 per game and is averaging13.9 points and a team-best 7.0 rebounds per contest. Coupled with returning starters Chuck Harris (14.5 ppg) and Jayden Taylor (14.9 ppg), he’s helped Butler to an 8-3 start, its only losses coming at Penn State and against No. 6 Tennessee and NC State, both on neutral floors.
The Bulldogs, 314th in the nation in 3-point shooting last season at 30 percent, are third in the Big East in that category this season at 36.6 percent, behind just Xavier (40.8) and UConn (37.6). Eric Hunter Jr. (43.2 percent) and Simas Lukosius (41.8) lead the way in long-distance shooting.
Of course, perhaps an even bigger offseason addition than Bates has been the return of alum Thad Matta as head coach. Matta coached the Bulldogs for one successful season (2000-01) before moving on to great success at Xavier and Ohio State.
History lesson: UConn is 5-0 all-time against Butler, winning all four matchups as Big East brethren the past two seasons. Of course, their most famous victory over the Bulldogs came in the 2011 national championship game, a 53-41 defensive slugfest at Houston’s Reliant Stadium (where this year’s Final Four will be held, as well).