MEN’S BASKETBALL GAMEDAY

No. 20 UCONN vs. IOWA STATE

When: Sunday, 10 p.m.

Where: Moda Center, Portland, Oregon

Records: UConn 7-0, Iowa State 5-0

TV: ESPN

Radio: UConn Sports Network, WAVZ-New Haven (1300 AM), WGCH- Greenwich (1490 AM), WATR-Waterbury (1320 AM), WICH-Norwich (1310 AM, 94.5 FM), WILI-Wilimantic (1400 AM, 95.3 FM), 97.9 FM-ESPN Hartford, SiriusXM-983, SXM App 973

KEEP AN EYE ON

Building blocks: Few would deny that Dan Hurley has done a terrific job of turning around the UConn men’s basketball program.

But even Hurley’s latest reclamation project takes a backseat to what T.J. Otzelberger has done at Iowa State.

Otzelberger arrived in Ames, Iowa, last season after two years at UNLV, inheriting a program that went 2-22 overall and 0-18 in the Big 12 in 2020-21. He led the Cyclones to a 22-13 record and a trip to the NCAA tournament, where they beat LSU and Wisconsin and fell to Miami in the Sweet 16. Remarkable, really.

Otzelberger was at it again on Friday, guiding Iowa State to a 70-65 win over No. 1 North Carolina in a Phil Knight Invitational semifinal game at Veterans Memorial Coliseum. The Cyclones will now face UConn for the tournament championship.

“We’ve got to stay locked in, got to move on quick,” said Jordan Hawkins, who scored 16 points in UConn’s 82-67 semifinal win over Alabama on Friday night. “Execution’s the biggest thing.”

History lesson: UConn and Iowa State have only met twice, but they were memorable. In a second-round NCAA tournament game on March 15, 2012, the eighth-seeded Cyclones cruised to a 77-64 win over a UConn team that featured three future NBA first-round draft picks: Andre Drummond, Jeremy Lamb and Shabazz Napier.

More significantly, it was the final game of Jim Calhoun’s 24-year career at UConn. He retired the following fall, though returned a few years later to begin the Division III University of Saint Joseph program.

The Huskies got revenge two years later, winning a Sweet 16 game 81-76 before a raucous Madison Square Garden crowd, en route to the program’s fourth national championship a week later.