HARTFORD – The UConn men’s basketball team will be whole, with the exception of Solo Ball, for its final preseason exhibition game on Tuesday night against Purdue.
Braylon Mullins, the rising sophomore star who’s missed the last several weeks with an undisclosed injury, will make his 2026-27 debut in the rematch of the 2024 national championship game against the Boilermakers at PeoplesBank Arena in Hartford.
“Definitely on some type of a (minutes) restriction,” coach Dan Hurley said of Mullins’ status. “He had been back practicing prior to Michigan State, he practiced, he was really, really sharp I thought, all things considered. His first time playing a game since the national championship game, and it being a program like Purdue, it’s a tough first game to come back for. But it’ll be good in terms of just getting out there, getting one under his belt before the real ones start.”
UConn has been successful in its first two exhibition games, first beating Syracuse, 72-52, at Mohegan Sun Arena and then going into a true road environment at Michigan State and coming away with a 78-70 victory last week.
“I think you’re gonna see teams more ready for the nonconference because of the types of exhibitions that we’ve all played,” Hurley said. “These big exhibition games that you’re playing, whether they’re home, road, neutral, wherever it is, it just gives you an advantage where you go into game one and opening night doesn’t feel like opening night.”
Plugging in a healthy Mullins, a Preseason All-Big East First Team selection who received votes to be on the AP Preseason All-America team, should take the Huskies to another level.
“Another weapon,” point guard Silas Demary Jr. said after Monday’s practice. “You know how much firepower he has on the offensive end and we know how much of a microwave scorer he can be, he can go on runs by himself. He can hit big-time shots in big-time moments, so just to have my backcourtmate back in the backcourt with me, it’s great to see him out there and I’m expecting it to be a lot of fun.”
Tuesday night will be the first time UConn and Purdue, Dan Hurley and Matt Painter, will meet since the 2024 national championship game. Hurley’s plan to win that one was to let Zach Edey do his thing and shut down everyone else.
UConn head coach Dan Hurley and Purdue head coach Matt Painter talk during a CBS Sports interview ahead of a NCAA college Final Four championship basketball game, Sunday, April 7, 2024, in Glendale, Ariz. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)
That won’t work this time around. Of course, Edey is in Memphis with Cam Spencer and the Grizzlies.
But the Boilermakers have new 7-footers to watch out for; namely junior Daniel Jacobsen, who is listed at 7-foot-4. He will pose a challenge for Huskies’ centers Na’jai Hines and Oskar Giltay, who haven’t seen a big man with his size and skillset to this point in the preseason.
Guards CJ Cox, Omer Mayer and Gicarri Harris have done most of the scoring for Purdue in exhibition games against Ball State and Purdue Fort Wayne. Caden Pierce, a UConn target who made a rare in-season visit for a game at PeoplesBank Arena last year, has also been in the starting frontcourt for the Boilermakers since transferring from Princeton.
Hurley will be looking to see more consistency at the defensive end of the court throughout the whole 40 minutes. While both rosters are almost completely different, he did take a quick look back at some offensive clips from the 2024 championship meeting to see how Painter decided to guard some of the same actions the Huskies are still running. He said it has been years since he watched the game back in full.
Purdue, not ranked in the preseason AP poll but receiving votes, is expected to take a bit of a step back after losing star point guard Braden Smith to expired eligibility. Smith broke Bobby Hurley’s NCAA Division I all-time assists record before last season came to an end in the Elite Eight against Arizona.
“Purdue does it as good as anybody,” Dan Hurley said, hence the reason he wanted this exhibition on the schedule. “You just hold them in such high regard the way you do the Michigan State’s, the Duke’s, all of the best programs that are very classy programs that have great coaching. Really talented players but they’re class acts. From a coaching standpoint, you enjoy preparing for their teams even though you know you could lose, but you enjoy preparing for them because you’re watching really good basketball. You’re watching a team with an offensive system and a style that I’m going to steal things from. I’m not gonna use it against them when we play them, because that would be kind of embarrassing, but once this game is over, we’re obviously gonna steal a couple concepts that I’ve watched them utilize in the early season.”
“We shared the court with them in the national championship game. They’re one of the best programs in the country,” he said. “They’re a top five program in the country. So it’s always an honor to share the court with programs like this.”
What to know
Site: PeoplesBank Arena, Hartford.
Time/date: 7 p.m., Tuesday
TV: WFSB
Streaming: UConn+
Radio: UConn Sports Network on FOX Sports 97.9