UConn basketball took down Boston College 71-52 in a preseason exhibition on Saturday.
The college basketball season is officially underway as Mohegan Sun played host to an exhibition matchup between UConn and Boston College. This is now the second season in a row that UConn has participated in an exhibition at Mohegan Sun with another northeast school. The Huskies came out victorious in what was certainly a tune up game for both sides as each coach played nearly their entire available rosters.
That’s all, folks!
Huskies take the @Hoophall exhibition in Uncasville. pic.twitter.com/GQSK6S9INs
— UConn Men’s Basketball (@UConnMBB) October 14, 2025
Last season, UConn basketball took down the University of Rhode Island 102-75 in their exhibition matchup, which left Husky fans feeling good. Solo Ball seemingly took the next step in his development, scoring 18 points while Alex Karaban and freshman sensation Liam McNeeley did their part,s adding 13 and 10 points, respectively. While those performances were certainly a foreshadowing of the season to come, there were a couple of outliers that didn’t translate as well.
Aidan Mahaney’s 17 points and Ahmad Nowell’s two quick threes had Husky fans thinking both would be exciting players to follow throughout the season, when the opposite ended up being tru,e and now neither player is with the program anymore. It goes to show how these exhibition games should be taken with a serious grain of salt as things don’t often end up like they appear on the court in October.
So, with that being said let’s take a swing at some overreactions from this year’s exhibition game. Hopefully ,the positive opinions age well and the negative ones never happen.
Malachi Smith will win Big East Sixth Man of the Year
This is certainly a “call your shot” moment. With Silas Demary Jr. out for this game, Malachi Smith assumed the role of the starting point guard and handled it well. Smith finished with 7 points, 5 assists, and 3 rebounds.
He was all over the court, including an awesome hustle play to swat a ball away from Boston College in transition. It was very reminiscent of Hassan Diarra in his fourth college season, where he won the award. That season, Diarra averaged 6.1 points, 2.4 assists, and 3.0 rebounds per gam,e which feels attainable for Smith in what should prove to be a potent UConn offense.
Alex Karaban will cement himself among the UConn greats
It’s no secret that Alex has had a decorated college career and in his final season with UConn basketball, he could reach a summit that very few have reached. Based on his previous seasons, Alex is on pace to set the program record in games played, games started, games won, and three-pointers made. Now factor in his two national championships and you’re talking about college basketball royalty.
This is the strongest two-headed monster of the Hurley era
We have seen Adama Sanogo and Donovan Clingan; now get ready for Tarris Reed Jr. and Eric Reibe. Reaching Adama may not be possible for Tarris, but Eric Reibe may be able to contribute more than Clingan did. Now Donovan also set a high bar for UConn basketball freshmen, but Reibe seems to be a bit more ready for the D1 level of play than Donovan was and can perhaps provide more consistent production in his first college season. Dan Hurley even shared the same sentiment in his post-game press conference as he told a short story about how Clingan was nearly unplayable in one of their closed-door scrimmages that season, whereas Reibe was clearly ready for the first exhibition after logging 8 points, 6 rebounds in 21 minutes of action.
This coaching staff loves to be able to get 40 starter-quality minutes out of their centers, and this season will be no exception to that..
UConn basketball will win its third straight Big East Freshman of the Year award
First Stephon Castle, then Liam McNeeley, and now Braylon Mullins. Mullins enters his freshman season with plenty of hype behind him and showed flashes of why in this pre-season matchup. In 16 minutes of play time, he added 12 points on 4 for 9 shooting. He had plenty of confidence, too, with seven of those shot attempts coming from behind the three-point line.
Not unlike the two UConn basketball freshmen named, it will take some time for Mullins to settle in and play like the best rookie in the conference. The rest of his stat line included just two makes on his seven long-range attempts, four fouls, and a plus/minus of -3 in a 19-point win. There was clearly some nerves and extra adrenaline in his first time wearing a UConn jersey that simply won’t be there as he continues to gain experience.
The 2024-25 vibes aren’t completely washed away
Two of the big things that plagued UConn basketball last season showed some glimpses in this contest. The high volume and inefficiency from three were on display as the team went 8-for-34 from deep (Karaban went 3-10 and Solo Ball went 1-8).
Boston College went on a 24-5 scoring run through the end of the first half into the start of the second half. These kinds of extremely cold offensive stretches, combined with uninspired defense, destroyed the Huskies and, in this case, evaporated a 16-point lead. Dan Hurley did say after the game that he was happy with the overall effort and dubbed Silas Demary Jr. and Tarris Reed Jr. the team’s two best defenders. Considering both missed this game, it’s fair to assume the defense will only get better upon their return.
UConn basketball has scheduled an impressively difficult non-conference gauntlet for its team this season and while it may serve as the perfect tune-up for Big East play, don’t be surprised to see them drop a bit in the AP Poll along the way.