Where Dan Hurley thinks UConn men's basketball team could be better than recent title squads

UConn players Colben Landrew (3), Oskar Giltay (18), Nik Khamenia (4) and Jayden Ross (23) celebrate after Purdue is forced to call a time out during their pre-season game Tuesday, October 27, 2026 at PeoplesBank Arena in Hartford. (Jim Shannon/Hearst Connecticut Media) HARTFORD - Dan Hurley said there were "a lot of things to clean up" after Tuesday night's 76-53 dismantling of Purdue in an exhibition bout at PeoplesBank Arena.

>Maybe so. But Hurley allowed one particularly revealing response about how much he likes the 2026-27 UConn men's basketball team in his postgame press conference.

>After watching his Huskies hold a pretty good Purdue team to 2-for-25 shooting from 3-point territory and 33% shooting overall, Hurley was asked if defense could be the calling card for this year's squad.

>"It has the makings of a great defensive team," he said. "There were some mistakes made (Tuesday) in ball-screen coverages, hedging too far from the basket. But this should be, from a defensive standpoint ..."

>He got sidetracked for a second.

>"Obviously, we don't have the 7-2 (Donovan) Clingan at the rim," the coach continued. "But we have more, better defenders on the perimeter than we had in '23 or '24."

>Whoa, whoa, wait a minute. Did we hear that correctly? Better than the 2023 and 2024 back-to-back national champions? It's very rare that Hurley admits there's anything better than those teams, particularly the 2024 team that he rightly considers one of the best in the past quarter-century of college basketball ... or longer.

UConn head coach Dan Hurley addresses the media following their pre-season win over Purdue Tuesday, October 27, 2026 at PeoplesBank Arena in Hartford. (Jim Shannon/Hearst Connecticut Media) So to assert that this year's UConn team has better perimeter defensive players than the back-to-back title teams is really something. Remember, that 2022-23 team had 6-foot-6 uber-athlete Andre Jackson patrolling the perimeter, along with capable defenders like Nahiem Alleyne, Hassan Diarra and 6-5 point guard Tristen Newton.

>The 2023-24 team had Stephon Castle, one of the program's best defensive players of the past 20 years, to go with Newton, Diarra and others.

>But this year's team, Hurley figures, could have even more defensive depth on the perimeter. Silas Demary Jr. is a Big East Defensive Player of the Year candidate at the point. Braylon Mullins, making his season debut on Tuesday night, is a rangy, 6-6 two-guard who's underrated defensively, per Hurley.

>Jayden Ross, the bouncy, energetic 6-7 senior, got the starting nod on Tuesday. He scored 13 points on perfect shooting from the floor and line, but it's defense that's going to make him a major member of the rotation.

>"Starting a game with Silas and J-Ross and Braylon, they're all excellent defensive players, and they have size," Hurley noted. "And a couple of those guys are ballhawks."

>Colben Landrew, a freakishly-talented freshman, backed up Ross but provides physical defense (to go with his game-high 15 points on Tuesday). Nik Khamenia grabbed a game-high 11 rebounds.

>"Nik has got really good instincts defensively," Hurley added. "He's a guy that can make plays and steal the ball. Colben's a real physical player who's also pretty instinctual."

>True, the Huskies don't have a 7-2 Clingan to funnel defenders towards, a monster in the middle whose mere presence alters an opponents' entire offensive gameplan. Instead, they'll have to contend with the 6-11 sophomore tandem of Na'jai Hines and Oskar Giltay. All Hines did was lead the Big East in shot-blocking last season at Seton Hall. And all Giltay did was block 1.2 shots in just 14.5 minutes per game at Stanford.

>"When you know you've got guys like Oskar and Na'jai back there who are going to hold it down for us," Ross noted, "it's good reassurance to have that we can do what we have to do to disrupt their offense."

>Hurley, always looking for things to improve, has been a bit nit-picky about his center's play. Foul trouble has been an issue.

HARTFORD, CONNECTICUT - OCTOBER 27: Nik Khamenia #4 and Jayden Ross #23 of the Connecticut Huskies react during the first half of the NCAA men's exhibition basketball game against the Purdue Boilermakers at PeoplesBank Arena on October 27, 2026 in Hartford, Connecticut. (Photo by Joe Buglewicz/Getty Images) (Joe Buglewicz/Getty Images) Hines didn't even start in the exhibition opener against Syracuse. Giltay did, and fouled out. Against Michigan State, Hines started and fouled out.

>On Tuesday night, Hines picked up an early foul, then a second with a little over nine minutes left in the first half. He looked to the bench. Hurley, who normally replaces a player with two first-half fouls, told him to keep playing.

>"Both guys complement each other so much," Hurley said of his big man tandem. "Oskar's improved so much since the summer, and he missed five weeks with a high ankle (sprain), so he'd even be further along. We need (Hines) to be sharper."

>Of course, they've got some big shoes to fill from recent Husky vintage: Clingan, Adama Sanogo, Tarris Reed Jr., Samson Johnson.

>"The bar for us at center is so high," Hurley added. "Anything below what you've seen from center from us the last couple of years isn't going to look right. We have what we need there, we just need them to grow up. Both of them."

>If and when that happens, UConn could have an all-around defensive team even better than the ones in 2023 and 2024. And we know what happened in those years.

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