STORRS — UConn’s men’s basketball team enters the new season with experienced guards at the center of a substantially rebuilt rotation.
Braylon Mullins and Silas Demary Jr. return as starters, but only three of last season’s nine players who averaged more than 10 minutes are back, according to Jim Fuller’s October 29 Associated Press preview published by NBC Connecticut. Jayden Ross is the third.
AP reports that Tarris Reed Jr. and Alex Karaban left for the NBA and that Solo Ball is expected to miss the season following wrist surgery. Transfers Na’jai Hines and Nik Khamenia, along with freshmen including Colben Landrew and Junior County, are among the players expected to take on significant roles.
The scale of the change reaches beyond the starting lineup: AP says the Huskies return 41 percent of their scoring, 26 percent of their rebounding and 34 percent of their minutes. Those figures describe returning production, not a forecast of this season’s results.
UConn’s October 1 conference-honors announcement offers a separate measure of preseason expectations. Big East coaches picked the Huskies first with 98 points and eight first-place votes. Coaches could not vote for their own teams or players.
Demary was named preseason player of the year and Landrew preseason freshman of the year. Mullins was a unanimous first-team selection, while Hines earned second-team recognition. These are preseason honors; they do not establish conference standings or end-of-season awards.
This AI-prepared report draws on the AP season preview and UConn Athletics’ published conference announcement. Eastern CT News did not interview the team.