UConn Sports Weekly: We Are On To The Postseason

This. Is. March. Also, baseball in Storrs!

Author

Aman Kidwai
March 05, 2026

Welcome to this week’s UConn Daily, and thank you for being a subscriber! Sad to think that Kim English has coached his last game against UConn as the Providence head coach.

You can find our work across Storrs Central, The UConn Blog on SB Nation, and the UConn WBB Weekly, the UConn Hockey Hub, Hook C Baseball, and Husky Football Forum newsletters!

Photo: Ian Bethune

Headlines

Karaban Drops 23 in Final Gampel Game

It was a more-than fitting ending for the winningest player in UConn men’s basketball history. The Huskies eked out a win over Seton Hall on Saturday behind Alex Karaban’s season-high 23 points in his last career game at Gampel Pavilion. 

There wasn’t a dry eye in the house as the seniors were celebrated and Karaban was inducted into the Huskies of Honor.

After St. John’s survived a challenge from Georgetown on Tuesday night, both teams are 17-2 in the conference with one game remaining each.

The tiebreaker scenarios are as follows:

UConn beats Marquette, Seton Hall beats St. John’s – The Huskies claim the No. 1 seed with a win and a Johnnies loss.

Marquette beats UConn, St. John’s beats Seton Hall – St. John’s grabs the No. 1 seed and bumps UConn down to No. 2.

UConn beats Marquette, St. John’s beats Seton Hall – If the top seed cannot be decided on conference winning-percentage or win totals alone, then the first tie-breaker is decided by head-to-head record. As UConn and St. John’s have split the season series, the deciding factor then becomes performance against other top-ranked conference opponents. Here’s how the Big East explains it: 

In this case, both teams won twice against third-place Villanova, fourth-place Seton Hall, and fifth-place DePaul. This brings us to Creighton, whom the Huskies suffered a dreadful home loss to in mid-February. If the standings hold after this weekend, St. John’s would claim the No. 1 seed in this scenario, as the Red Storm won both of their games against the Blue Jays.

There was a scenario in which Creighton losing this weekend to Butler and Providence winning its final two games would place the Friars sixth in the conference standings. The Friars beat St. John’s this season, and a finish above Creighton in the Big East standings grants UConn the No. 1 seed. But Providence lost last night to Marquette, ruining that dream. We’re also hearing reports that Kim English is out.

If Creighton and Providence finish tied in the standings, we move to a NET rating tiebreaker. As UConn is No. 8 and St. John’s is No. 22, the Huskies would grab the top seed.

Marquette beats UConn, Seton Hall beats St. John’s — The same principles above apply. If both teams lose, St. John’s receives the No. 1 seed, as Seton Hall is guaranteed to finish above Marquette in the conference.

Brian Kervick breaks it all down further here: UConn’s Big East Tournament Seeding Scenarios ($)

Meet the Coordinators

Aman Kidwai had a chance to sit down with UConn offensive coordinator Nunzio Campanile and defensive coordinator Ryan Manalac for a conversation on the new-look UConn football team.

With Manalac, they discussed his career to date, defensive philosophy, and how they’re attacking the portal and practice time until the Spring Game on April 11.

Campanile shared the roots of his football family in New Jersey and discussed the nature of his experiences from a lengthy high school coaching tenure to Rutgers and Syracuse before coming to UConn. He also covered the depth of his northeast ties and shared that his favorite pro athlete growing up was Keith Hernandez.

Another WBB Juggernaut

Once again, Geno Auriemma and the UConn Huskies are ruining women’s college basketball.

The top-ranked Huskies ended their regular season 31-0 with an average margin of victory of 38, slightly ahead of the 36-point average margin of Stewie, Moriah, and Tuck’s senior year in 2016 and almost 10 points higher than the average margin of South Carolina’s ‘23-’24 championship team.

Incredibly, UConn is doing this one year after winning a championship and losing the No. 1 pick in the WNBA Draft to graduation.

This UConn team, on paper at least, is as dominant as any title‑level team of the last decade, and they’re doing it on both sides of the court. Per @UConnPuneet on X/Twitter, the Huskies forced 212 more turnovers than field goals allowed. Their high mark in the last 10 seasons was minus-20, which they did last year.

The Huskies have nine games remaining at most, starting with Georgetown or Butler on Saturday afternoon at noon (Peacock) to kick off the Big East Tournament at Mohegan Sun. They are prohibitive favorites to win that and their second straight national title as Azzi Fudd has realized her potential as one of college basketball’s greats, while Sarah Strong is making her case as one of the best to ever play as just a sophomore.

With all apologies to Dan Shaughnessy and the many UConn haters, if you don’t like it, you don’t need to watch. Otherwise, enjoy the sustained greatness of the most dominant college basketball program in the modern era.

Baseball Blues

Just as it seemed like the UConn baseball team was gaining some momentum, the Huskies went down to UNC Wilmington and botched winnable two games. UConn won on Friday, but blew eighth-inning leads on both Saturday and Sunday to drop the series.

The Huskies held their first home game on Wednesday, taking down the New Haven Chargers, 9-4, as Evan Menzel hit for the cycle and Jim Penders’ squad improved to 5-7.

The UConn Blog and our newsletter Hook C Baseball broke down Friday and Saturday’s games. Our weekly newsletter dives into the weekend as a whole, with takeaways, weekend winners, insight from Penders, and a look at some former Huskies playing professionally.

Photo: Ian Bethune

We Must Simply Say: WTF?

One of the craziest things to happen in organized sports occurred on Saturday night in the UConn hockey game at UMass.

Skating on a 2-on-1 tied late in the third period, the UMass goal horn and light show suddenly kicked in, forcing the game to come to a screeching halt as a potential go-ahead opportunity was squandered. WATCH HERE 

The play was not called for a delay of the game and represented a painfully comical folly as a sluggish stretch for UConn over the past few weeks has them winless in four consecutive games. The incident actually led to Hockey East banning light shows.

Daniel Connolly has full coverage from the weekend, including game recaps from Friday’s loss and Saturday’s aforementioned tie, as well as analysis from both. Ian Bethune has great photo galleries to go alongside it: Friday and Saturday.

Teetering on the NCAA tournament bubble, UConn has dropped three spots in two weeks to NPI No. 15, with a less-than-great shot at sneaking in. With the cut-line set at No. 14, CollegeHockeyNews’ NPI Probability Matrix gives the Huskies a 41% chance to make the tournament and just a 13% chance to get in as an at-large qualifier. It is more than likely they’ll need to win the conference tournament and clinch an automatic berth.

A sweep this weekend is needed. Not just for momentum’s sake, but the Huskies need to prove they are a postseason team, not just to the NPI model, but to themselves. Puck drops Thursday at 7 p.m. at the Toscano Family Ice Forum against UNH and Saturday at 4 p.m. in Rhode Island against Providence. 

Meanwhile, women’s hockey has absolutely rolled through the Hockey East playoffs. The Huskies won 6-1 in the quarterfinals before winning by the same score against Holy Cross in the semifinals.

UConn will host the Hockey East championship game this Saturday at 3:30 p.m. against Northeastern. The other Huskies beat UConn twice in the regular season, though both have good cases to make the NCAA tournament regardless of the outcome. 

Weekly Rewind

Men’s Basketball

Notes and Quotes: Three Up, Three Down ($) – The Huskies went 3-0 during their most crucial stretch of the regular season.

Spencer Comes Alive from Three, Tyrese Martin Posts First Career Triple-Double – Huskies all around the NBA continue to get it done.

UConn men up two spots to No. 4 in AP Poll – The big wins have the voters bullish on the Huskies once again.

Husky Review Spotlight: Seton Hall (2/28/26) - Karaban Leads the Way – A deeper analysis of Karaban’s will to win on display in this comeback win.

Notes and Quotes: A Historic Beatdown of No. 15 St. John’s ($) – There is plenty to glean from the Huskies’ monstrous win over the Johnnies.

UConn wallops St. John’s, 72-40 – The Huskies put together their most complete win of the season.

Women’s Basketball

Azzi Fudd named Big East Scholar-Athlete of the Year – Fudd becomes the ninth Husky to win the award.

How Maya Moore helped turn UConn into an unstoppable juggernaut – Why UConn’s dominance is not limited to one single era. 

Before Geno Auriemma ruled March, he was just trying to win a game – Auriemma’s early years were a lot different, to say the least. 

Despite undefeated record, Geno doesn’t think UConn is better than last year ($) – Auriemma continues to say nice things about Paige Bueckers.

UConn could have another undefeated season, but history shows nothing is guaranteed – This team still has to beat some great teams to win another championship.

Why Diana Taurasi’s national championships stand alone in UConn’s history – The Huskies were not a juggernaut, but Taurasi still found ways to get it done. 

Breaking down Sarah Strong’s case to win National Player of the Year – Spoiler alert: Strong should probably be Player of the Year. 

UConn announces three-game series with Duke – See all the details for the future matchups between the Blue Devils and Huskies. 

UConn closes regular season with 85-49 win over St. John’s – The Huskies complete a perfect 31-0 regular season.

UConn pummels Georgetown, 84-72 – The Huskies set a new program record with their 19th conference victory of the season.

Football

5 Newcomers to be Excited About in 2026 ($) – Graham Chamberlain identifies some new faces that can make an immediate impact this year. 

UConn football stars Joe Fagnano and Skyler Bell wrap up NFL Combine – See the stats and response to their time in Indianapolis. 

Skyler Bell and Joe Fagnano Represent UConn at the NFL Combine ($) – The former Huskies showed off their skills among some of the brightest names coming to the league.

Hockey

If you’ve enjoyed this newsletter, please consider sharing it with a friend or two - it would mean a lot to us!

Be sure to follow The UConn Blog!

Reply

or to participate.