Big East Basketball: UConn hosts Marquette in top-five showdown

The two titans of the Big East square off on Saturday with the No. 1 UConn Huskies hosting the No. 4 Marquette Golden Eagles at the XL Center. This is the first matchup between these two teams this season, and it could not have come at a better time in terms of the stakes. 

The Golden Eagles hit a rough patch earlier in the season following losses to Seton Hall and Butler, but since then they have rebounded and looked like last year’s Big East Championship team. They are coming off a revenge game against those Butler Bulldogs, and they have been preparing for this huge matchup in terms of their season. 

Tyler Kolek has been putting a case together to become the Big East Player of the Year yet again. The star guard is putting up 16.1 points, five rebounds, and 7.4 assists per game, pretty good numbers considering his struggles in conference play. He also has Kam Jones and Oso Ighodaro to round out the big three of this Marquette team, but that trio will need to be dynamite to stop this loaded UConn squad. 

The Huskies are an absolute juggernaut, coming into this game with only two losses on the year, and they seem destined for another National Championship. In terms of the Big East, Marquette is their greatest challenger, so Dan Hurley will have to get this team prepared to play their best game. 

They have stars everywhere on the court, most notably the big man, Donovan Clingan who is a 2.3 block per game guy, and puts up double digit points every night. Tristen Newton has been an absolute stud as the lead guard, and he has the shooting of Cam Spencer and Alex Karaban to dish out to consistently. 

UConn also has the freshman, Stephon Castle, who has been outstanding after missing some time early in the year due to injury. He showed off some of that athleticism against DePaul, and if he hits that second gear this Huskies team might just be unstoppable. 

The Huskies get the home court advantage, but this will be at the XL Center rather than Gampel, although the environment is always electric regardless of the setting. Marquette will need to settle in early to compete with this team, when teams do that UConn has found themselves in some close contests in Conference play. 

Obviously you need the best game possible out of Kolek, and this bench unit for Marquette will need to step up quite a bit. For the Huskies, they just need to play their brand of basketball, and continue to defend their title as the No. 1 team in the nation. 

This should be a Big East classic though, and is a potential preview of the Conference Championship once we get to that point. If you are any sort of fan of basketball, this is a must-watch game with a number 1-seed in the NCAA Tournament potentially on the line.