The back-to-back national champion UConn Huskies men’s basketball team finds itself in unfamiliar territory this week.
Following three straight losses at the Maui Invitational tournament, the Huskies dropped 23 spots from No. 2 to No. 25 in the latest AP Top 25 poll released Monday. It marks the steepest fall in the AP Top 25 poll since the Arizona Wildcats slipped from No. 2 to unranked after three straight losses at the Battle 4 Atlantis in November 2017.
It was an ugly week for UConn all around, as it lost 99–97 to Memphis in overtime on Monday, fell 73–72 to Colorado on Tuesday and was defeated handily 85–67 by Dayton on Wednesday. The Huskies did rebound with a 99–45 win over Maryland Eastern Shore at home on Saturday night.
UConn coach Dan Hurley wasn’t too pleased reflecting on the team’s experience in Maui on Sunday.
“Moving forward, we will only play home-and-homes or single-game events,” he said over the weekend. “… I don’t think I’ll ever do a three-game [multi-team event] again. There’s zero chance I ever do that again.”
Dan Hurley reflects on Maui:
“I’m not doing another 3-game MTE again. Moving forward, we will only play home-and-homes or single-game events… I don’t think I’ll ever do a 3-game MTE again. There’s zero chance I ever do that again” pic.twitter.com/PAogpBHNi6
— The Field of 68 (@TheFieldOf68) December 1, 2024
The aforementioned 2017 Wildcats, who dropped out of the AP Top 25 poll early in the year, bounced back from their slow start and finished the year with a 27–8 record, only to fall to Buffalo as a No. 4 seed in the first round of the NCAA tournament.
The Huskies, meanwhile, will attempt to rebound from a vacation gone wrong in Hawaii on Wednesday night in a tilt against Baylor.
