HARTFORD – The No. 11 UConn men's basketball team (8-3, 0-0 BIG EAST) begins its dual BIG EAST title defense on Wednesday night when it hosts Xavier (8-3, 0-0 BIG EAST) in the league opener for both squads. Tip-off from the XL Center is set for 7 p.m. on FS1 with Alex Faust and Bill Raftery on the call.

UConn is coming off a top-10 win over then-No. 8 Gonzaga on Saturday night, winning their 10^th-straight in New York City with a 77-71 triumph at Madison Square Garden. It was Connecticut's fourth victory in a row after its tumultuous trip to Maui and put the Huskies squarely back in the national conversation. Xavier is coming off a tight rivalry setback at Cincinnati on Saturday. Both squads were picked in the top-three of the BIG EAST Preseason Coaches Poll as they begin league play on Wednesday.

Connecticut is aiming to add on to its league-records of 11 regular season titles and eight tournament titles as the 20-game true round-robin begins. Curiously, despite those titles UConn is just 18-20 in BIG EAST openers since joining the league at its inception for the 1979-80 season and returning after a seven-year hiatus in 2020. Dan Hurley is 1-5 in league openers at UConn and the Huskies have not won a conference opener at home since 2011.

The Huskies are 6-4 against Xavier in a series dating back to the Second Round of the 1991 NCAA Tournament. The last eight meetings have come as league-mates. The two sides met three times a season ago, with Connecticut sweeping the regular season series before a 27-point victory in the BIG EAST Tournament Quarterfinals. Xavier's last trip to the XL Center was in January 2024, a memorable one that saw UConn knock down a program-record 17 3-pointers and record the third-highest scoring margin in a game in conference history in the 99-56 win.

Liam McNeeley led the Huskies against Gonzaga on Saturday, earning BIG EAST Freshman of the Week honors with a career-high 26 points, a game-high eight rebounds and four assists without a turnover. This season McNeeley is second both on the Huskies and amongst BIG EAST freshmen in scoring (13.6 ppg) and rebounding (6.1 rpg). Alex Karaban is UConn's leading scorer with 15.6 points per game, adding 5.0 rebounds and 1.9 blocks per contest. Solo Ball (12.5 ppg) and Tarris Reed Jr. (11.1 ppg, 8.0 rpg) also average double-figures for the Huskies.

Xavier is off to an 8-3 start this season with quality wins over Wake Forest and South Carolina in non-league action. Zach Freemantle leads Xavier with 16.9 points and 7.7 rebounds per game, but head coach Sean Miller announced this week that he will be out indefinitely with a lower body injury. Ryan Conwell adds 16.5 points per game on 44.8 percent shooting from 3-point range and Dayvion McKnight scores 10.3 per contest to go along with a team-high 4.7 assists per game.

Following the Wednesday night league opener, UConn will hit the road to close out 2024 at Butler on Dec. 21.