The UConn Huskies men's basketball team rolled over Purdue on Tuesday night in the final exhibition game of the season, and is now ready to embark on the regular season, which begins on Monday night against Gardner-Webb.
Dan Hurley's team took on a challenging exhibition slate, beating Syracuse, Michigan State and Purdue, and they won all three games by at least eight points. They won Tuesday's game against the Boilermakers by 23 (76-53).
With the preseason now behind us, here's a look at the three main takeaways from these three games:
The defense is for real
When you lose an NBA interior player like Tarris Reed Jr., it's expected that you'll lose something on the rebounding and defensive end. However, this UConn team looks excellent defensively.
They bottled up a rebuilding Syracuse team in the opener and then held Purdue to just 53 points on 2-of-25 shooting from three-point range.
Hurley spoke about his team's defensive ability after the SU win, and he said that Silas Demary Jr. might be the best ball-hawking guard in the country. We don't have a problem with that assessment either.
Na'jai Hines is good, but needs more consistency
Hines was the best player on the floor in the win against Syracuse, but he didn't replicate that exact impact in either of the two other games. Hurley said they needed to get Hines more consistent, so this is not necessarily a surprise. He had nine points and six rebounds in 17 minutes against Purdue, so the impact is clearly there, but can he do it often enough to earn 28 and 30-minute outings? If he can, the ceiling for this team is incredibly high. He needs to stay engaged, and out of foul trouble, which is something that bothered him against Michigan State.
Oskar Giltay had 12 points in 21 minutes on Tuesday.
Nik Khamenia is fun to watch
The transfer from Duke only had eight points on 2-of-8 shooting on Tuesday, but we'll let that slide. He generally shot well in the other two games. He has a quick release, the ability to shoot from well beyond-the-arc and a work ethic that shines through.
Is he a direct replacement for Alex Karaban on the perimeter? Of course not. But he'll pair with Mullins and Demary to make a nice backcourt trio, that's for sure.
Up next
The Huskies begin the season on Monday night against Gardner-Webb at 9 p.m. ET. The game will be played at PeoplesBank Arena in Hartford and will air on Peacock/NBC Sports Network.