For a team with championship aspirations, a late-season loss that knocks you from the top spot should be a disaster. For Dan Hurley’s UConn Huskies, it might just be a blessing in disguise.

College Basketball reporter Jon Rothstein has revealed an uncanny positive for the UConn Huskies despite their 84-91 loss to Creighton. He highlighted that the defeat has set up a potential quad-one opportunity for UConn to regain the top spot in the Big East, and now views UConn as a 2nd-seed after their latest mishap.

Rothstein said, “The good thing for the Huskies is that UConn’s next two games are quad-one opportunities. And that’s something that obviously has not been a common occurrence in the Big East. UConn is going to go on the road to Villanova over the weekend, and then next week in Hartford, UConn will get the rematch with St. John’s.”

UConn has four games left in its regular season schedule. Their next game sees them travel to Villanova to face the Wildcats, another contender for the Big East top seed. A win over the Wildcats could essentially make their game against St. John’s a showdown for the top spot when the two teams take the court at the PeoplesBank Arena.

A quad-one opportunity refers to the fact that, since the Big East table is so close at the top, inflicting defeats on Villanova and St. John’s will provide a double advantage to the UConn Huskies while calculating the gap between the top team and the trailing teams in the Big East Standings.

News served to you like never before!

Prefer us on Google, To get latest news on feed

Prefer Us on Google

They can essentially treat these two games as knockouts from a mental perspective, and Dan Hurley will find it easier to rally the players, given the quad-one scenario.

The Huskies’ head coach would not have been pleased by his team’s 7-point loss to Creighton, which has brought their top seed into question. Their free-throw accuracy will be scrutinized as the Huskies made only 11 of their 18 free throws in the game.

But more gaping holes in the UConn setup have emerged, and Dan Hurley has little time to find solutions ahead of March Madness.

Dan Hurley needs to fix UConn’s recent defensive struggles ahead of the season-defining stretch

The UConn Huskies have had a solid defense throughout the season, allowing only 66.1 points per game. This marks an improvement from last year, when they gave up 68 points per game on average. However, their recent games have shown a worrisome trend.

UConn is 2-2 in its last four games, and its defense has been a major reason for its recent struggles. In these last four games, the Huskies have given up a staggering 79.25 points, a stark increase from their season average.

Head coach Dan Hurley also expressed concerns over the defensive performance in recent games after their loss to Creighton. Hurley said, “The defense has been a joke. It was a game of just really bad individual defense. Our defense has been so bad. We’ve been playing with fire.”

The Huskies are one of the most efficient teams in shutting opponents down behind the arc, allowing just 5.9 three-pointers per game. However, their outside defense has been lacking recently, with the Creighton Bluejays making 10 of their 21 three-point attempts in the upset.

In fact, in their last three games, they have allowed 30 three-pointers, and it would have been alarming for Dan Hurley to watch this defensive collapse from the sidelines. This has to be addressed immediately, especially with a visit to Villanova coming up.

The Wildcats are making 9.9 three-pointers per game this season, and the Huskies cannot allow them to rack up points from behind the arc, like they usually do.

Dan Hurley will look to their backcourt to press the opponents more and not give up easy looks from the outside.