For all their regular-season dominance, UConn has one glaring Achilles’ heel: the Big East Tournament. Just a single title in 15 years isn’t a stat that the Huskies would be proud of. Yet despite this baggage, are the Huskies going into the upcoming tournament as favorites, courtesy of their dominant 27-4 regular season? Head coach Dan Hurley doesn’t think so.

Speaking in an interview with NBC Sports, Hurley shared that even though his team has performed fairly across the season. But they’re yet to prove their mettle as they are short of titles to boast of.

“We’ve played to a top-five team in college basketball the whole year,” Hurley said. “Unfortunately, we don’t have anything to show for. We were hoping to have a Big East Regular season, at least a share of it to show for it, but we didn’t get it done.”

The UConn head coach further reflected that their strong performances throughout the season and the program’s size wouldn’t carry them to success in the tournament. And subsequently, every individual on the roster would have to contribute to secure a title. “Playing at Duke, UConn, or Kentucky, I think the players and the coaches are under a different level of scrutiny and pressure, Hurley said. “I think we’ve got to perform under that. This time of the year, I think you want to get your team not thinking about that.”

He added further, “We’ve got to go to New York City and Selection Sunday, excited about the opportunity to compete. We’re not entitled to advance in any of these tournaments just because we’re UConn. This team is through 31 games, had a great year. We just don’t have a Championship to show for it yet.”

And that humility is warranted, as the path through the Big East is fraught with challengers ready to play spoiler

With teams like St. John’s and Seton Hall in the mix, there’s no way that Hurley’s UConn will be an outright favorite to win the Big East title. The Red Storm under Rick Pitino has been thriving this season. They have already defeated the Huskies once and eventually outdid them to win the regular season for the second time in a row.

All in all, with these factors, the Huskies will face a trial by fire at Madison Square Garden to win the title. Additionally, the Huskies will carry their own burden going into the competition. For Dan Hurley and co., the tournament isn’t just a postseason competition; it’s a key step toward securing the No. 1 seed come March Madness. After the Marquette loss, the Huskies were replaced by the Florida Gators in most of the bracket projections.

Thus, at this point, winning the Big East tournament is the only way they can at least get into the conversation for a top seed. On top of that, injuries have also started to creep in. Jaylin Stewart, a crucial frontcourt player for the Huskies, will miss the Big East tournament. Stewart has appeared in around 28 games for the Huskies, averaging 17.7 minutes, and his injury will severely limit the team’s rotational depth.

Inconsistency remains a standout issue for the Huskies standout issue for the Huskies. While foul troubles and slow starts have scarred them at times throughout the season, head coach Hurley knows there’s one more element that can further hamper his team’s performance in the Big East tournament.

Dan Hurley Pinpoints Nemesis That Can Cost UConn in the Postseason

Over the course of the season, UConn has been a force to reckon with in the Big East Conference. Being one of the top two-way teams in the country, the Huskies did look unstoppable at one point in the season. But after the Marquette game, a concerning pattern emerged for the Huskies, and Hurley didn’t hesitate to shed light on it ahead of the Big East tournament tip-off.

“I would say that the bigger issue is the turnovers,” Hurley said. “The turnovers have been a nightmare for this team. Potentially be this team’s undoing, the defense, especially, on ball to start the game, was bad. We set a bad tone by being driven, but the 16 turnovers, I mean, like literally if we didn’t turn the ball over and kept just missing, we were likely to continue to get second and third chances because we were dominating on the glass.”

When UConn’s season statistics are considered, Hurley’s statement fits perfectly. The team has given away around 342 turnovers this season, averaging 11 per game and ranking 137th in the country. This isn’t at all a very good average for a team that is aspiring to defend its National Championship in the upcoming weeks.

And as Hurley said, the 16 turnovers in the Marquette game were one of the major reasons for UConn’s loss. The Huskies gave away an easy 11 points in these turnovers, and eventually hurt the team in a tightrope game. Despite dominating the boards, these turnovers disrupted the offensive flow, leading to a back-and-forth defeat for the Huskies and costing them a share of the Big East title.

And similar errors in crucial events like the Big East tournament or the March Madness will just undermine the team’s performance even further. Thus, it remains an area where Dan Hurley will have to work even harder to guide his team to a conference title and a potential No. 1 seed in the March Madness.

They tip off their tournament on March 12 in the quarterfinals, courtesy of the triple bye they received for finishing second in the regular season. Can Hurley guide the team to a crown at the Big East Championship? Do let us know in the comments.