University of Connecticut Athletics
University of Connecticut
New Mexico State
Huskies Face Tough Task In First-Round NCAA Game
3/16/2022 8:23:00 PM | Men's Basketball
UConn Athletic Communications / March 16, 2022
BUFFALO, N.Y. – As the UConn men's basketball team begins play in the NCAA Championship on Thursday (6:50 p.m., TNT), it will find an experienced, talented and successful team from Las Cruces, N.M., ready as the opposition.
Their 12th seeding notwithstanding, the Aggies from New Mexico State are anything but an easy stepping stone for the fifth-seeded Huskies as they try to advance to Saturday's second round. Out of the Western Athletic Conference, New Mexico State (26-6) is making its 23rd NCAA appearance and third appearance in the last four years (the tourney was not held in 2020).
The fifth-seeded Huskies (23-9) will, in fact, see a lot of themselves in New Mexico State.
"We mirror each other in a lot of ways," UConn coach Dan Hurley said Wednesday. "I think we play a very similar style. It's going to be a very, very physical game between two very tough teams.
"We usually punk the other team, or have a good chance to punk the other team by how hard we play, how physical we are, what we do on both backboards – but they will mitigate that because those are a lot of their strengths."
UConn, which has won seven of its last nine games, is coming into the tournament off a loss to Villanova in the BIG EAST Tournament semifinals. New Mexico State has won its last three, including a 66-52 win over Albilene Christian for the WAC Championship.
Redshirt junior guard Teddy Allen was named the WAC Player of the Year after leading the Aggies in scoring (19.3) and rebounding (6.9) and turning in a 41-point performance in a Jan. 15 victory over Abilene Christian.
"He's a scorer and a volume shooter," UConn sophomore Andre Jackson said. "He has a green light and the freedom to take shots that he wants. He has a lot of different tools, a lot of shooting off the dribble. We're just trying to make sure he is not getting easy layups, trying to make every shot as difficult as we can. He is probably going to score, but it's all of our job to make it as hard on him as possible."
It is UConn's second straight NCAA appearance in the NCAA Tournament, but last season's appearance ended in the first round against Maryland.
"The way it ended last year was very rough," UConn senior Tyrese Martin said. "I feel like we're not going in that direction anymore. We've been playing really well and we practice 11 months a year to make sure we're playing our best basketball come March."
