The No. 3 UConn Huskies (16-1) and No. 25 Seton Hall Pirates (14-2) are set to face off on Tuesday night, going head-to-head in New Jersey. The Big East showdown will tip off at 8 p.m. EST on truTV.
The Huskies are 6.5-point favorites on the road with -298 moneyline odds and the total has been set at 132.5 points. Here is a preview of the conference matchup featuring odds and lines from DraftKings Sportsbook.
UConn at Seton Hall Preview, Prediction
UConn Preview
After comfortable wins over New Haven, UMass-Lowell and Columbia, the Huskies eked out an 86-84 win over then-No. 7 BYU in Boston. And while then-No. 4 Arizona ended the Huskies’ undefeated season in Hartford on Nov. 19, UConn proceeded to notch wins at then-No. 21 Kansas, two victories against No. 13 Illinois and then-No. 18 Florida at Madison Square Garden and a home win over Texas. The Huskies are undefeated in Big East play, beating Butler, Xavier, Marquette, DePaul twice and Providence in overtime.
Junior guard Solo Ball is UConn’s leading scorer at 14.8 points per game, despite his former Big East-leading 41.4% three-point percentage last year falling to 29.9% this year. Senior forward Alex Karaban isn’t far behind at 14.0 points per game on .494/.438/.871 shooting splits, on top of his 5.3 rebounds a night. Georgia transfer Silas Demary Jr. is averaging 10.2 points per game, but his 6.1 assists a night more notably leads the team. Big man Tarris Reed Jr., who has missed a few games with an ankle injury, is putting up 13.9 points, 7.5 rebounds and 1.9 blocks per game. True freshman Braylon Mullins is up to 11.7 points per game after scoring 40 across his last two appearances.
UConn ranks No. 31 nationally in field-goal percentage at 49.6%, on top of ranking No. 14 in assists and No. 13 in blocks on a per-game basis. Its defensive stats are more impressive, with its opponents ranking third-to-last in assists per game, ninth-to-last in points per game and 12th-to-last in three-point percentage.
That defensive production shows up in the latest KenPom ratings, as UConn boasts the No. 5 adjusted defensive efficiency in the country. It also has the No. 23 offense, slotting the Huskies in at No. 9 in terms of overall opponent-adjusted net efficiency.
Seton Hall Preview
The Pirates opened the season by beating Shaheen Holloway’s former program, Saint Peter’s, before running the table against Wagner, Fairfield, Monmouth and New Haven. From there, Seton Hall finished third in the Maui Invitational, beating then-No. 23 NC State and Washington State but losing to USC. The end of nonconference play featured wins over Central Connecticut State, Kansas State and Rutgers. In the early goings of Big East action, the Pirates lost to Villanova and beat Providence, Villanova, Marquette, Creighton and Georgetown.
Miami (FL) transfer A.J. Staton-McCray and Merrimack transfer Adam Clark make up Seton Hall’s starting backcourt. The former is averaging 12.3 points per game on 37.2% three-point shooting, while the latter averages 10.5 points, 5.0 assists and 2.2 steals per game. Tajuan Simpkins provides reinforcements off the bench, averaging 11.1 points per game on .474/.422/.864 shooting splits. While Jacksonville transfer forward Stephon Payne III is just 6-foot-8, he is averaging 7.2 points, 7.4 rebounds and 1.4 blocks per game. The Pirates have 6-foot-10 center Najai Hines coming off the bench, putting up 6.9 points, 5.5 rebounds and 2.4 blocks a night.
Seton Hall ranks No. 7 in points against per game, No. 12 in steals per game and No. 12 in blocks per game, holding teams to the fifth-lowest two-point percentage in the country. Offensively, however, the Pirates rank No. 200 in assists per game, No. 256 in points per game, No. 233 in three-point percentage and No. 318 in two-point percentage.
Per the latest KenPom ratings, Seton Hall ranks No. 43 in adjusted net efficiency. The Pirates rank No. 9 in adjusted defensive efficiency, but No. 133 in adjusted offensive efficiency.
UConn at Seton Hall Pick, Best Bet
It checks out that Tuesday’s matchup has such a low point total, since it will be a battle of two top-10 defenses. Still, UConn has gone over 132.5 total points in 12 of its 17 games. However, the Huskies have gone over three times and under three times in Big East play. Seton Hall, meanwhile, has gone over Tuesday’s point total in 10 of 17 opportunities. The Pirates cleared 133 points seven games in a row between Nov. 24 and Dec. 19, but only three of their six Big East contests.
Seton Hall has only lost by seven-plus points once all year, but its Big East slate hasn’t been the toughest so far. The only conference foe the Pirates have faced that is ranked above them in the KenPom is Villanova, who beat them by 12 in Newark just before Christmas. UConn, meanwhile, has covered a 6.5-point spread in 12 of 17 games this season. It took overtime for the Huskies to beat an 8-8 Providence team by five last Wednesday, but their other four failures came against top-25 KenPom teams.
