The No. 3 UConn men’s basketball team looks to keep things rolling in Big East play this weekend, as the Huskies travel to Washington D.C. for a clash with Georgetown (9-8, 1-5) on Saturday afternoon looking to extend their winning streak to 14 straight games and stay unbeaten in conference play.
The Hoyas rank No. 108 in KenPom, with the No. 95 offense in the country, and 127th in the NET. After a promising non-conference slate, Ed Cooley’s bunch has struggled as of late in Big East play, dropping five straight. In his third year with the program, he’s yet to really take them out of the hole they were in when he replaced Patrick Ewing.
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As for UConn (17-1, 7-0), the Huskies sit No. 9 in KenPom and No. 7 in the NET. They have the sixth-rated defense in the country per KenPom, falling a few spots over the past couple games but still in a much improved spot from a year ago. The Huskies have won 13-straight games since their only loss of the year to Arizona. On Tuesday, they broke their curse and snapped a four-game skid on the road at Seton Hall with a 69-64 win.
UConn has dominated the Hoyas since rejoining the Big East in 2020, winning every matchup they’ve had against them. Can the Huskies keep the foot on the gas both against Georgetown and overall?
Date/Time: Saturday, Jan. 17, 12:00 p.m. EST
TV/Stream: FOX, FoxSports.com
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Radio: UConn Sports Network, Sirius XM 201, Sirius/XM online streaming
Odds: UConn -12.5, O/U 140.5 points
Location: Capital One Arena — Washington, D.C.
KenPom Predicted Score: UConn 78, Georgetown 65 — 87% win probability
Series History
The Huskies and Hoyas have played 76 times in their history, with UConn holding a slim 40-36 advantage. The Huskies have won 10-straight games against Georgetown dating back to 2021. The last time they lost to the Hoyas was in a non-conference game in January 2017 while UConn was in the American Conference. They last faced off on Feb. 26, 2025 when UConn beat Georgetown 93-79 in Hartford. Solo Ball and Tarris Reed Jr. led five Huskies in double figures with 20 points each.
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Availability report
The Huskies are expected to have all 15 players healthy as they’ve had the past three games.
What to Watch For
Struggling Solo
Coming into the season, it felt like most people came to the conclusion that any success that UConn was going to have this season stemmed around the play and leap of Solo Ball from his sophomore to junior year. After breaking out last season, he found himself garnering some preseason All-American buzz from some media outlets as the best player on one of the top teams in the country.
The past few weeks for Ball haven’t been great, to put it lightly. Since the calendar turned to 2026, Ball has just four 3-pointers in four games, shooting just 22% from beyond the arc during that time. He scored just eight points in the win over Seton Hall after only seven last weekend against DePaul, marking the second-straight game in Big East play he failed to reach double figures after scoring at least 10 points in 19 out of 20 conference games last season.
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Despite Ball’s struggles, UConn seems to be just fine on the offensive end. The Huskies are still rolling through the Big East schedule and boast the second-most efficient offense in the conference behind only Villanova.
Road warriors
Something inside of UConn’s dominant 17-1 start to the season that may be getting overlooked is its early success away from home. The Huskies are 5-0 in true road games, one of three teams in the country to have at least five wins on the road without a loss this season along with 5-0 Duke and 7-0 Miami (Ohio).
Avoid that stretch
Building off a pair of those signature road wins, both the Providence and Seton Hall game featured stretches where the opponent dominated and either built a big lead or erased a big deficit. Against the Friars, it came near the end of the first half where a 21-4 spurt over roughly five minutes felt like it put the game out of reach by halftime with the Huskies down double digits. Against Seton Hall, it was really the whole second half. UConn led by as many as 18 at the 14:48 mark before the lead dwindled down to just one point inside the final minute.
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On the flip side, the Huskies are able to still win these games and counter the big runs because they go on spurts of their own. The comeback in Providence began in earnest when UConn was down 11 with around three minutes to play in regulation. In the first half against Seton Hall, the Huskies closed the period on an 18-3 run over the final seven minutes to go from down two to up 13 at the break.
Familiar foe
If you’re a UConn fan, the name Isaiah Abraham should ring a bell. Abraham was a highly-touted recruit heading into last season, but played in just nine games last season for the Huskies, totaling less than 35 minutes in the uniform. Abraham entered the portal last spring after playing sparingly in his first year in Storrs and wound up staying in the Big East and committing to Georgetown.
Abraham has actually been quite solid for Cooley and the Hoyas this year, starting all 16 games he’s played in on the wing and averaging 6.6 points per game on 42% from beyond the arc. Abraham missed the Hoyas’ game earlier this week against Creighton due to illness, but is expected to be back in action for the Hoyas on Saturday.
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DMV Homecomings
Three rotation players for UConn have ties to the DMV area from their days before committing to play for the Huskies. Solo Ball and Jayden Ross were teammates at St. James School in Maryland before transferring to other schools, Ball to Brewster Academy and Ross to Long Island Lutheran. They are both listed as from Virginia, Ball from Leesburg and Ross from Bristow.
Big man Eric Reibe may be from Germany, but he played for The Bullis School in Maryland once he arrived in the United States. Last year he helped lead Bullis to a 2025 Maryland Private School state championship.
This will be Reibe’s first college game “close to home” if you want to call it that, but Ball and Ross have had great success playing in our nation’s capital. Last season Ball scored 15 points in the Huskies win at Georgetown right in the middle of a stretch of nine straight games he had reaching at least that benchmark. Ross scored seven points off the bench that game too, his highest point total against a Big East opponent all season.
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Jacob Ross, Jayden’s brother, is a Bristow native too. Ross has yet to appear in a game this season, so it would be shocking for Dan Hurley to break what is shaping up to be a potential redshirt season for the freshman and let him play in this one.
