The UConn basketball team won the national title last season, and they are trying to defend their crown this year. The regular season has gone well as the Huskies have been one of the best teams in college basketball all year, and they are also Big East regular season champs. However, nothing really matters until the NCAA Tournament starts when it comes to the national title.

With the Big East clinched and the regular season winding down, UConn basketball could afford to give some younger guys some minutes and let some of their key guys rest. However, this team still wants to win as many as games as possible.

“Obviously, J-Stew [Jaylin Stewart] and Solo [Ball], having those guys confident and feeling like they could help us down the stretch here, postseason, is something that we've talked about,” UConn head coach Dan Hurley said, according to an article from the CT Insider. “(We've been) wanting to get those guys more minutes and more opportunity. They've practiced well. We're not going to do anything that's going to hurt our chances of winning the next possession. But also, getting to eight or nine (deep) down the stretch here, with potentially three games in three days if you win the Big East Tournament … yeah, we'd love to be playing deeper than we are right now. I guess we'll see.”

The mindset for UConn right now is that they need to win these remaining regular season games. One of the most important parts of March is getting hot and staying hot. The Huskies want to go into the tournament on a roll.

“We've got to find a way to finish this regular season off, with the mindset of going into these games like we haven't won any games,” Hurley said. “We've got to fight off human nature. Obviously, when you get to Big East Tournament time, NCAA Tournament, there's going to be an extra level of urgency. Win or go home creates that urgency for you. It's not OK for us not to give our best performance,” Hurley added. “We've had a great, great year. We love the position we're in. We want to keep achieving and playing to our identity.”

Next up for UConn is a big one as they will be on the road against #8 Marquette on Wednesday. The Huskies haven't beaten a ranked team on the road since 2014.