The 2012–13 Connecticut Huskies men's basketball team represented the

University of Connecticut The University of Connecticut (UConn) is a public land-grant research university in Storrs, Connecticut, a village in the town of Mansfield. The primary 4,400-acre (17.8 km2) campus is in Storrs, approximately a half hour's drive from Hart ...

in the 2012–2013

NCAA Division I NCAA Division I (D-I) is the highest level of College athletics, intercollegiate athletics sanctioned by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in the United States, which accepts players globally. D-I schools include the major ...

basketball season. The Huskies split their home games between the

XL Center The XL Center (originally known as the Hartford Civic Center) is a multi-purpose arena and convention center located in downtown Hartford, Connecticut. Owned by the City of Hartford, it is managed by the quasi-public Capital Region Development ...

Hartford, Connecticut Hartford is the capital city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. It was the seat of Hartford County until Connecticut disbanded county government in 1960. It is the core city in the Greater Hartford metropolitan area. Census estimates since the ...

, and the

Harry A. Gampel Pavilion Harry A. Gampel Pavilion is a 10,167-seat multi-purpose arena in Storrs, Connecticut, United States, on the campus of the University of Connecticut (UConn). The arena opened on January 21, 1990, and is the largest on-campus arena in New England. ...

on the UConn campus in

Storrs, Connecticut Storrs is a village and census-designated place (CDP) in the New England town, town of Mansfield, Connecticut, Mansfield in eastern Tolland County, Connecticut, Tolland County, Connecticut, United States. The population was 15,344 at the 2010 Unite ...

. The Huskies are a member of the

Big East Conference The Big East Conference is a collegiate athletic conference that competes in NCAA Division I in ten men's sports and twelve women's sports. Headquartered in New York City, the eleven full-member schools are primarily located in Northeast and M ...

. This season marked the first for new head coach

Kevin Ollie Kevin Jermaine Ollie (born December 27, 1972) is an American basketball coach and former player. Kevin is the head coach for Overtime Elite, a professional basketball league co-founded by Dan Porter and Zack Weiner for top players between 16 and ...

, a former Husky, who replaced

Jim Calhoun James A. Calhoun (born May 10, 1942) is a longtime college basketball coach. He is best known for his tenure as head coach of the University of Connecticut (UConn) men's basketball team. His teams won three NCAA national championships ( 1999, ...

, who retired in September 2012 after 26 seasons as head coach.

Previous season

The Huskies finished the 2011–12 season 20-14 overall, including 8–10 in Big East play. The Huskies, reigning champions of the

2011 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament The 2011 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament was a single-elimination tournament involving 68 teams to determine the national champion of the 2010–11 NCAA Division I men's basketball season. The 73rd edition of the NCAA tournament bega ...

were eliminated in the first round of the 2012 tournament by a number-8-seeded

Iowa State Iowa State University of Science and Technology (Iowa State University, Iowa State, or ISU) is a public land-grant research university in Ames, Iowa. Founded in 1858 as the Iowa Agricultural College and Model Farm, Iowa State became one of the n ...

Preseason developments

After the 2011–12 season, the Huskies were barred from postseason play for 2012–13 due to several years of poor

Academic Progress Rate The Academic Progress Rate (APR) is a measure introduced by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the nonprofit association that organizes the athletic programs of many colleges and universities in the United States and Canada, to tr ...

(APR) scores. They had already lost two scholarships for the 2011–12 season due to APR sanctions. As a result of the postseason ban, rising senior forward

Alex Oriakhi Alex Oriakhi Jr. (pronounced "Or-e-ah-ki"; born June 21, 1990) is an American professional basketball player for Depiro Rabat Imtarfa of the Maltese Division One Basketball league. He was the starting center for the Connecticut Huskies' 2010–1 ...

announced he would transfer to

Missouri Missouri is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee ...

for his final season of eligibility. Under NCAA rules, he can play immediately at Missouri because Connecticut's postseason ban covers his entire remaining eligibility. Two other players transferred. Redshirt freshman Michael Bradley initially planned to transfer to

Western Kentucky Western Kentucky is the western portion of the U.S. state of Kentucky. It generally includes part or all of several more widely recognized regions of the state. ;Always included * The Jackson Purchase, the state's westernmost generally recogniz ...

, but was denied immediate eligibility by the NCAA, and chose instead to transfer to

Vincennes Vincennes (, ) is a commune in the Val-de-Marne department in the eastern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the centre of Paris. It is next to but does not include the Château de Vincennes and Bois de Vincennes, which are attached ...

, an Indiana junior college. Rising junior Roscoe Smith was released from his scholarship and ultimately transferred to

UNLV The University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) is a public land-grant research university in Paradise, Nevada. The campus is about east of the Las Vegas Strip. It was formerly part of the University of Nevada from 1957 to 1969. It includes the S ...

Departures

Roster

Regular season

The Huskies traveled to St. Thomas for the

Paradise Jam tournament The U.S. Virgin Islands Paradise Jam is a NCAA college basketball tournament that takes place annually in late November. The men's tournament typically takes place the week before Thanksgiving (United States), Thanksgiving, with the women's tourna ...

in mid-November. UConn faced Wake Forest in the first round and won 77–71. The second game matched the Huskies against in-state Quinnipiac, coached by Tom Moore, who spent 13 years as a member of the UConn coaching staff. UConn found itself in a ten-point deficit with under five minutes to go, and managed to tie the score by the end of regulation. The game went to two overtimes before UConn prevailed 89–83. In the Championship game, UConn came from nine points down to take a brief two-point lead with just over two minutes to go, but gave up nine straight points, and ended up with the loss 66–60. The Lobos hit all 21 of their free throw attempts in the game, leaving UConn in the runner-up position.

Schedule

, - !colspan=9, Exhibition , - !colspan=9, Regular Season

Rankings

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:2012-13 Connecticut Huskies men's basketball team UConn Huskies men's basketball seasons

Connecticut Connecticut () is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. Its cap ...

Connecticut Huskies men's basketball team Connecticut Huskies men's basketball team