NCAA analyst reveals the Huskies' X-factor ahead of crucial season

After seeing their three-peat dreams ruined by the Florida Gators in the Sweet 16 of the 2025 NCAA tournament, the UConn Huskies men’s basketball team is eager to bounce back and challenge for the national championship again. 

With the defending champions Gators, the renewed Duke Blue Devils, the dangerous Kansas Jayhawks and more, Dan Hurley’s team won’t have the easiest path to another championship. 

They have Alex Karaban returning for another season after withdrawing from the NBA draft, which is major for the team’s championship quest. UConn’s project has been built brick by brick, and that factor can make them favorites entering the 2025-26 season. 

NCAA analyst names X-factor for UConn 

College basketball analyst Rob Dawson broke down how Dan Hurley can take the Huskies back to the Final Four this upcoming season:

Head coach Dan Hurley of the Connecticut Huskies.

“The X factor for me for this group is on the defensive end of the floor,” Dawson said, via “The Field of 68.” “They got much better at the end of last season than they were at the start of last season. … I think that they will improve not having Sampson Johnson out there, he was a liability on the glass and was not the best on-ball defender we’ve ever seen.

“Allowing Tarris Reed to play more minutes will help them on that end of the floor. That’s my big question: what will this team be defensively? Because I think if you are a top 50-ish defense on KenPom, you can make the Final Four. If they’re a top-20 defense on KenPom, that’s a very different conversation that we’re having.”

UConn enters the new season eager to reclaim its spot among the best teams in college basketball.