NEW YORK — After dominating the 2024 NCAA Tournament en route to its sixth national title and second straight, UConn took a slight step back last season.

This season, the Huskies were back to their normal lofty status, staying in the top 10 of the Associated Press poll through the entire regular season and enter the Big East tournament as the sixth-ranked team in the nation.

Still, UConn showed some inconsistencies, and it cost them a chance at getting the top seed in the Big East tournament. The second-seeded Huskies will face Xavier, the 10th seed, on Thursday night in one quarterfinal.

The winner will oppose the winner of the game between Villanova, the third seed, and 11th-seeded Georgetown in the second semifinal on Friday night.

The Huskies (27-4) finished one game behind top seed St. John’s, and turnovers cost them in two of their three conference losses. UConn is making its return to Madison Square Garden after committing 15 turnovers in an 81-72 loss to the Red Storm on Feb. 6.

The loss to St. John’s was among eight instances where the Huskies tallied at least 15 turnovers. The Huskies went 6-2 in those games, but the second loss was Saturday’s 68-62 setback at Marquette.

UConn’s offense could not overcome 16 turnovers, as it shot 35.6% and a season-worst 12.5% (3-of-24) from 3-point range. Both were their lowest number of the season.

“They’ve been a nightmare for this team,” UConn coach Dan Hurley told reporters after practice Tuesday. “It will potentially be this team’s undoing.”

“It’s tough when you get like four turnovers from one guy, three from another, two from this guy, two from him, sprinkle in some ones and now you’ve got 14, 15, 16 turnovers. And we can’t overcome that,” Hurley said. “The players have got to be more disciplined, they can’t just take the ball and turn it over… We should be past that.”

Silas Demary Jr. committed four turnovers at Marquette while leading the team with 17 points and Tarris Reed Jr. added 16 points.

While UConn is hoping to improve its ball handling, the Huskies are hoping to see better showings from Alex Karaban, Solo Ball and Braylon Mullins after the trio shot a combined 6-of-31 from the floor and misfired on 19 of 22 tries from 3-point range.

Ball’s 13.9 points led the Huskies, but the guard shot 34.1% (15-of-44) over his past five games since scoring 20 against Georgetown on Feb. 14. He shot 40.5% on the regular season.

Karaban’s two-point showing at Marquette followed a 23-point outing in a win against Seton Hall, and Mullins was 7-of-27 shooting from behind the arc in his final four games after hitting six 3s and scoring 25 in a 91-84 loss to Creighton on Feb. 18.

UConn won the two meetings with Xavier by a combined 55 points. The Huskies shot 53.2% and hit 13 3-pointers in a 90-67 win at Xavier on Dec. 31 and 56.7% in a 92-60 rout at home on Feb. 3.

The Musketeers (15-17) will get a third chance at the Huskies after opening the tournament on Wednesday with an 89-87 win over Marquette.

Xavier is 3-6 since the February meeting with the Huskies with three of the losses coming by five points or fewer. Against Marquette, the Musketeers shot 63.3% in the second half and 51.6% overall.

On Wednesday, Jovan Milicevic scored 21 points including the tie-breaking basket with 1:14 left. Tre Carroll added 14 of his 18 in the second half.

“I think we’ve gotten better, I really do,” Xavier coach Richard Pitino said of his team, adding about UConn: “We understand they run a very unique offense. They shoot the basketball extremely well. They’re very, very physical.

–Larry Fleisher, Field Level Media

No. 5 Houston made a quick Big 12 impact last season, winning the conference tournament in its second year in the league.

Now, the second seed begins its run at a repeat Thursday against 10th-seeded BYU in a battle of the Cougars in the Big 12 tournament quarterfinals in Kansas City, Mo.

The victor will face the winner of the quarterfinal between third-seeded Kansas and TCU, the sixth seed, in the second semifinal Friday night.

Houston (26-5) appears to have gotten some of its mojo back entering the postseason. After a three-game losing streak against top-15 opponents, Houston won its final three games to close out the regular season.

That included a closer-than-expected 82-75 win at Oklahoma State on Saturday. Houston led the Cowboys, who finished 14th in the Big 12, 74-73 with 1:50 left before finishing on an 8-2 run.

BYU (23-10) faded down the stretch of the regular season, falling out of the Associated Press Top 25 poll for the first time this season in early March as it lost four of five games before upsetting No. 10 Texas Tech 82-76 in its regular-season finale on Saturday.

That seems to have carried over into this week, where BYU handily won its first two tournament games, beating seventh-seeded West Virginia 68-48 on Wednesday night after an opening-round defeat of Kansas State.

Chase McCarty delivered a dagger three down the stretch in Houston’s win over Oklahoma State, capping off a breakout performance in which he racked up a career-high 20 points on 7-of-10 shooting, including 6-of-9 from long distance.

McCarty had not scored more than 10 points in any prior Big 12 game and had scored a combined 21 points in the prior five games. He averages 3.9 points per game.

“Like most freshmen, he was just OK early. He hadn’t found a niche, hadn’t found his role,” Houston coach Kelvin Sampson said. “But what’s typical with our kids is they just hang in there. If you keep showing up every day with the right attitude, giving the right effort, you’ll usually get better. Chase has probably been our most improved player at both ends.”

McCarty’s emergence would be significant for the Cougars entering the postseason. They rely on Kingston Flemings (16.5 points per game), Emanuel Sharp (15.8) and Milos Uzan (11.5) for 56.3% of their 77.6 points per game.

BYU took an efficiency hit after losing Richie Saunders (18.0 points, 5.8 rebounds, 1.7 steals per game) to a torn right ACL on Feb. 14. But after losing four of the first five games after his injury, BYU has won its past three.

Big 12 Freshman of the Year AJ Dybantsa has played a large role in that. The projected top-three pick in the upcoming NBA draft is averaging 33.5 points, 8.0 rebounds, 4.5 assists and 2.5 steals in two Big 12 tournament games. He leads the nation in scoring at 25.2 points per game.

But the team defense also rose to the occasion against West Virginia. After Kansas State shot 50.8% from the floor and made 13 of 23 3-pointers (56.5%), BYU held the Mountaineers to 48 points — the fewest points an opponent has scored this season — on 38.1% shooting with 22 turnovers.

“We’ve just challenged our guys to do things stronger, longer, harder, faster, more,” BYU coach Kevin Young said. “That’s really it. That’s what we saw tonight.”

Houston won the regular-season matchup between these teams, coming away with a 77-66 road win on Feb. 7.

–Field Level Media

Having been trampled by Bam Adebayo and the Miami Heat, the Washington Wizards now will turn their attention to another high-scoring offensive force, Paolo Banchero, when they visit the Orlando Magic on Thursday night.

The game pairs an Orlando team that’s used five straight wins to move into fifth place in the Eastern Conference standings against a Washington club that’s dropped nine in a row to remain in contention for the worst record in the league.

The Wizards added to their misery Tuesday night when they earned national headlines for allowing Adebayo to record the second-most points ever in an NBA game. Washington sent the Miami big man to the free throw line 43 times en route to watching him score 83 points in the 150-29 home win by the Heat.

An overabundance of fouls often has been a problem with the Wizards this season. They rank third in the NBA in foul shots allowed, giving up an average of 26.9 per game, narrowly trailing the Detroit Pistons and Utah Jazz.

But for one night anyway, Wizards coach Brian Keefe didn’t think his team’s defense necessarily deserved the preponderance of whistles.

“There’s a lot of fouls called — 16 free throws (for Adebayo) in the fourth quarter,” he noted at his postgame press conference. “We tried to take the ball out of his hands. He got some free throws 40 feet from the rim. I can’t explain some of those calls.”

The Wizards gave Trae Young the night off in Miami after his return from a lengthy absence with 19- and 18-minute stints in losses to Utah and New Orleans, respectively. His first two games for Washington resulted in a total of 29 points and 14 assists in those 37 minutes.

Young had not played since Dec. 27 due to knee and quad injuries. He is expected to play against the Magic.

This won’t be the first time the Magic have seen Young the season. Playing then for the Atlanta Hawks, the four-time All-Star had 25 points in a 111-107 win at Orlando in October.

The Magic have won two of three games against the Wizards this season. The clubs met March 3 in Orlando, with the Magic using 32 free throw points in 37 attempts as the foundation for a 126-109 win.

Banchero had 37 points in the win. It was his first of two 30-point games this month. He scored 33 points on Sunday in a 130-91 win over the Milwaukee Bucks.

Desmond Bane has shared in the offensive highlights during Orlando’s winning streak, topping 25 points three times, including a game-high 35 against the Cleveland Cavaliers in a 128-122 win on Wednesday night.

Magic coach Jamahl Mosley said his team had a secret weapon Wednesday night — the Kia Center home crowd.

“There’s going to be different ways to win games and we keep finding those ways,” Mosley told the media postgame. “Games are going to look different. But it’s taking it one game at a time.

“The goal (Wednesday) was take care of this game, take care of home. Our fans were absolutely fantastic. It’s people on their feet, cheering with the defense, getting our guys going. The energy of this building is just incredible. That’s a big piece of what this game means to us.”

– Field Level Media