No. 4 UConn plays Purdue in Hartford on Tuesday for its final men's basketball exhibition. Nik Khamenia enters it having made five of nine three-point attempts across two preseason games, according to UConn's Sunday preview. Nine shots are too few to project a season's shooting percentage. They are enough to ask what another outside threat could do for the Huskies' frontcourt.
Khamenia has averaged 15.5 points and seven rebounds in UConn's exhibitions against Syracuse and Michigan State. His five threes are part of that production, not a separate promise that every opponent must defend him at the arc. If the shots remain available against Purdue, UConn can test whether its spacing lets its other scorers work with more room. If those looks disappear, it can learn how Khamenia contributes without them.
A useful test with a small sample
UConn beat Syracuse 72-52 and Michigan State 78-70. The Michigan State game already prompted CBR's look at the Spartans' perimeter. The new UConn question is on the other side of the matchup. How much of the Huskies' scoring flexibility comes from a forward who has made more than half his early threes?
Silas Demary Jr. has averaged 14.5 points and six assists in the same two exhibitions, UConn reports. A distributor producing alongside Khamenia gives the team more than one path into a possession. Their combined early numbers do not tell us whether Khamenia's threes were contested, how defenses adjusted, or what Purdue will choose to take away. Those details require a game to be played, and the answer may change once regular-season opponents have a larger sample.
Purdue's schedule confirms the October 27 exhibition in Hartford at 7 p.m. Eastern. UConn's preview says both teams have won their first two exhibitions. That makes this a timely test between programs with games behind them, although the result will still have no effect on regular-season standings.
UConn is fourth in the October 19 AP preseason poll. Its early defense has also held Syracuse and Michigan State to a combined 35.3 percent from the field, according to the school's report. Tuesday can add a sharper offensive clue. Khamenia does not need another five-for-nine stretch to matter. The useful evidence will be whether UConn can turn his shooting threat into sound possessions when a new opponent has prepared for it.
