The UConn men are heading into the Big East tournament with something to prove.

The Huskies fell two spots to No. 6 in the Associated Press Top 25 poll, released Monday, following their regular-season-ending 68-62 loss to Marquette on Saturday.

UConn (27-4) was overtaken by No. 4 Florida (25-6) and No. 5 Houston (26-5) in the latest poll.

Duke is No. 1, followed by Arizona and Michigan. All three teams have 29-2 records.

A Big East tournament championship wouldn’t guarantee the Huskies a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament when the brackets are released Sunday. Florida and Houston likely would need to make early exits in the Southeastern and Big 12 conference tournaments, respectively, to give UConn a shot to overtake them in the eyes of the selection committee.

UConn opens its tournament play in the quarterfinals on Thursday and will match up against the winner of the first-round game between No. 7 Marquette and No. 10 Xavier.

Huskies coach Dan Hurley has gone on record saying that he doesn’t worry about chasing a No. 1 seed. And he’s right. Looking at the six national titles in UConn program history, only two have come as a top seed.

Here’s a review:

2023-24 season
Coach: Dan Hurley
Conference: Big East
Record: 37-3 (18-2)
Conference finish: First
Conference tournament finish: Champion
NCAA Tournament seed: No. 1
NCAA Tournament region: East
National championship game: Defeated No. 1 Purdue 75-60 

2022-23 season
Coach: Dan Hurley
Conference: Big East
Record: 31-8 (13-7)
Conference finish: Fourth
Conference tournament finish: Lost semifinal
NCAA Tournament seed: No. 4
NCAA Tournament region: West
National championship game: Defeated No. 5 San Diego State 76-59 

2013-14 season
Coach: Kevin Ollie
Conference: American Athletic
Record: 32-8 (12-6)
Conference finish: Third
Conference tournament finish: Lost final
NCAA Tournament seed: No. 7
NCAA Tournament region: East
National championship game: Defeated No. 8 Kentucky 60-54 

2010-11 season
Coach: Jim Calhoun
Conference: Big East
Record: 32-9 (9-9)
Conference finish: Ninth
Conference tournament finish: Champion
NCAA Tournament seed: No. 3
NCAA Tournament region: West
National championship game: Defeated No. 8 Butler 53-41 

2003-04 season
Coach: Jim Calhoun
Conference: Big East
Record: 33-6 (12-4)
Conference finish: Second
Conference tournament finish: Champion
NCAA Tournament seed: No. 2
NCAA Tournament region: West
National championship game: Defeated No. 3 Georgia Tech 82-73 

1998-99 season
Coach: Jim Calhoun
Conference: Big East
Record: 34-2 (16-2)
Conference finish: First
Conference tournament finish: Champion
NCAA Tournament seed: No. 1
NCAA Tournament region: West
National championship game: Defeated No. 1 Duke 77-74 

As for the UConn women, they remained a wire-to-wire No. 1, although not unanimously this week.

UCLA grabbed three of the 31 first-place votes, the first time a team has broken UConn’s firm grip since Jan. 5 when Texas garnered four votes.

UConn is a perfect 33-0 and will meet Villanova (25-6) Monday night in the championship game of the Big East tournament. They defeated Creighton in the semifinals.

UCLA is 31-1 and walloped No. 7 Iowa in the Big Ten title game on Sunday. The Bruins’ only loss of the season came Nov. 26, 76-65 at the hands of Texas, ranked No. 3 this week.

South Carolina, which lost to Texas in the SEC tournament title game, is No. 4. 

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