UNCASVILLE, Conn. -- Call me old school, but I like a good battle between underclassmen at the Power Four conference level. It's rare, and that's why I like it.

That's what we could have had on Tuesday night in the UConn Huskies vs. Syracuse Orange exhibition matchup at Mohegan Sun Arena, but we won't get it.

While sophomore Kiyan Anthony will suit up for the Orange, sophomore Braylon Mullins won't play for the Huskies because of an undisclosed injury. Head coach Dan Hurley announced on Monday that he wouldn't play, and Mullins was not in uniform for pregame warm-ups on Tuesday.

I want to make this clear, I don't think the world sees Anthony and Mullins as rivals, but the matchup is still something I wanted to see.

Because it's just not something we see that much anymore.

1) First and foremost, these Power Four conference teams tend to be loaded with upperclassmen. Underclassmen often have a hard time finding minutes. Why? Because they let players cut their teeth at smaller programs/not as successful programs before getting them as upperclassmen via the transfer portal.

That's not always the case, but it happens quite a bit. Look at a guy like Silas Demary Jr., who played two years at Georgia before coming to Storrs as a junior.

2) Secondly, both Anthony and Mullins were highly-rated recruits as freshmen. While not always the case, if those players saw significant minutes as freshmen, they often head to the NBA after one year, meaning we don't get a chance to see what they would have been subsequently in college.

Ironically, both Anthony and Mullins returned to school for their sophomore years, meaning we would have had a really cool opportunity to see how they developed over the summer, and we could have seen then matchup against each other.

The reason why I specifically wanted to see Anthony play Mullins is that both players generally had the same thing they needed to work on for this season: Physical strength.

Anthony is long and lanky, and as a freshman, he had a hard time keeping up with the physicality of the college game. It showed up as a problem on the offensive side of things, as he got pushed off his spot, and it showed up in his ability to defend as well.

Mullins acclimated to the game easier, but he also had more overall help than Anthony with Demary, Solo Ball, Tarris Reed Jr. and Alex Karaban around him. Getting stronger will help him be able to take over games himself this season, and I wanted to see the pair battle with each other to see who's physicality has evolved more.

This is an exhibition game in October. It doesn't matter all that much. We're lucky to have high-level basketball in the preseason, but we could have had this matchup too, which would have made it even more fun.