GAME NOTES: The reigning national champion Connecticut Huskies get their postseason underway on Thursday night when they host the Bulls of South Florida at XL Center for an opening-round American Athletic Conference Tournament matchup.

When the Huskies won the national title four years ago, they famously won five games in five days to win the Big East tourney. They will need to win four in four this time around because an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament is not likely for a team with few signature wins and untimely losses. They missed out on a bye because of a tiebreaker with Memphis after going 10-8 in league play and come in as the No. 6 seed.

The only consolation for the Huskies is they will be playing in front of their home fans and get a tune-up against South Florida, which they upended twice this season by a combined 25 points. The Bulls finished a league-worst 3-15 in C-USA play.

Thursday's winner advances to the quarterfinals to take on third-seeded Cincinnati on Friday night.

UConn, which comes into the tourney on a two-game losing streak, sports a unanimous AAC All-Conference First Team player in Ryan Boatright, and the conference Defensive Player of the Year in Amida Brimah. Boatright has been stellar in his senior campaign, as he leads the conference in scoring at 17.8 ppg, connecting on 43.8 percent of his shots from the field. His 120 assists are the most on the squad this year, and his 43 steals are topped by no one else on the roster. Brimah, who had an AAC-record 101 blocks during the regular season, is putting up 10.0 ppg while grabbing 4.8 rpg. Daniel Hamilton and Rodney Purvis are also scoring in double figures at 10.8 and 10.5 ppg, respectively. Hamilton is second in the league in rebounding at 7.6 rpg.

One of the few highlights during the Bulls' season has been the steady play of Corey Allen Jr., and even that has taken a turn for the worse. Allen was suspended by the NCAA two weeks ago and will not be able to play unless USF makes the conference tourney finals, which seems highly unlikely given the team will be without his 15.4 ppg. The team's second-leading scorer and top rebounder, Chris Perry, has also been sidelined with a heart ailment.

A positive has been the emergence of Troy Holston Jr., who has averaged 18.6 points over his last five games, upping his season figure to 7.8 ppg. Nehemias Morillo is USF's only active double-digit scorer at an even 10.0 ppg. Anthony Collins leads all Bulls with 164 assists, and his 5.3 assists per game is tied atop the league leaderboard.

USF ranks last in the conference in scoring (62.2 ppg), free throw percentage (.615), 3-point field goal defense (.359) and assist-to-turnover ratio (0.8).

South Florida has averaged just 48.5 ppg against UConn this season, and Boatright went off for 28 points against the Bulls the last time they met on Jan. 25. Boatright will not let his dream of returning to the Big Dance end on Thursday.