Preview: UConn Men's Basketball vs. SMU, 8 p.m., XL Center

The only thing left for SMU to play for this season is pride, but the Mustangs seem to do their best work, regardless of the situation, when they play against UConn.

Head coach Larry Brown has schooled his former NBA pupil, Kevin Ollie, holding a 4-1 record against him in the past two seasons, which includes a victory in last season’s American Athletic Conference championship on one of the Huskies’ home floors, the XL Center in Hartford.

The close friends and their programs will reunite Thursday night at XL as the Huskies (18-7, 8-4 AAC) hope to reverse that trend when they host (8 p.m.ESPN2) No. 21 SMU (21-3, 9-3). The Mustangs, who are ineligible for any postseason play due to NCAA sanctions, are a half-game behind first-place Temple while UConn is fourth in the standings.

“Every time we play SMU it’s a great game, a great team and a great coach,” UConn senior Omar Calhoun said. “Coach Ollie and coach Brown go way back, so that’s going to be a great environment and it should be fun.”

The first game as conference opponents was a giant one for the Mustangs, who won 74-65 on Jan. 3, 2014 in the debut of their $47-million remolded Moody Coliseum.

“We had a tremendous advantage I think because we opened up a new building and that was probably the biggest game this program had played in a number of years,” Brown said in a conference call this week. “I think that really impacted the game, but (since) we’ve played our best basketball against them. So many times match ups mean a lot and you never know, but to be honest, I look back at the games we’ve played and we’ve played pretty darn well.”

The Mustangs opened the season 18-0 and climbed to No. 8 in the Associated Press poll before suffering their first loss, which came in an 89-80 setback on Jan. 24 at Temple. SMU is 3-3 in its last six games and come in off a 69-60 win over Gonzaga, a team that beat UConn earlier this season in the Battle 4 Atlantis.

“We are going to get ready for SMU and we’re going to play hard,” Ollie said, following Saturday’s 75-73 win over Tulsa. SMU is not the same team it was at the start of the year, though. Brown missed the first nine games due to the NCAA violations, which meant associate head coach Tim Jankovich led the Mustangs to nine wins.

But, the biggest changes have come on the floor with freshman point guard Sederick Barefield and junior forward Keith Frazier leaving the program five and 10 games, respectively, into the season.

“Now you are down to seven players playing against the better teams,” Brown said. “And it wouldn’t be realistic to think you were as good as you were earlier in the year. But by and large, I think our kids are playing hard.”

The Mustangs still have senior point guard Nic Moore, who makes the team go and leads them at 16.7 points and 5.2 assists per game. They also have senior forward Markus Kennedy, who has been slowed by an ankle injury this season, but averaged 15.3 points in three games against UConn last season.

SMU has owned the Huskies the past two seasons, including a victory in the championship game of the AAC Tournament last March at the XL Center. The Huskies, who are 1-5 lifetime in the series, picked up their only win last season with an 81-73 victory – Rodney Purvis scored a career-high 28 point to help knock the Mustangs out of first place.

Despite his track record against the Huskies, Brown is not expecting an easy time in Hartford.

“I’m a big (Daniel) Hamilton fan,” Brown said. “I think he’s one of the most underrated kids in the country. … And the transfer from Cornell (Shonn) Miller, I watch him every time and I just can’t believe he went to an Ivy League school and not one of the high major schools from day one.

“I like their guards. (Jalen) Adams, I think he’s going to be great and Purvis played his best game ever against us in Hartford. (Sterling) Gibbs can really play and now they are getting (Amida Brimah) back, so they have depth and size.

“I believe they are a team that’s only going to get better and better.”

NOTES: SMU leads The American in scoring (79.4), field goal percentage (50.1, 5th NCAA) and 3-point percentage (42.3, 3rd NCAA). … SMU has five of the top 11 in the AAC in field goal percentage: Sterling Brown(.609, 1st), Jordan Tolbert (.554, 5th), Ben Moore (.552, 6th), Kennedy (.533, 7th) and Shake Milton (.479, 11th). … Through 25 games this season, UConn has held 19 opposing teams to under 40.0 percent in field goal percentage, including 11 of its last 12 games. ... Brimah is averaging 3.8 points and 2.0 rebounds with six blocks in five games since returning from a broken finger. ... Hamilton is averaging 12.3 points and 6.0 assists in the last four games.