UConn limped into a nine-day exam break, dealing with injuries and a three-game losing streak.

Little has changed health-wise for the Huskies, who expect to be shorthanded once again when they return to action today at 4 p.m. at the XL Center in Hartford.

Coppin State (1-8), a non-conference foe with an average margin of defeat at almost 22 points per game, might be the cure for UConn's losing skid.

"We have to stop the bleeding," coach Kevin Ollie said. "If it was a YMCA team coming in here, we'd have our attennas up. We're not looking at their record. We have to look within and do the things that we've been working on."

The Huskies (3-3) have yet to play a game with a healthy roster and won't again today.

Starting guard Rodney Purvis is recovering from a high left ankle sprain, which has limited his practice and game time since suffering the injury on Nov. 23. Reserve Omar Calhoun (MCL sprain), who was medically cleared to play last week, is still attempting to overcome a mental roadblock and is unlikely to play today. He's been sidelined since late October.

Both players are game time decisions.

Senior Ryan Boatright's sprained ankle has improved but he got a bad bruise after being kicked in the leg during practice earlier this week. But it would take an army to keep Boatright off the court today.

No one is feeling sorry for the defending national champions. The Huskies have never lost more than three straight in Ollie's three seasons. They last dropped four in a row in 2012, falling to Cincinnati, Tennessee, Notre Dame and Georgetown.

Suffering consecutive last-second defeats to Texas and Yale hasn't altered Ollie's approach. He sees a possible silver lining.

"My focus is the same," Ollie said. "I'm not going to change that. We're a couple of free throws, a couple seconds away from being 5-1 and probably in the top 25. You have to take the good with the bad. This could be good for us. That's how we're spinning it.

"We're not going to take it as something negative. It happened. We didn't want it to happen but how can we respond positively to it. We can work on in-game situations like we've been doing."

It came down to executing down the stretch in both painful defeats.

UConn bogged offensively in the halfcourt in the final minutes, too often settling for bad shots near the end of the shot clock, and missed an opportunity to close out both games from the foul line. Miscommunication on defense led to Texas and Yale shooters getting open for game-winning 3-pointers from the exact same spot.

Shabazz Napier is no longer around to bail out the Huskies with big shots.

"We can't grind it out like we did last year," Ollie said. "We're going to be in games like that and we're going to have to make plays. We have to make some shots and at the end of the day we have to guard 3-point shooters at the end of the game."

Today's game is important for another reason. It will be UConn's final tuneup before facing No. 2 Duke on Thursday at the Izod Center in East Rutherford, N.J.

On paper, Coppin State has all the firepower of a BB gun. The Eagles have played a brutal non-conference schedule, opening the season with blowout losses at Oregon, Illinois and Notre Dame. Today will be their eighth road game.

Coppin State's only win came against Goldey-Beacom, a Division II program, by a 103-50 score on Dec. 1.

g.keefe@theday.com

Twitter: @GavinKeefe