Hartford — UConn treats the basketball court like a classroom.

Every practice and every game is an opportunity for the Huskies to further their basketball education.

The Huskies learned a great deal from last week's successful two-game road trip during which they overcame adversity — some self-inflicted — to score a pair of valuable victories.

At Texas (71-66) last Tuesday and at Tulane (75-67) on Saturday in their American Athletic Conference opener, UConn displayed poise under pressure, hitting big shots, clutch free throws and making key defensive stops down the stretch.

"We showed some toughness," said junior Rodney Purvis, who was named AAC Player of the Week on Monday. "Honestly, last year I feel those two games would have been kinda of shaky for us. This year, to show that composure and poise at end of games is huge for us. ... For us to be able to pull out two road wins is great."

The Huskies returned home with a 10-3 overall record and vaulted back into the Associated Press Top 25 poll on Monday, landing at No. 23. They're riding a five-game winning streak, something that they never accomplished last season. They last won six straight during their 2014 NCAA championship run.

They head back into the classroom Tuesday, hosting Temple (6-6, 1-1) in an AAC game at the XL Center (8 p.m., CBS Sports Network). It is the first of two home games this week, with Memphis visiting Storrs on Saturday.

"It's a long season, a lot of things can happen," UConn coach Kevin Ollie said after Monday's practice. "Only thing we want to do is be great learners. I think the best performers are the greatest learners. I think we're learning from situations that we've been in.

"... That's the main thing I try to focus on. It's not going to happen overnight, I know that. As long as we just keep learning. We learned today in practice. We're about to learn a little bit more in the film session. That's what I want guys to continue to do."

Temple pinned a pair of damaging losses on UConn last season while sweeping the regular-season series. The Owls came into the XL Center and escaped with a 57-53 overtime win on Dec. 31, 2014. They won at home, 75-63, last March 7.

Sophomore Daniel Hamilton had his own bad memories of those meetings.

In the first loss, Hamilton misfired on all three free throws with 2.5 seconds left in overtime with UConn trailing by two. He had six of UConn's 16 turnovers but also had 10 points, 12 rebounds and five assists. He went 1-for-12 from the field in the road defeat.

Hamilton enters Tuesday's game eager to prove that he's a better player now and the Huskies are a better team.

"It's something that I really learned from and something that I got better from," Hamilton said. "It definitely makes me want to play better the next time I see them because there's just a competitive side of me, especially with them beating us two times.

"I want to come out and get a win, so this is a real huge game for us."

Temple's record is a bit deceptive because of its competitive schedule. Three of its losses came against Top 25 teams North Carolina, Butler and Utah.

The guard-oriented Owls do two things very well — make free throws (they lead the AAC at 74.6 percent) and take care of the basketball (they rank second in the country in fewest turnovers per game at 8.8).

There will be no shortage of motivation for Temple coming off a 27-point home loss to Houston on Saturday. It came on the heels of a seven-point win at then nationally-ranked Cincinnati.

"They're coming in a little wounded and those are the wrong teams to play," Ollie said. "I've got so much admiration for (coach) Fran (Dunphy) and the job that he's doing and getting his guys ready to play. ... For those guys to go win at Cincinnati, that's a good team.

"... Fran is going to have them really prepared. It's going to be a big-time challenge for us to beat Temple. They beat us last year two times. We want to go out there and keep establishing who we are in conference."

g.keefe@theday.com

Twitter: @GavinKeefe