Storrs — Tristen Newton spent much of last season flying under the radar while helping UConn capture the program’s fifth national championship.

It’s hard to miss what he’s doing this season.

His terrific all-around play is drawing the national spotlight.

He’s in the running for two prestigious honors.

Announced earlier this week, Newton landed on the Wooden Award Late Season Top 20 list and also made the cut for the top 10 candidates for the Bob Cousy Award, which recognizes the nation’s top point guard.

Newton leads the No. 1 ranked team in scoring (15.8), rebounding (6.4) and assists (5.8) per game.

“He earned it,” coach Dan Hurley said of the recognition. “Tristen has been one of the best guards in the country on the No. 1 team in the country and also on the defending national champions, so he deserves to be up for any award.”

Newton also is making a strong case for Big East Player of the Year. He’s ranked in the top 15 in scoring (12th), rebounding (15th), assists (2nd), steals (12th), made 3-pointers (14th) and assist-to-turnover ratio (6th) overall in the league.

He’s on a tear, averaging 24.5 points, 5.0 rebounds and 3.5 assists in the two games prior to UConn hosting Providence on Wednesday at Gampel Pavilion.

Newton is one of three Big East players on the Wooden list, joining Marquette’s Tyler Kolek and Creighton’s Baylor Scheierman.

Other players include: North Carolina’s Armando Bacot and RJ Davis, Houston’s L.J. Cryer, Kentucky’s Antonio Reeves, Colorado’s KJ Simpson, Duke’s Kyle Filipowski, Auburn’s Johni Broome, Purdue’s Zach Edey, Clemson’s PJ Hall, Dayton’s DaRon Holmes II, Tennessee’s Dalton Knecht, San Diego State’s Jaedon LeDee, Arizona’s Caleb Love, Florida Atlantic’s Johnell Davis, and the Kansas duo of Hunter Dickinson and Kevin McCullar, Jr.

Newton’s competition for the Cousy Award is Kolek, Colorado State’s Isaiah Stevens, Houston’s Jamal Shead, Texas A&M’s Wade Taylor IV, Northwestern’s Boo Buie, Max Abmas of Texas, Jahvon Quinerly of Memphis and Dajuan Harris Jr. of Kansas.

Newton is the only active player to surpass 1,700 points, 600 assists and 600 rebounds in his career.

Brown wears red, bleeds blue

Next up for UConn is a trip to a sold-out Madison Square Garden in New York on Saturday for a Big East game against St. John’s.

Former Husky point guard Taliek Brown is an assistant coach on Rick Pitino’s staff. While he wears St. John’s red now, he’ll always bleed blue.

With the arrival of Pitino, the rivalry between the two teams is heating up after being dormant for a long time.

“It puts me in a very funny position,” said Brown, who attended the UConn-Xavier game in Hartford to be honored with the 2004 national championship team. “But it’s all great. It’s all competition. That’s what we’re here for, that’s what it’s built off, competing.

“So it’s great to get us to the next level and get them to the next level and just make a Big East rivalry.”

Brown served as director of player development from 2019-22 at UConn before leaving for St. John’s.

A home loss to Providence back during UConn’s 2003-04 national championship season helped lead Brown down the coaching path.

“Coach (Jim Calhoun) was all upset with us,” Brown recalled about the loss. “I came in and gave the guys a speech. They talk about it to this day. That was my coaching moment. I knew I wanted to be a coach that day.”

Holding down the top spot

UConn embraces life as the No. 1 basketball program in the country.

But it’s not a big deal to the Huskies.

“We don’t really think about it,” Hurley said. “We’re just about the work. We turn the page very quickly. … We’re just intense people. We’re chasing some goals. We’re trying to go undefeated at home and trying to win the regular season (title), trying to do some things that haven’t been done here since 05-06.”

Entering Wednesday’s game, the Huskies were 3-0 since rising to the top of the Associated Press Top 25 poll and 44-9 in program history in that spot.

They realize they have a big target on their backs and have to maintain their high standards.

“We just always know the other team is going to give us their best shot,” redshirt sophomore Alex Karaban said. “We know that everyone is going to be super excited to play UConn. We’ve got to respond and play to the UConn standard.”

News and notes

At 11-0, UConn took an undefeated home record into Wednesday’s action. The Huskies were the only Big East team yet to lose at their home arena. They haven’t gone an entire season unbeaten at home since the 2005-06 season that ended with the program’s last Big East regular-season title. They have four regular season home games remaining, Butler and Marquette in Hartford and Villanova and Seton Hall in Storrs. … Thanks to an improved defense, UConn allowed just 56.3 points and opponents to shoot 37.6% in the previous three games. … A Big East Player of the Year candidate, Providence’s Devin Carter averaged 23.7 points, 7.8 rebounds, 3.5 assists and 2.5 steals in the last six games. … The two teams meet again in a regular-season finale on March 9 in Providence.

g.keefe@theday.com