Throughout its 12 seasons as the home of Massachusetts men’s basketball, the William D. Mullins Memorial Center has hosted a number of the nations top basketball programs.

From an epic contest with Tim Duncan’s ’95-96 Wake Forest squad, to a match up with a Roy Williams-led Kansas team in 1998 to battles with the likes of Florida State, Pittsburgh, Boston College and conference rival Temple, the Mullins Center has been an integral part of the history, tradition and success of the once-proud UMass program.

Yet tonight, before a national television audience and what is expected to be a rabid, season-best crowd, the Maroon and White will take to the Mullins Center hardwood to face an opponent the likes of which the 9,493-seat arena has never seen, as eternal rival Connecticut will become the first time reigning National Champions to ever play in Amherst.

Tonight’s game will mark the 107th meeting between the Minutemen and the Huskies, with UConn leading the all-time series 68-38. Tip-off is slated for 9 p.m., with the game being broadcast on ESPN2. Dave Revsine will call the game, with Len Elmore handling color commentary

“This is always a big game for us, and a game we’re going to need to work hard to prepare for,” fourth-year UMass coach Steve Lappas said. “It’s an opportunity for us. It’s a chance to go out there and compete against one of the best programs in America, and see how we measure up, but we have to be prepared.”

While the Huskies have dominated the all-time series with UMass of late, the numbers are somewhat skewed due to the fact that UConn coach Jim Calhoun did not schedule the Minutemen during their highly successful seasons under coach John Calipari in the early-to-mid nineties.

Despite having won the last 13 meetings between the two schools and 21 of the last 22, Connecticut has only played in the Mullins Center twice, having earned wins in 1998 and 2000, while UMass’ last win in the series came in overtime at the Curry Hicks Cage in December of 1983.

Therefore, Lappas realizes the urgency from within the UMass basketball community to finally get the best of the Huskies.

“This is a series that will always continue as long as I’m here, but we need to win one of these games for it to be a good series for us,” Lappas said. “I have a great relationship with [Jim Calhoun] and I have a lot of respect for him from my time in the Big East…[and] we’ll always play each other, but the time has come for us to put a solid effort together and do what we need to do to make our mark on the series.”

Currently ranked No. 7 in the nation, finding its way into the win column against this Huskies team will be easier said than done for UMass. A year after watching First Team All-Americans Ben Gordon and Emeka Okafor leave school to become NBA Lottery picks and losing Taliek Brown, the Big East’s all-time winningest point guard, to graduation, Calhoun and the Huskies still have a plethora of talent and size that will pose match up problems for the Minutemen on both ends of the court.

With five players in its rotation 6-foot-9 or taller, UConn is a relentless rebounding team that clearly possesses a significant size advantage over UMass. Led by sophomore forward Josh Boone, a part-time starter as a freshman last season who averages 15.8 points and 11 rebounds per game this season, and classmate Charlie Villanueva, a former top recruit who has chipped in averaging 9.5 points and five rebounds per game, the Huskies have averaged an astounding 60-plus rebounds per contest, and have outrebounded their opponents by an average of 40 rebounds per game.

“I’ve never seen a team with rebounding numbers like that,” Lappas said at Wednesday’s Alumni Association sports luncheon. “They are clearly as good a rebounding team as there is in the country, and we definitely have our work cut out for us.”

Another big contributor up front for the Huskies has been freshman Rudy Gay, a 6-foot-9 former McDonald’s All-American who was at the top of the 2004 recruiting class and chose UConn over a number of prominent programs across the nation. Averaging 9.5 points and seven rebounds in an average of 23 minutes per game, Gay has already shown superior athletic ability and an impressive knack for getting to the rim.

“He’s the real deal,” Lappas said of Gay. “He can run, shoot, rebound and jump through the roof, he’s going to be a very good player if he stays.”

While Connecticut’s overwhelming size up front has been a driving force towards its success in the early going, Calhoun’s offense is complimented well by solid perimeter shooting and consistent guard play that make the Huskies a near-impossible match up.

Along with sophomore Marcus Williams, who has taken over for Brown at point guard, Rashad Anderson has emerged as UConn’s leading scorer this season at 16 points per game despite shooting an uncharacteristic 29 percent from beyond the arc.

Joining Anderson in giving Calhoun an arsenal of premier shooters is unheralded forward Denham Brown, who has connected on 54 percent of his 3-point attempts, and is second on the team in scoring at 12.5 points per game.

“They both have the green light to shoot from anywhere on the floor,” Lappas said. “Good shots, bad shots, open shots, shots with a hand in their face, they can shoot it whenever they want, and they’re great shooters. We need to make sure we get out and cover them if we want to contain them offensively.”