Dan Hurley began his postgame press conference last Tuesday by placing a printout of the score on the table in front of him and looking at it with disdain.
For the next 10 minutes, UConn men’s basketball coach he acted like he couldn’t think of anything positive to say about a performance he deemed “comically bad.”
Bounce back? “So far below our standards,” moaned Hurley.
Ball security? “We haven’t been this bad in a long time,” Hurley yelled.
Defense? “The number of times we’ve been led!” » Hurley lamented.
“Nobody played well tonight,” Hurley insisted. “You can have bad shooting nights, but you can’t play like that. This is not acceptable.
If viewers didn’t know any better, they surely would have assumed UConn lost to East Texas A&M. In reality, the Huskies won by 35. They opened a double-digit lead in the first nine minutes of the game, increased it to 22 by halftime and cruised to an 81-46 rout.
Hurley’s scathing assessment of his team’s performance wasn’t simply a product of UConn’s 19 turnovers against East Texas A&M’s turnover defense or the 17 offensive rebounds the Huskies gave up. The infamous hard-to-please coach clearly wanted to refocus the undefeated Huskies just before their schedule got a lot tougher.
The next three weeks will serve as a litmus test of whether two-time defending national champion UConn is capable of completing a historic three-peat, a feat no men’s college basketball program has achieved since John Wooden’s UCLA dynasty. The second-place Huskies (4-0) will likely play six games during this stretch against teams receiving votes in the current AP Top 25.
It starts Monday when UConn opens the Maui Invitational against an undefeated Memphis team that has already toppled teams like Missouri and UNLV. Then there’s either undefeated Colorado or a Michigan State team that recently pushed No. 1 Kansas deep in the second half. Looming on the other side of Maui’s rankings are Auburn, North Carolina and Iowa State, all top 10 teams in the AP poll and many computer measures.
The challenge continues after a one-game reprieve against Maryland Eastern Shore. On December 4, Baylor, 13th, arrived in Storrs. Four days later, UConn traveled to Texas. Then on December 14, in their final game before the Big East matchup, the Huskies travel to New York for a showdown against third-place Gonzaga at Madison Square Garden.
This stretch will expose where UConn stands in the early-season pecking order. Has Hurley assembled another title contender despite retaining just one starter from last season’s 37-win juggernaut? Or has the loss of NBA lottery picks Donovan Clingan and Stephon Castle and fellow draft picks Tristen Newton and Cam Spencer left too many holes for Hurley to fill?
Last season versus this season
The way Sacred Heart coach Anthony Latina sees it, comparing this year’s UConn team to last, is “probably not fair.” This team completed the best two-year run in modern men’s college basketball history by sweeping the Big East regular season and conference tournament titles with surprising ease and destroying six straight tournament opponents. the NCAA by at least 14 points each.
“It was probably one of the best teams in the last 20 years and maybe in the history of college basketball,” Latina told reporters after UConn beat his team 92-56 earlier this month.
This year’s Huskies aren’t as sublimely talented, according to Latina, but they’re still “an elite team” and “will be there.”
“Are they going to win every NCAA tournament game by double digits? » said Latina. “I think it’s too much to ask, but they’re a legitimate top-five team, a legitimate Final Four contender, no doubt.”
Le Moyne assistant coach Ben Swank also came away impressed after UConn demolished the Dolphins 90-49 earlier this month. When his teams face a big-time program, Swank is accustomed to marveling at the size, strength and athleticism of opposing players. UConn had all of that, Swank said, and the Huskies were also highly skilled.
“It really opened my eyes,” Swank told Yahoo Sports. So that’s how you could say, OK, this is a premier program in the country. It’s just not any big major.
The return of Hurley and versatile forward Alex Karaban are the two main reasons why UConn can dare to dream of a three-peat.
Hurley passed up the opportunity to become Kentucky’s next men’s basketball coach and left the Los Angeles Lakers job after a whirlwind courtship. Karaban could have gone off the board as early as the end of the first round and almost certainly would have been the fifth UConn player selected had he stayed in last June’s NBA draft.
In attack, Karaban went from complementary piece to central point without sacrificing any of its effectiveness. The 6-foot-8 junior is scoring a team-high 16.3 points per game by knocking down jumpers, attacking the closeouts and staying active on the offensive glass. If anything, UConn needs Karaban to get more aggressive shooting, as 8.3 field goal attempts per game isn’t enough.
On defense, Karaban is UConn’s vocal leader and most reliable defender on the ball and assist. He’s even blocked 13 shots already this season, a product of his positional size, anticipation, motor skills and knack for sliding his feet to stay in front of his man.
“He’s a very high-level, high-IQ player,” said Swank, who developed his program’s defensive game plan against UConn. “He’s going to find ways to score the ball. You’re trying to protect some screens somehow, and he’s really good at reading it and putting himself in a great position.
For this UConn team to accomplish what the previous two did, Hurley needs his returning players to take on more responsibility and some of his valuable newcomers to make an instant impact. Already, sophomore guard Solomon Ball has validated preseason projections that he would produce a breakout season, freshman Liam McNeeley has lived up to his reputation as a skilled 6-foot-7 shooter and sophomore Jayden Ross showed immense potential.
However, questions remain about fifth place and the leader. Can the combination of transfer Tarris Reed Jr. and career player Samson Johnson be close to replicating the interior scoring and rim protection provided by Clingan last season? And can fifth-year senior Hassan Diarra or Saint Mary’s transfer Aidan Mahaney evolve into a Newton-like playmaker who can initiate offense and make smart decisions with the ball in his hands ?
The lack of a point guard who can consistently get into the paint and make plays for others is generally considered UConn’s most glaring weakness, but Swank argued that sold Diarra and Mahaney short. Diarra, Swank said, is “incredibly strong and composed” and “did a little bit of everything well” against LeMoyne. Mahaney has been coming out of the blocks slowly, Swank admitted, but LeMoyne’s assistant suspects he just needs more time to adjust to his new teammates.
“What Mahaney lacked was a scoring threat going all the way to the rim,” Swank said. “I know he missed one or two easier ones against us. I think that will come once he gets a feel for his team, but it’s something he could definitely do better.
Chasing the story
Until last year, only two men’s college basketball programs had won consecutive national titles since Wooden’s heyday at UCLA in the early 1970s: Florida in 2006 and 2007 and Duke in 1991 and 1992. Florida’s five starters bypassed the NBA. Draft to return in pursuit of a second championship. Christian Laettner, Bobby Hurley and Grant Hill were among four Duke starters who did the same.
What UConn accomplished last season was an even more daring feat. Hurley didn’t have the luxury of bringing his team back intact in a quest for a repeat. Five of the top eight players on his first championship team left the game after the Huskies won the 2023 NCAA Tournament.
Now Hurley is trying to reload on the fly again – and once again, his biggest enemies are bad habits and complacency. He will go out of his way to look for ways to motivate his team, even after a 35-point victory at home in the fourth game of the season.
“Once we took a 37 lead with 12 minutes remaining, it turned into just a debacle,” Hurley complained.
Message delivered. Loud and clear.
