Wanted: Huskies’ aggression
Auriemma wants Williams, Nelson-Ododa to assert themselves on the court
As UConn coach Geno Auriemma reflected on the Huskies’ first game of the 2020-21 campaign, he had a clear message for Olivia Nelson-Ododa and Christyn Williams: be more aggressive.
In Saturday’s 79-23 victory over UMass Lowell, both players took a backseat to freshman Paige Bueckers, who stole the show in her much-anticipated college debut. Nelson-Ododa, a 6-foot-5 center, had 12 points and nine rebounds, and didn’t play most of the second half. Williams, a 5-11 guard, finished with 10 points and seven boards.
“I thought both of them were way too passive for us to be the team we want,” Auriemma said Monday of his two juniors.
The third-ranked Huskies — who will be at Seton Hall on Tuesday to open Big East play — have Final Four expectations. After all, when do they not?
But realistically, for them to get there, they need Nelson-Ododa and Williams to take the next step in their evolution as impact players, especially on a team laden with youth. Six of UConn’s 11 players are freshmen, leaving Nelson-Ododa and Williams, the Big East preseason player of the year, as the only upperclassmen besides junior Evina Westbrook, who sat the entire 2019-20 season after transferring from Tennessee.
“There’s a lot of experience that the two of them have,” Auriemma said. “They’ve certainly played in their share of games at UConn — regular season, postseason. There’s gotta be, I think, on their end, a willingness, a want to, to really assert themselves on both ends of the floor.”
And that doesn’t necessarily mean taking a lot of shots, something both Nelson-Ododa (5-for-14) and
Williams (5-for-12) did more than anyone on the team in the opener.
“We use the word consistent a lot,” Auriemma said, “but to be consistently aggressive, to be a consistent factor on defense, to be a consistent factor on offense, be involved in a lot of different possessions, make things happen, whether it’s with the ball or without the ball, just be more impactful in the game.”
One game does not a season make, hence Auriemma isn’t sweating too much about Nelson-Ododa
and Williams. But he would, however, like to see them bring more to the table when the Huskies return to the floor Tuesday.
“If they were freshmen, I might have to sit down and explain the ins and outs of college basketball,” Auriemma said. “You’ve got two juniors that are experienced players, what are you going to explain? What are you going to explain? We need more from you guys. I’m sure they would tell me, ‘Coach, you don’t think I know that?’ ”
For the Huskies, Tuesday will be their second of four games in an eight-day span. It’s a busy stretch, sure, but Auriemma likes the change of pace after practicing for
four months.
“We’ve been practicing for a long, long time,” he said. “The things we saw (Saturday) are probably more telling — both good and bad — than what we saw in those four months.”
HUSKIES HITTING THE ROAD
The Huskies’ first road trip of the season figures to be less complicated than most. While most states enforce a 14-day quarantine for out-of-state travelers, the team doesn’t anticipate any issues.
“We do our testing and all of that,” Auriemma said. “I think you have to be in the other state for 24 hours or something like that, and we are not going to be there for 24 hours.”
To the contrary, the Hus
kies’ stay may be a bit longer than that — Tuesday is a 6:30 p.m. tipoff — they won’t be subject to quarantine upon returning home, as Gov. Ned Lamont has an exception for travel to New Jersey, New York and Rhode Island.
The Huskies are slated to host Creighton on Thursday.
“Even if we were, when we come back it is not like we are going anywhere,” Auriemma joked. “Hey, tell the cops not to stop us. The bus is going to go fast. And if we play lousy at Seton Hall, I would tell the governor, ‘Hey, you need to quarantine us, man. We can’t play Thursday.’ ”