Hurley’s message to Huskies: ‘Finish’
UConn is clicking on all cylinders right now.
The Huskies have won three in a row and five of their last six, and are all but assured to be invited to their first NCAA Tournament since 2016 a week from Sunday. No way a Dan Hurley-coached team won’t keep the momentum going for its senior day game on Saturday against Georgetown (noon, CBS). Right? Well ...
In 2018, Hurley’s final season at Rhode Island, the Rams were riding high entering their senior day game against St. Joseph’s, having clinched their first outright Atlantic 10 title in school history the previous game. St. Joe’s was a .500 team in the league, URI was ranked in the Top 25, and it appeared the Rams’ three seniors would go out with a bang in the final game on their home floor.
Then St. Joe’s rolled to a 30-point victory.
“Our biggest problem that year was we clinched the regular season too soon,” Hurley recalled. “I should have been more involved, not allowed the celebration. (Senior day) was anticlimactic.”
UConn (13-6, 10-6 Big East) clinched a third-place finish in the league Wednesday night at Seton Hall and, obviously, the No. 3 seed in next week’s Big East Tournament at Madison Square Garden. The Huskies would appear to be in prime shape to continue to improve their NCAA Tournament seeding, and possibly even win a Big East tourney title in their first year back in the league.
Now isn’t the time for any semblance of a repeat of that URI-St. Joe’s game three years ago.
“I learned a lot from that experience,” Hurley added, “but our focus is on the game. We’ll do nostalgia and take a stroll down memory lane after we’ve played our last game this year. We need to have the families here, but I think the lack of crowd will make this more just a game.”
Meanwhile, Georgetown (9-11, 7-8) is also playing its best ball of the season. The Hoyas have won two straight and four of their last five games, including wins over a pair of teams on the NCAA Tournament bubble: Seton Hall and Xavier. The Hoyas’ only loss in that span was a 70-57 setback on Feb. 23 to UConn.
In fact, since coming back from a COVID-19 pause in late January, Georgetown is 6-3, including a road win over No. 14 Creighton. While Hurley may have entered the conversation for Big East Coach of the Year honors, the same could be said for Patrick Ewing.
Remember, the Hoyas were picked to finish dead last in the league’s preseason coaches’ poll. They currently sit in seventh place in the Big East standings, and with some help, could still finish sixth. That could mean a quarterfinal rematch with UConn in the Big East tournament on March 11 at Madison Square Garden.
But first things first. Hurley has had one message to his team in practice since Wednesday.
“Finish. Finish, finish, finish, finish. Finish. I’ve said ‘finish’ the past two days probably 2,000 times, maybe more. This year has meant a lot to everyone involved with the program, the fans, the school, it’s brought a lot of excitement back to the men’s side.”
“So, let’s finish. Finish.”
RIM RATTLINGS
⏩ Brendan Adams has been 1 added to the list of players UConn will honor at senior day ceremonies on Saturday. Adams is a junior, but will be graduating in May with a degree in economics.
Adams, who committed to Hurley while Hurley was coaching URI but switched his commitment when Hurley took over at UConn, started six games in the middle of the season but hasn’t played at all in five of the Huskies’ last six games. The only playing time he’s had in that span was three minutes in UConn’s Feb. 23 bout at Georgetown. The 6-foot-4 guard is averaging 4.6 points and 2.2 rebounds per game.
“He’s the hardest worker, and an incredible example of everything you want in your program,” Hurley said. “And even though his role isn’t, right now, what he wants it to be or what it’s been, we’re not in this spot this year without him — in terms of what we’ve built, and how he’s played for us this year.”
⏩ Adams will be honored 1 alongside graduating seniors Isaiah Whaley, Tyler Polley and Josh Carlton.
“Those guys have really changed the trajectory of the program the last three years,” Hurley said. “The fact that they wanted to stay, and they knew it was gonna be hard and wasn’t gonna be instant gratification, because of how bad a shape things were, their legacy is cemented with the shape they will potentially lead the program in, if this is their last season.”
Hurley said he’ll wait until after the season to discuss whether any of those players might come back next year for a final season, as the NCAA is allowing for current college players due to the COVID-19 mess.
HOUSTON — President Joe Biden’s administration is instructing long-term facilities that hold immigrant children to lift capacity restrictions enacted during the coronavirus pandemic to open up muchneeded beds in a system facing sharply increasing needs.
A memo issued Friday by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services tells service providers to “temporarily increase capacity to full licensed capacity … while implementing and adhering to strict COVID-19 mitigation measures.” It’s not immediately clear how many beds will come available beyond the roughly 7,000 that were online last month. HHS’ fully licensed capacity was over 13,000 beds late last year.
Some facilities have reduced their capacity by as much as half during the coronavirus pandemic. Meanwhile, hundreds of children waiting to be placed in HHS’ system are being detained by the U.S. Border Patrol in tent facilities or large, cold cells unequipped to hold minors. Images and stories of packed Border Patrol cells in 2018 and 2019 sparked outrage, with accounts of families and young children fending for themselves without adequate food and water.
Lifting pandemic-related caps could increase the risk of spreading the coronavirus within HHS facilities, especially as far more children enter the system. But the organizations that run HHS facilities and some advocates have pushed for more beds to made available if done safely, rather than the alternative of keeping kids in Border Patrol facilities longer or placing them in costly, unlicensed emergency centers.
“Given the nature of the COVID-19 pandemic, there is no 0% risk scenario, particularly in congregate settings,” says the memo, first reported by CNN. “Therefore, ORR facilities should plan for and expect to have COVID-19 cases.”
HHS has previously authorized facility operators to bill the government for travel expenses when a child is released to a parent or other sponsor. Some families cannot easily afford the hundreds of dollars to fly a child and a guardian, and disputes over payment can sometimes delay a child’s release for several days.
Agents are apprehending around 400 children a day unaccompanied by a parent or guardian, a sharp increase since last month. There are concerns that those numbers will continue to rise.
Biden ended a practice under former President Donald Trump of expelling unaccompanied children under a publichealth declaration enacted during the pandemic, though his administration continues to expel immigrant families and adults. Some former Trump administration officials have accused Biden of inspiring immigrants to try to enter the U.S. illegally, even though the numbers under Biden have not approached their peak under Trump.
The practice of expelling children was sharply criticized and often returned them to dangerous situations without having given them the chance to seek asylum or speak to a lawyer. The Associated Press has reported that the underlying public-health declaration was issued under pressure from former Vice President Mike Pence.
Trump issued a statement Friday alleging that the “border is now totally out of control thanks to the disastrous leadership of Joe Biden.”
“We don’t take our advice or counsel from former President Trump on immigration policy, which was not only inhumane but ineffective over the last four years,“White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki responded Friday. “We’re going to chart our own path forward, and that includes treating children with humanity and respect and ensuring they’re safe when they cross our borders.”
In recent days, Biden has also been criticized by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and other Republicans for the releases of immigrant families in South Texas. Border authorities have stopped expelling families with young children out of some Texas cities due to a policy change in Mexico’s Tamaulipas state. In several cities, local governments and advocacy groups test newly released families for COVID-19 and direct those with the virus to shelters or hotel rooms set aside for them.