Fits and starts ...
After a 1-28 season last year, Morgan Valley’s Hartford basketball team is coming along
Morgan Valley didn’t like what she was seeing during her team’s pregame warmup.
Was her Hartford women’s basketball team — which had won three games in a row after losing 28 of 29 games last season — actually acting … cocky?
“We were a little too loud,” Valley said. “Obnoxious loud. It wasn’t a good loud.”
One of her former coaches, UConn associate head coach Chris Dailey, she knew, would not approve. Valley asked her coaches, “Do you think we think we won the game already?”
No, no, they said, we’re fine.
She watched some more, unconvinced.
“It was fine. I mean, CD wouldn’t have liked it but it was fine,” she said.
Then the game started against Binghamton, whom the Hartford women had beaten the day before. The Hawks didn’t run their offense. There were careless turnovers, a lack of communication. The win streak ended with a 52-44 loss on Jan. 3.
“We kind of just lost our minds,” Valley said. “It was simple things we can fix. But we also didn’t quit. We didn’t play well but we played hard.”
It was just one more step in the learning process for the Hartford women, which, due to injuries and graduation and transfers, only had six players at times last season, Valley’s first as head coach. The Hawks lost 28 straight games before upsetting Stony Brook, which was 25-2 and the top seed going into the conference tournament, in the regular season finale, 70-67.
Valley popped a bottle of champagne (supplied to her from her former UConn teammate Diana Taurasi) afterward and commended her players for not quitting. But it would take 10 long months for her to get her second win.
Once Hartford was able to return to the court in the fall, it seemed like the Hawks were no closer to being able to prepare properly to win another game, stopping and starting and stopped and starting due to positive COVID-19 tests and two-week quarantines.
There was so much uncertainty and more waiting. Non-conference games were scheduled, then canceled.
Then — finally — there was a game, Dec. 22 against Maine. There were new players, more players, fewer injuries than last year, and a renewed sense of purpose.
They lost 85-57. They lost again the next day, also to Maine, as the America East plays back to back games to reduce travel.
“I got a text from our captain [Jordan McLemore] after the Maine game, the first one,” Valley said. “She was like, ‘Coach, we’re ready for tomorrow. Don’t worry. Everything is very different. We have a very good vibe.’ That was unsolicited, she just sent me that. It just made me feel really confident.”
They lost to Maine again but it was closer. The next week, on Dec. 28, they finally won, 53-50 over New Hampshire.
“It’s like winning a championship without winning a championship,” said Hartford senior forward Brey Bellerand, who transferred from James Madison. “We have more work to do but it just feels so good to have some type of reward. Those three quarantines and sticking through it, we did it for a reason.
“It’s a blessing to just be out there on the court and play a game against another team. This is what we came here for.”
Different people were getting things done. Junior Charlette Leurs came off the bench to lead the Hawks with 19 points and 14 rebounds in the first win, while Bellerand hit the game-winner and the Hartford defense held New Hampshire scoreless the last four minutes. Freshman Marisa Lee came off the bench to contribute nine points and nine rebounds the next day in a 64-57 win over New Hampshire.
They were on a roll when they got up the morning of Jan. 2 and got on the bus for their first road trip. They played a game at Binghamton that same day and won again 64-54.
Now they’ve lost two straight, after Saturday’s 81-45 setback to UMass-Lowell. The Hawks have to learn how to sustain a winning streak, not to get overconfident, to continue to mesh on the court, to continue to figure out their roles. All with a little over 30 days of practice, along with the threat of shutdown due to positive COVID tests, which hangs over everybody’s heads in college basketball.
“Tomorrow will be our 30th practice,” Valley said Wednesday. “At this time last year, we had played close to 20 games. There were days where my staff had to play just so we could go 5 on 5. The most we had was nine players who could play.
“I knew that we had more talent [this season] but I didn’t know what we were capable of. I still don’t. I see glimpses of what I think could be greatness. It’s still pretty unknown. It’s just a different time.”