A RESTORATION PROJECT
What are realistic expectations for the Huskies in Dan Hurley’s first season as coach?
The turmoil that had been hovering over the Huskies for most of two seasons finally engulfed them, and rock bottom was found. A bizarre day began with UConn’s best players, Jalen Adams and Terry Larrier, remaining in the locker room as the team was out on the floor warming up. Rumors were spreading at the Amway Center in Orlando, but were quelled when Adams and Larrier came out. Only later was it revealed that they were held back while their eligibility was being evaluated, because they had allegedly taken part in offseason workouts that should not have taken place.
When the game began, the Huskies were still in a fog, staring at the end of the season and, in their body language, indicating that would be welcome. They fell 19 points behind an injury-riddled — but purposeful — SMU team and lost 80-73, becoming the first team eliminated at the American Athletic Conference tournament.
Kevin Ollie dutifully took responsibility and vowed to make things better, said he expected to be back, but had not been assured of it. Sullenly he walked from the arena; within 48 hours he would be the former coach of the Huskies.
That’s where it was on March 9, 2018, a two-season spiral that began with losses to Wagner and Northeastern in November 2016 and ended with two losing seasons and an NCAA investigation underway. How they got there has been well documented.
Dan Hurley arrived in Storrs two weeks later, bringing fire, excitement, confidence with him from Rhode Island, and as a new season is about to begin, his reputation for competence is unquestioned, his rep for fixing broken programs will be put to a new test.
“I didn’t come here to struggle,” he said, during the athletic department’s coaches road show excursion in June.
“I like it unrealistic, I like stretch goals,” he said in September.
No one’s wildest dreams for his first season, he has said, would be any wilder than his.
Five years from now, we will look back on Dan Hurley’s performance and evaluate mainly on how he recruits and develops players from the Classes of 2019 and 20. But over the next six months, he will be judged by how much he can get out of Kevin Ollie’s players.
Can he get them to play with purpose? The ingredients are in place for a quick turnaround, even as the long-term rebuild is under way. Hurley has a legit star in Jalen Adams, the team’s leader in scoring and assists (18.1, 4.7) back as a senior and re-committed making himself a great player. If Alterique Gilbert, the most decorated recruit of the Ollie era, can stay healthy after three shoulder surgeries, Hurley will have the enviable guard tandem that his predecessor envisioned. Safe to say, yet again, that most of the Huskies’ conference rivals would love to be able to start with those two.
The new coach made an investment in trust and loyalty, letting all the players know they were welcomed to stay, and no one transferred out - rare in college basketball nowadays. The other players, second-leading scorer Christian Vital (14.9), junior, and forwards Tyler Polley, Sid Wilson, Josh Carlton, Mamadou Diarra, Eric Cobb and Kwintin Williams, all bring a year or more of experience back to the program, so they can only be better - the question is, how much? The Huskies were out-rebounded last year (minus-2.4), a function of poor technique and a lack of physicality.
UConn’s three newcomers include freshman guard Brendan Adams, who had committed to Rhode Island before Hurley left, so he would fit the mold of the new coach’s kind of player, as would grad transfer Tarin Smith, who played for Bob Hurley Sr. at St. Anthony’s High in Jersey City. Kassoum Yakwe, a grad transfer from St. John’s, adds a rim protector as the coaches look for one on the recruiting trail.
Hurley will start to improve this lot by making them tougher; with more guards, he can call for constant, hounding ball pressure and install the man-to-man defense Ollie was forced to abandon.
Hurley sounds more willing to get to players where it hurts, take away minutes, if they do not buy into his concepts, on offense as well as defense. Ball movement, paint touches, better shot selection are things that will happen on the court, not just on a blackboard in the locker room.
“If you see these guys whippin’ the ball around the 3-point line until somebody can launch one, that’s not me,” Hurley said. “It is me, because I’m coaching them, but somebody’s going to get in trouble.”
Add three elements that were not present last season: Gilbert, Hurley and more experience, and that 14-18 can at least be flipped, and a little better than that means the Huskies will have hope, and a purpose, when they get back to the conference tournament, this time in Memphis. That would be a successful start to the Dan Hurley era: relevance before the rebuild.
“It’s about putting respect back in the UConn name,” Hurley said.