UConn Men’s Basketball Rings In Hurley Era With Win
Huskies get message, top Eagles to give Hurley a win in his coaching debut
UConn men’s basketball opened the 2018-19 season — and debuted coach Dan Hurley’s Huskies era — Thursday with an 80-70 win over Morehead State at Gampel Pavilion. At left, guard Jalen Adams and Hurley cheer an Alterique Gilbert 3-pointer.
STORRS — They didn’t always look great doing them, but the UConn men’s basketball team did the things Dan Hurley has been demanding of them.
They shot the ball a little better, rebounded a little better, applied more effective defensive pressure — and, most importantly, they delivered the effort.
The Huskies eventually put away a pesky mid-major and came up a humble winner in Hurley’s debut as head coach, defeating Morehead State 80-70 before an announced 10,167 at Gampel Pavilion in the season opener on Thursday night.
“I just thought we lacked a little bit of a killer,” Hurley said. “You can’t go from a team that’s not good to a team with a killer instinct, but there were pockets in that game where we had a chance to extend it, if we were playing with fire. We had a chance to bury them a couple of times and we let them hang around. But for the first night, getting the jitters out of the way, I was happy with the performance.”
Alterique Gilbert ran the show, shaking off the rust from nearly two years of inactivity and the doubts from three shoulder surgeries, scoring 16 points, with four assists and four rebounds. Sophomore Josh Carlton, one of the players Hurley has been exhorting to play with more fire, had 17 points and eight rebounds, and when he threw himself into the crowd chasing a loose ball under the basket, Hurley rushed over from the bench to pick him up and pat him on the backside — effort rewarded.
“It makes me want to dive on the floor again,” Carlton said. “You’re not reluctant to dive on the floor, having a coach like that.”
Hurley said he wanted his team to get a message that everyone should be as excited over an effort like that as they are for a made bucket.
“You actually have never seen a coach do that,” Jalen Adams said. “Just to see him do stuff like that shows how much he cares about us as players — as his players — and just about the game. That’s the right thing to do.”
Hurley said it was one of the three most “nervewracking days” of his career, the others being his debuts at Wagner and Rhode Island. He was welcomed on to the court with students holding letters spelling H-E-L-L-O H-UR-L-E-Y, replacing the “Olliewood” that greeted his predecessor.
The Huskies, coming off a 14-18 season, don’t have the luxury of looking down their noses at any victory, even against a team coming off an 8-21 season. They never trailed but allowed enough open perimeter looks for Morehead to hand around. The Eagles were within four at the half, and after the Huskies opened up a 14point lead late, kept coming at them.
Jalen Adams, limited by foul trouble, came off the bench for the last 11:41 to help UConn put it away, scoring 16 points in only 22 minutes. Tarin Smith added 12 in his first game as a Husky.
“It was kind of an easy 16 for Jalen,” Hurley said.
The Huskies, who next play Missouri-Kansas City on Sunday and face a first big test against Syracuse next Thursday in New York, shot nearly 50 percent consistently through the game, finishing at 48.4. They had a 42-36 edge in rebounds and prompted 17 turnovers.
“We left some points on the board,” Gilbert said. “We could have gotten more stops. But all in all, we played as a team.”
UConn started out with a couple of fastbreaks, Gilbert showing right away how much of a difference he can make, finding Carlton with perfect passes for easy bas- kets.With the score tied at nine, the Huskies made a mini-run to take control. Gilbert chased down a loose ball near the midcourt line to save the possession, then dribbled back and hit a 3-pointer as the shot clock ran out to give UConn a 16-9 lead with 11:50 to go in the half. They later led by 13, but Malek Green hit a 3-pointer at the buzzer to send UConn to the half holding a precarious four-point lead, 37-33.
Freshman Brendan Adams hit a 3-pointer to put UConn ahead 56-47 with 11:07 left, and that started a 10-2 spurt, opening a 63-49 lead.
“When I went out, a senior guard, they kept the lead, they kept playing hard,” Jalen Adams said. “At times they were outtoughing us. We’ve just got to tighten our stuff up.”
Akok Akok in the building
Akok Akok, the highly recruited 6-foot-9 forward at Putnam Science Academy, was at the game. He made an official visit to UConn in October and visited several other schools, including Syracuse. Putnam teammates Kareem Reid and Hassan Diarra joined Akok at the game. Guard DeMarr Langford, another UConn target from PSA, didn’t make it. … Isaiah Whaley left the game in the first half with a sprained right ankle and didn’t return. Hurley said he is day to day and could return for the game Sunday vs. UMKC.