Huskies Focus
The UConn women shut out noise, concentrate on Sunday’s opener vs. Ohio State.
STORRS — It was an eyeopening, “Hell, yeah” moment in a new era of UConn basketball, and it came with just over seven minutes remaining in the season opener against Morehead State Thursday night at Gampel Pavilion.
Josh Carlton, a sophomore forward previously known as reserved and unsure, pursued a loose ball under the basket, tried to tiptoe the baseline, dived well into the stands and fell hard to the floor, briefly disappearing.
Out of a slingshot came coach Dan Hurley, sprinting past players and parting the crowd, trying to help up a player he had spent much of the preseason challenging to operate, emotionally and physically, at a much higher RPM. Hurley slapped Carlton’s back and his head, screamed in exhilaration, all of it signaling the arrival of new energy, even of newfound hope, for a program snoozing through the past couple of
years.
We learned a lot about the 201819 Huskies on that play and in that particular sequence over the course of, oh, 10 seconds. It was beautiful. The sellout crowd went bonkers. It was evidence that UConn has a different sort of coach capable of turning players into different types of competitors.
“That’s a message for the whole team,” Hurley said. “We want our team to get more excited about that type of effort than even made buckets.”
It was also evidence that Carlton – all 6 feet 10, 235 pounds of him – is determined to become a stabilizing frontcourt presence for a team in great need of consistent contributions in that area.
Carlton was assertive throughout UConn’s 80-70 victory, finishing with 17 points, eight rebounds and two blocks in 27 minutes. He was the muscle needed to overpower a team that UConn should outmuscle. He made 8 of 10 shots, the final one on a strong spin move along the baseline for a layup after which Hurley emphatically waved his arms, urging on the crowd. Fans went bonkers again.
“Josh has got real talent,” Hurley said in a press conference after making his way through the student section, slapping hands and posing for selfies. “He’s going to be in the deep end of the pool. We need him as a sophomore, and still a young player, to perform at a high level if we’re going to be successful. He’s a guy who, if his motor’s up and his activity’s up like it was [Thursday] for the majority of the game, he’s got a chance to be a really, really good player … on a really good UConn team.”
The Huskies have enough talent and depth in the backcourt, from Jalen Adams on down. That matters little if post players fold. Carlton was the first to essentially shout “no chance,” though the group as a whole was not dominant. There will be altogether different challenges this season, probably starting with Syracuse next week in New York.
Carlton came to UConn out of DeMatha Catholic High School in Hyattsville, Md., a storied program, and averaged 4.4 points, 3.7 rebounds and 15.2 minutes last season as a freshman. He had a lot to prove to Hurley and even to teammates in advance of this season.
“I texted him [Thursday] morning that I wanted to see the Josh from DeMatha,” Adams said. “That guy was a monster.”
“Hopefully he saw the Josh from DeMatha,” Carlton said. “But hopefully now it’s not the Josh from DeMatha – it’s the Josh at UConn.”
It was the Josh at practice Wednesday.
“He was doing some real man stuff around the basket,” Hurley said. “He had his teammates excited and he just kind of rolled it into [the game].”
There was a “Hell, yeah” moment fans didn’t get to celebrate during that practice. Carlton took a pass in the post while a guard got a hand on the ball. He ripped it away and finished.
Hurley’s response? To run and yell, of course. He did a full lap around the gym, screaming.
This dude is wired differently, we are continually reminded. You’re going to love watching these players, even while many are limited, so long as they keep loving and trying to match the pace set by Hurley, the table-punching, jacket half-off, hurricane of sprinting sideline fan and player engagement.
When Carlton went to the ground in Thursday’s game, it wasn’t a shock that Hurley had raced to the scene.
“That’s Coach Hurley,” Carlton said. “It’s crazy to see a coach have your back like that, running over. That got me energized. … Rev my motor up, he tells me every day. Play low, play with energy, and focus on the defensive end. He goes hard every day, yelling at me. Seeing him run around crazy makes you want to jump up.”
Carlton set a positive tone Thursday, perhaps because he embraced the demands of the previous eight months. He’s early to the gym. He puts in extra work. He’s confident where last season, he doubted himself. Some of it is natural maturation. Some of it is a coach’s contagious fire.
“We’ve been hard on Josh,” Hurley said. “But Josh has got to emerge as a good young big for this to work for us, for us to surprise people and be better than people think. … He cares a lot. This means something to him.
“He looks the part of a young big who has real potential. We’ll have to let him play through some bad stretches and let him learn through mistakes, but a young big like that is certainly worth investing in.”