Huskies head to historic Hinkle to face Butler
Unlike the case with many of its new Big East brethren, UConn hardly has a long history with Butler.
The programs have faced each other on the hardwood just once in their respective histories. It was back on April 4, 2011. Perhaps you remember? Bit of an ugly game, a real defensive struggle, inside Houston’s Reliant Stadium.
UConn won 53-41, and with it its third national championship.
Ten years later, Kemba Walker, the Final Four MVP, is playing for Brad Stevens, Butler’s head coach at the time, for the Boston Celtics. Jim Calhoun is retired, Shabazz Napier (Kemba’s freshman backup in 2011) is a free agent, and UConn and Butler are Big East rivals.
The Huskies make their first visit to historic Hinkle Fieldhouse on Saturday (4 p.m., CBS Sports Network). Like everything else these days, it will hardly be normal. Although about 2,000 fans are expected to be allowed inside Hinkle, it will hardly echo the final scenes of “Hoosiers,” which were filmed inside the 93
Paige Bueckers is at a point where she doesn’t want to take anything for granted when she takes the floor.
“You never really know with this season when you’re going to have a game, when you’re not going to have a game,” the freshman point guard said Friday.
In just the past week, No. 3 UConn saw two more games wiped from its schedule, including a trip to face No. 6 Baylor. They’ve played six to date, and only one against a ranked opponent.
That’s made what happens in Geno Auriemma’s practices all the more important.
“He prides himself on being our toughest opponent,” Bueckers said of UConn’s Hall of Fame coach. “Going against him every day, going against our team every day, and just how hard practice is, that’s a great thing to sort of evaluate yourself on.
“He holds you to a really high standard. He makes it harder through games. Just knowing if you can make it through practice and you do well, that’s really big.”
The Huskies have yet to be challenged by anyone in another uniform. Their wins have ranged from 23 points to 56, with an average margin of 37.3 points. Next up on Saturday (1 p.m. at Gampel Pavilion) is a game against Providence, when Auriemma will have a chance to move into a tie with Tennessee legend Pat Summitt for second on the career wins list, with 1,098.
So how does one evaluate herself when games and, more importantly, challenging opponents, are so hard to come by?
“I feel like everything starts in practice,” junior guard Christyn Williams
said. “We’re just trying to execute things on our end no matter the outcome of the game whether that’s our offensive assignments or defensive assignments. We just base it off that pretty much, not our opponent.”
The Huskies’ practices leading up to the Baylor game — canceled Tuesday after coach Kim Mulkey tested positive for COVID-19 — were among the most spirited to date, according to Auriemma. And they’ve continued to be so, despite the disappointment that came with losing another date.
“There hasn’t been a letdown,” Williams said. “We’re just ready to play again. I feel like we haven’t played in weeks. Our energy is there. We’re just really excited to play. There is no letdown.”
They know there can’t afford to be any in this disjointed season.
“We’ve really been working on competing,” Bueckers said. “We’ve been going at each other — 5-v-5, 4-v-4, offense and defense, a lot of rebounding drills. … We’re trying to get better going against each other because we know we’re our best opponent each and every day in practice. We go super hard. Practices are usually harder than games.”
More than a week has passed since their last game — a 75-52 victory over thenNo. 18 DePaul on Dec. 29. After Saturday, they’ll play just twice more in a sevenday stretch. And that, of course, is assuming there are no additional changes to the schedule.
Five of the 11 programs in
the Big East are currently on pause due to COVID-19.
“We all want to be in a game situation — playing somebody else, keeping score, officials, it matters in the standings,” Auriemma said. “This practice, practice, practice, practice, and very few opportunities to actually work on what you’re practicing, it’s very frustrating, as much for me as it is for the players.”
Said Bueckers: “We wanted to play a big game at Baylor. Not a huge crowd [Baylor has limited attendance to 25 percent capacity] , but an away game, that extra oomph you get when you play, an ESPN game.”
Right now, practice will have to do.