MEN’S BASKETBALL GAMEDAY MARYLAND-EASTERN SHORE at No. 17 UCONN
When: Tuesday, 7 p.m.
Where: XL Center
Records: UMES 2-4, UConn 6-1
TV: CBS Sports Network
Radio: UConn Sports Network, 97.9 FMESPN Hartford, Sirius-137, XM-206, SXM App-965, WAVZ-New Haven (1300 AM), WGCH- Greenwich (1490 AM), WATRWaterbury (1320 AM), WILI-Willimantic (WILI 1400 AM)
KEEP AN EYE ON
By hook or Akok: Akok Akok did not play well in the Bahamas. The 6-foot-9 junior forward logged 33 minutes in three games, even getting his first start since Feb. 20, 2020, and didn’t score a point. He wasn’t very effective defensively either, and grabbed just 10 rebounds.
“He’s got to find a way to be more productive,” Dan Hurley noted. “I don’t determine the minutes, they determine the minutes. If a guy is going well and playing well, unless there’s some kind of injury thing where they’re on a minutes-restriction, no coach doesn’t play a guy that’s playing well. We play the people that are playing well. Every game is its own survival test. We need more out of Akok.”
Hurley also noted that when Akok played in the Bahamas while at Putnam Science Acadey, he played “really horrible,” as well.
“Maybe he should just never go back to the Bahamas,” the coach quipped. UMESS? UMES doesn’t have a starter above 6-foot-5 and its tallest player, 6-10 Marko Milivojevic, barely plays. The Hawks tallest key rotation guys are 6-7. But they’ve been competitive for the most part, particularly against a pair of Atlantic 10 teams — losing to St. Joseph’s by two and winning at Fordham in double overtime.
“These are probably much more brutal games for me, because you worry about that human nature mentality,” Hurley said. “These guys have good players, they’re dangerous when they get 3’s. They’ve got a chance to play UConn, a big brand at the XL Center. These guys are gonna be fired up. If we’re not ready to go, it’ll be a mess of a game.”
Helping HBCUs: UMES is one of three
historically black colleges and universities (HBCU) on the Huskies’ non-league schedule this season, along with Coppin State and Grambling State.
“I think that was something the Big East talked about in our meetings, what want to do in some of those non-conference games,” Hurley said. “We felt like we did it the right way.”
UConn point guard R.J. Cole is familiar with UMES. In his two seasons at Howard, Cole played the Hawks four times and won all four games, averaging 20.5 points per game. This past summer, Cole was voted as one of the 50 greatest players in MEAC history.
UConn is 2-0 all-time against the Hawks. The most recent meeting came on Dec. 17, 2012, when Omar Calhoun and Ryan Boutright scored 22 and 21 points, respectively, in an 84-50 victory.