UConn men open season against CCSU tonight
CENTRAL CONNECTICUT ST. AT UCONN 8 p.m., Gampel Pavilion (FS1)
Storrs — The day has finally arrived for UConn to begin its highly-anticipated season.
The Huskies are eager to return to the court tonight for the first time since early March and continue their climb out of the shadows and back toward the national spotlight.
Yet excitement of opening day has been tempered a bit by the dark cloud of the coronavirus pandemic. Everyday brings more bad news and more announcements of canceled games.
Nothing is guaranteed.
UConn will cherish every game, starting with Wednesday's season opener against non-conference foe Central Connecticut State University at 8 p.m. at Gampel Pavilion.
"We're excited to play a game," coach Dan Hurley said during a Zoom call with the media on Tuesday. "This is what we love to do. This is our purpose. We live for this. But the feel is completely different. It's surreal. At least the non-conference piece.
"I think there's just so much uncertainty for these players and the staff with games getting canceled, checking social media to see who's in or who's out. Like getting to the day of the game and basically waiting for the tests to come back to see if you're going to play. But I do think that once we get through this non-conference slate here and once the Big East games come, I think that excitement about conference games, we'll become a lot more comfortable in some of the uncertainty here."
Before the Big East opener on Dec. 11 against St. John's, UConn will try to play five non-conference games over the next 11 days.
Starting the season on schedule was in doubt until late last week. Hurley expressed his concerns about the Huskies playing so soon after taking a two week pause due to a player testing positive for COVID-19.
Since returning to practice last Thursday, they ended up with about "four realistic practices," according to Hurley. They got in as many live reps as they could without put
ting players at risk for injuries and focused on working on defense, team culture and togetherness as well as intensity.
Hurley saw enough progress in his team to decide late last week that UConn would play on Wednesday. Having depth helped. Something else mattered, too. "I was influenced by the players...," Hurley said. "So our depth and the players desperately wanting to play were the two key things. After Friday's practice, it probably felt it was more likely to play the opener. Then Saturday we scrimmaged and brought in officials and that gave me the comfort to move forward with it."
The Huskies are pretty healthy to start the season. Only redshirt sophomore Akok Akok won't be available. Hurley is "startled" by Akok's recovery from a torn Achilles' tendon. Akok, a redshirt sophomore, could progress to playing five-on-five in the full court next week, which Hurley called remarkable.
Senior Tyler Polley will take another step in his comeback on Wednesday. He says he's ready to go. He hasn't played since suffering the season-ending injury in early January.
"Basically, I'm feeling good and my leg is feeling good," Polley said. "I feel 100 percent right now. I think the team, we look ready."
The Huskies aren't looking too far ahead beyond preparing for CCSU and Friday's game against Hartford in Storrs.
Without any exhibition games to evaluate, Hurley has scouted CCSU by watching its games from late last season. The Blue Devils return seven of their eight top scorers from a 4-27 team. They're coached by former UConn great Donyell Marshall.
"There's personnel stuff that you can talk about but you have no idea what anyone is going to do because you have nothing," Hurley said.
What happens with the remaining non-conference schedule is too hard to predict at this time. The Huskies are supposed to play three games next week at the Mohegan Sun.
Hurley says he'll have a better sense moving forward after seeing how his players respond from playing their season opener.
Nothing is guaranteed this season. "There's no road map for this, so you've got to be able to adapt...," Hurley said.
"It's a blessing for us to be able to get on the court and do what we love to do and hopefully become a great distraction for people during a really hard time."