JEFF JACOBS

Hurley presses the right buttons with Vital

STORRS — Dan Hurley doesn’t mince words or speak in cliches. He says what’s on his mind, and if it comes across as blunt or even a little politically incorrect, so be it.

Not unlike a certain Hall of Fame coach who patrolled the UConn sidelines for a quarter-century. Only Hurley’s diction is a lot more concise and decipherable than that of Jim Calhoun.

Take the clips he’s shown his team from last season. They weren’t clips of the team missing shots or turning the ball over, but rather examples of the team not competing.

Or, as Hurley put it, “Looking at the ref after they thought there was a foul called, acting like an idiot. Good programs don’t act like that. They let the coach fight with the ref. They just play.”

Blunt, indeed. Hurley has inherited a team that lacked physicality and intensity for so much of the past two seasons, when it went a combined 30-35. The first and most important step toward getting the program back to respectability is instilling a strong work ethic and a winning attitude.

“This is just about developing a mindset of how we want to compete, and building togetherness with the group,” Hurley said, following a workout on Friday at the Werth Family Champions Center, one of 32 workouts the team can have with coaches over an eight-week span this summer. “That’s kind of what the focus is this time of year for us and just where we’re at. Because those things are eroded a little bit.”

Hurley added that no one player has stood out over the first eight workouts the past couple of weeks, “because these guys aren’t really in the physical condition to flourish yet. We’re still a little bit in survival mode. They’re still trying to get to the finish line. They’re not in that elite condition where they can be consistently stronger.”

As blunt as he can be, Hurley hasn’t come out and laid any of the blame for the Huskies’ lack of physical and mental toughness on the previous coaching staff. But it isn’t hard to read between the lines. And while Hurley wasn’t here to see what went on last season, at least one longtime, respected member of the athletic program did notice a distinct lack of intensity and hard work, particularly in the weight room but also during practice sessions.

Now, Hurley & Co. are here to clean it up. The workouts are hard, with constant motion and players rewarded or punished for even small things, like failing to touch a baseline during a sprint. Fouls aren’t called (unless a guy gets “clothes-lined,” according to Hurley) so that players can compete and play though contact. Every drill is timed, and there are winners and losers in virtually every aspect of practice.

“These guys haven’t practiced like this, probably in their lives,” Hurley noted. “It’s hard, it’s brutal, there’s a lot of pain and suffering. But once you adjust to it, if you’re a competitive player, you love this type of environment.”

So far, that seems to be the case.

“Coach is pushing intensity,” said rising sophomore Josh Carlton. “Everybody just feels like they’re getting better. We’re making big strides every day.”

Carlton is one of the few players Hurley specifically singled out for improving over the first two weeks of workouts.

“Josh struggled, probably the first five of these sessions. But then the last three — he’s just like a baby, physically, right now — he’s starting to emerge and have an impact. (On Friday), he stood out. He was getting drilled earlier in the week, getting best up physically. He’s starting to emerge and get adjusted to the physicality, getting tougher, being more active.”

Players get points for positive production in practice, and the totals are posted on a “win sheet” throughout the Werth Center. Entering Friday’s practice, Duquesne grad transfer Tarin Smith sat atop the list with 21.5 points, followed by Carlton with 17 and senior Eric Cobb (who has already shed about 20 pounts from last season) with 16.5

“I told him, if he wants to go out with a shield this year like a warrior, he’s got to get to 235, 240, to play for us, the way we play defensively,” Hurley said of Cobb. “He’s done a great job ... He’s got the right mindset for a guy that wants to fully invest his last year in college and see where it can take him. I’m thrilled with the way he’s approaching stuff.”

Down at the bottom of the list is freshman Brendan Adams with 6 points, but he just arrived on Sunday so he’s only been involved with four workouts. Mamadou Diarra has 10 points and Sidney Wilson 13.

The Huskies have five more weeks of workouts spread over the two summer sessions. When they’re through, Hurley hopes some clear team leaders have emerged from the fray.

“The guys that are gonna be your guys, as a coach, the guys you’re gonna identify with the most, they excel in this environment,” he said. “They stand out.”

RIM RATTLINGS

⏩ Hurley said he showed the team about a dozen clips of poor effort from last season — a couple from a 20point home loss to Villanova, a couple from narrow home wins over East Carolina and Colgate, another from a 25-point lashing at Auburn.

⏩ Alterique Gilbert, who has missed almost all of the past two seasons due to multiple shoulder surgeries, is participating in individual shooting and ball-handling workouts and working on getting his conditioning back, but not any contact drills to this point.

“He looks good,” said Hurley. “He shoots the ball cleaner than I thought he would, just based on some of the numbers and a little bit of his reputation. Maybe the surgeon helped him with his mechanics. A couple of other guys should go see him.”

Hurley believes Gilbert could be cleared for live drills within the next few weeks, but the team will hold him out of such work until September.

⏩ Jalen Adams said he never really considered transferring, before or after Kevin Ollie was let go, and that returning was a “no-brainer.”

Said Hurley of Adams: “Every single day, people who come to practice should walk out of here saying, ‘That’s one of the best guards in the country.’ If they’re not saying that after that workout, then you failed that day.”

⏩ Among the opponents that could fill out the rest of UConn’s non-conference schedule include Drexel, New Hampshire, Cornell and UMass-Lowell.

Hurley