The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Adams, Wilson held out of scrimmage
STORRS — Dan Hurley is looking to change the culture with the UConn men’s basketball team, and he needs help doing that from the Huskies’ best player.
It appears that, at least recently, he didn’t get that help.
Jalen Adams, UConn’s leading scorer the past two seasons and a preseason first-team all-conference pick, was held out of the Huskies’ closed-door scrimmage against Harvard on Saturday due to a violation of team rules.
Sid Wilson, a sophomore forward, was also held out for the same reason.
Hurley didn’t elaborate on what either player did, and hasn’t decided on any further punishment at this point, but was clearly disappointed.
“For me, I have really high standards on my dayto-day,” he told reporters. “You can’t give me three great weeks, then a bad day or two. You’ve got to show up every day. And it’s even more important when you’re the best player on the team. The best player and the coach set the tone for the program. He’s got to be bought-in for every aspect of the program, not just from 12:45 to 3:15 p.m. on the practice floor”
On the eve of the Huskies’ season a year ago, Adams was issued a summons after leaving the scene of a motor scooter accident on campus. Adams’ scooter hit a curb on the side of the road, causing a minor accident, and he eventually paid a $50 fine for failure to drive in the right lane. He was held out of the Huskies’ seasonopening win over Colgate.
Hurley had largely been raving about Adams’ improved leadership skills throughout this preseason, though that apparently has taken a step back.
As for the guys who actually played in Saturday’s scrimmage at Gampel Pavilion, which was closed to the public and the media, Hurley was most impressed with guards Alterique Gilbert and Christian Vital.
“Christian and Al stood out to me as guys who could have played for me (at URI),” the coach noted.
Gilbert, who has had multiple shoulder surgeries over the past few years, “was very impressive, real confident in his health. He
played with joy. His energy was infections and his speed was apparent ... and he really shot the ball well from 3.”
Hurley added that he “loved the way Christian competed,” though the junior guard didn’t shoot the ball that well.
The first-year UConn coach wasn’t as happy with the play of his big men. He noted that senior Eric Cobb was the best frontcourt player on the offensive end, but that no one really impressed defensively or rebounding.
Frontcourt play is a huge concern for the Huskies, who play an exhibition against Southern Connecticut on Friday and begin their regular season on Nov. 8 against Morehead State at Gampel. UConn’s backcourt
will be the team’s strength — though there may now be some leadership questions with its best player.
“For us to be better than what people think, we’ve got to be better on our overall defensive mindset, work on getting stops, getting out running, 3-point line defense and overall rebounding,” said Hurley. “I thought we were soft there. You don’t go from bad to good at those things really quickly. You’ve got to battle. It’s not easy to get good at hard things.”
RIM RATTLINGS
⏩ No scores or stats were released, though the game was very informal. Some players played with five, six or seven fouls, for instance.
“These are not games, they’re teaching tools,” Hurley said. “There are game elements to it, but there are things that aren’t included.”
Last week, Hurley said he was probably about 1-7 in closed-door scrimmages while at URI.
“UConn probably wouldn’t have hired me if they knew my record in secret scrimmages,” he quipped.
⏩ Grad transfer Kassoum Yakwe, who just returned to the practice floor late last week due to a foot injury, did not play on Saturday. Neither did Mamdou Diarra, who is out until at least early December after knee surgery.