The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Do Huskies have a rotation situation?
In the parlance of Dan Hurley, “Year 2, Game 11” was a good one for UConn.
The Huskies did what they had to do and wound up with an 8862 win over New Hampshire on Sunday. UConn is 83, with one final nonleague tuneup before American Athletic Conference play begins. Here are five things we learned from Sunday’s game:
WHERE’S SID?: Sid Wilson was averaging 13.1 minutes per game entering Sunday’s contest. He has played as much as 23 minutes against St. Joe’s and as little as seven against Florida. He played 13 minutes four days earlier against Saint Peters.
Wilson didn’t play a single second against UNH. That will raise some eyebrows.
“It’s hard to play 10 guys,” said Hurley, who noted that he wanted to get James Bouknight, Jalen Gaffney and Brendan Adams more minutes. “It’s hard for guys to get a rhythm when you’re at 10.”
That’s fine, except here’s what Hurley said a few weeks earlier in Charleston, when 10 different guys played doubledigit minutes:
“I’ve always been able to play 10. My best teams that I’ve coached at Wagner and Rhode Island, we’ve been able to go at least nine, even into 10, and be able to wear people down with our pressure.”
Something’s not right. It’s one thing to pare down the minutes of a guy like Wilson, who doesn’t boast a lot of skills but can provide a burst of athleticism off the bench. But going from 13 to zero is odd. Makes you think there’s maybe more to it.
“We’re gonna need Sid,” Hurley said, before perhaps dropping a hint as to why he didn’t play, “or, Sid’s got to keep himself ready and work daily to get better, so that he makes me want to put him in.”
If Wilson is down, he need look no further than teammate Isaiah Whaley. Whaley was used sparingly last season, sometimes not getting into games at all — even when it appeared the Huskies could at least use the body and maybe a few rebounds, or even fouls. But Whaley didn’t pout,
stuck with it, and wound up playing important minutes and playing well in an AAC tournament win over South Florida.
On Sunday, Whaley played 22 minutes off the bench.
Oh, and don’t read too much into Hurley putting the walkons in before Wilson. At that point, it becomes an insult to Wilson to put him in for the final 90 seconds of garbage time.
SECOND HALF SURGERS: The Huskies have been a better second half team in almost every game this season. They led Sacred Heart by just three at the break and won by 22. They trailed St. Joseph’s by 16 and got to within a possession. They trailed Xavier by 10 and lost in double overtime and led Iona by just a point before winning by 18.
On Sunday, the Huskies trailed 189 out of the gates, put together a 150 run but still only led by four at the break. Led by 11 straight points at one point by Alterique Gilbert, they dominated the latter half.
Why is UConn so much better in the latter half ? You could credit the coaching staff for halftime adjustments, but also criticize them for not having the team ready to play out of the gates. As much as anything, especially against lowmajor teams, the Huskies ultimately overwhelm teams with talent, as well as a deep bench that can wear an opponent out.
UConn needs to start games better, but commend the Huskies for making the right adjustments and doing what they need to do to win these games — usually quite comfortably.
AL’S ALL RIGHT: Alterique Gilbert entered this season shooting 38percent from the floor and 31percent from 3point range for his career. Not great, but not terrible.
Entering Sunday’s game, however, Gilbert was making just 28 percent of his shots and 26 percent of his 3pointers. Not good at all.
Gilbert missed his first few shots on Sunday but then got hot and wound up going 6for12 from the floor and hitting 3 of 5 3pointers for a gamehigh 21 points.
“Al’s obviously a much better shooter than he’s been for us this year,” said Hurley. “I look at Al and see a guy who, when he takes the right kind of 3’s, is a high30, maybe 40percent 3point shooter. We’re hoping to get that from him the rest of the way. He’s capable of doing that if he takes the right ones.”
‘THEY BETTER GET USED TO EACH OTHER’: Freshmen James Bouknight scored 14 points against UNH, his best game since his incredible Charleston unveiling, while
Jalen Gaffney continued his upward mobility with eight points and five assists.
The pair of shared the floor a lot lately, along with another frosh, starting forward Akok Akok.
“It’s hard to take Akok off the court, because he changes the game with his energy, his defense, his length,” Hurley noted. “It affects our opponent in so many ways. Because the two freshmen are coming off the bench, they’re gonna be out there a lot together. If one was starting — which may or may not happen at some point in the season — then they obviously wouldn’t play as much. But since they’re both coming off the bench, they’re gonna be playing a lot together. And they’re gonna be playing together a lot the next couple of years.
“So they better get used to each other.”
MAGIC CHRISTIAN: Christian Vital scored
UConn’s first six points on Sunday but was relatively quite the rest of the way. He wound up with 15 points, seven rebounds and — perhaps most impressively — no turnovers, and his effort didn’t go unnoticed by his coach.
“That was one of the best games I’ve seen Christian play,” said Hurley. “He was under control. It set the tone for the team. He put himself in very few bad situations. Same with Al. If we’re gonna have a surprising season and compete for an NCAA or an NIT thing, those two guys are gonna have to play at an allconference level. They both played like allconference guards (Sunday), and we looked like a good team. And when they play like that, it settles everybody else down.”