The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
‘Husky Huddle’ Zoom series connects UConn’s past with present
Chris Smith talked about his role in helping lead UConn to national prominence.
Ryan Boatright spoke candidly of the friction he had with Shabazz Napier early in his career, and how the two alpha males worked things out to lead the Huskies to a national title.
Caron Butler talked about his well-chronicled troubles as a teen, and how he turned his life around as a person (and player) at
UConn. Emeka Okafor gave the perspective of the ultimate student-athlete: a National Player of the Year who graduated in three years.
UConn coach Dan Hurley recently started a program he calls “Husky Huddle,” in which a former player or coach from the program’s past speaks with the current team via a Zoom call. The guests so far have come from diverse age backgrounds, from Smith, 50, to Boatright, 27. And Hurley, with plenty of help from Taliek Brown, who’s coordinating the whole thing, will continue to welcome them throughout the summer and, he hopes, well into this season.
“(It’s been) just a great mixture,” Hurley said. “We want to continue to connect our players with as many former Huskies as we can and give as diverse a learning opportunity as we can provide, and let the former players know that we value them and we want to do well for them. We want them to feel that they’re still a part of the program — because they are.”
Smith certainly feels that way. The Bridgeport native who became Jim Calhoun’s first major in-state recruit in 1988 and helped spearhead UConn’s “Dream Team” in 1990 seemed to get as much out of his “Husky Huddle” as the current players.
“It just makes you feel even more like you’re part of the family and part of the system,” said Smith, still the program’s all-time leading scorer. “It seems like your input matters. It’s even uplifting my spirits. I’m ready to go to a game, just by talking to those guys. I want to support them even more. I think it’s great that they’re doing this.”
After the coaching staff gives the team a crash course on the former players, providing an information sheet and usually some video to watch, the Zoom conversation is essentially a free-flowing question-andanswer session between the ex-players and current players and staff.
“It’s really diverse messages, just to hear from
these different guys from different eras,” Hurley said. “Chris Smith, who was maybe the most important recruit in the history of the program, to hear his stories of the climb back then, from when he got here. Caron’s life experience before he got here, the impact at UConn. Emeka’s total commitment as a three-year graduate and the poster boy of college basketball. All the way to Boat, who was awesome, too, and just kept it real with the guys. And he was also a champion.”
Boatright pulled no punches when talking about the tense relationship he had with Napier early in his college career, or the mistakes he made while trying to get to the NBA.
“I was just trying to be real and transparent with them, as real as can be,” he said. “I wasn’t sugarcoating anything. I was being real, because I was in those guys’ shoes a few years ago, and we’re all trying to get to the same place. I was sharing some of my experiences and what I would do different in certain things in my career.”
As for Shabazz: “You ask anybody that was around the program, they’ll tell you we didn’t see eye-to-eye on a lot of things in my first year, and part of my second year. It took my second half of my sophomore season, from there on, we became best friends. (Kevin Ollie) made us live together my sophomore year, and that played a big role in our relationship. And now we’re best friends.”
Boatright, who is currently working out with a trainer in Arizona, said he and Napier still speak to each other every day.
‘I WISH WE WOULD HAVE DONE THIS WHEN I WAS IN COLLEGE’
Boatright, who played in Russia last season and is currently in negotiations with several different teams in several different countries, also was honest about some of the mistakes he made after he graduated from UConn and tried to latch on with the Brooklyn Nets. He said he spent too much time trying to hang out with the Nets’ veteran players during training camp.
“It’s not like I was getting in any trouble or anything,” he noted, “but if I could go back, I would have had a good relationship with the vets, but I would have started to hang out with them outside of basketball after I was solidified. I wouldn’t have been hanging out with them while I was trying to make the team.”
Smith, who lives in Stratford, said most of the questions posed by the players were about the old Big East. In fact, during the chat, a few of the players were watching YouTube videos of him in action.
One player asked whether Jim Calhoun got mad at him if he took a bad shot.
“I guess,” Smith reported, with a chuckle, “they heard a reputation about Calhoun.”
He added that he was “blunt” about how UConn was in the Big East basement before he arrived, and how he and his teammates took pride in steering the Huskies to prominence.
“I really do think the history of UConn and how it started really got to them,” Smith said. “I think that was important, because that’s the (bridge) to now. When you go out and play, you’re wearing UConn on your jersey, you’re representing the establishment. I think that’s what really stuck with those guys.”
The fact that none of the players in the “Husky Huddles” ever played for Hurley, yet are still eager to help out his team, says plenty about the current coach.
“I would have loved to have played for him,” said Boatright, who met Hurley two summers ago at the Jim Calhoun Charity Game. “He’s a players’ coach, for sure. He expressed how much he really, really enjoyed the style of play (of) me and Shabazz, and the attitude that we brought to the program. He always made me feel appreciated.”
“(Calhoun) had a lot of fire like Hurley, but Hurley kind of has a longer string,” Smith noted. “Calhoun’s string was a little shorter. Make one mistake,
I don’t care if it was 20 seconds into the game, the whistle was blown and you were going out. Hurley has that same fire, and he’s got your back.”
For Hurley, reconnecting with the program’s past players has been a priority since he took over two years ago.
“When you take over a situation like this where you’re a new coach and so many things need to be addressed — hire a staff, reshape the roster, update the facilities and just try to get the program functioning — the one area where you know that you need to do a great job and do better in is outreach to former players. (You have to) reconnect with the amazing history here of former players and coaches.”
“The program is on a lot more stable ground, which has put us in a better position to try to connect with the former players better. And we spend a lot of time trying to educate our players, try to put them in situations where they can learn from people who’ve done what they’ve done and been where they’ve been and have accomplished a lot.”
And make no mistake, the ex-players appreciate the opportunity.
“I think it’s good,” Boatright said, “especially in this time period we’re in right now, for the young’uns to get to pick our brains. (We’re) people that have been in their shoes and been to where they’re trying to get, as far as winning national championships or playing in the NBA. I think it’s always good to get as much experience and knowledge as you can.”
“I wish we would have done this when I was in college.”