The Moore you know

Assistant coach weighs in on all things Huskies

Having no fans in the building at Gampel Pavilion is an unfortunate situation for the UConn men’s basketball team, according to assistant coach Tom Moore.

“Safety has to come first with this thing,” Moore told Hearst Connecticut Media during a podcast on Monday night. The new reality with the pandemic is that so many of us have had to give up essential and non-essential things in our lives. This is just another one. My heart breaks for the diehard Connecticut basketball fans, because the timing aligned perfectly with us being in the third year of a rebuild and going into the Big East again.”

UConn announced on Monday afternoon that there will be no paying fans inside Gampel, at least to start the season. Players and coaches from both UConn and the visiting team will be allotted four tickets each for family members, and that’s it.

That could change later in the season, if the COVID-19 situation improves.

Either way, Moore, the former longtime UConn assistant who returned to the school as head coach Dan Hurley’s assistant three years ago, believes this year’s team is ready to take the step up from the American Athletic Conference back to the Big East.

“If this had happened our first year, or even last year, I don’t think we would have been ready for the enormity of it, the expectations, the grind that will be January, February, into the Big East tournament,” Moore said. “I think this year’s team is a little bit more ready for it.”

UConn was picked to finish fourth in the Big East preseason coaches’ poll last week, while sophomore guard James Bouknight was a second team all-Big East selection.

“I think our ranking is a little bit based on what we could be, more so than what we’ve actually done,” Moore confessed.

He was, however, a little miffed that Bouknight wasn’t a

Jessica Hill / Assocaited Press UConn student manager Justin Eaddy passes a ball to players while assistant coach Tom Moore looks on before a March game in Storrs.