While brilliant, Bouknight still in need of a running mate
Only one UConn player had done what James Bouknight did Sunday at Gampel Pavilion. Only Donyell Marshall, who had 42 points twice against St. John’s in
1994, had scored 40 points in a Big East game.
Only Marquette’s Steve Novak, who had
41 points against UConn in January 2006, ever scored more in his Big East debut.
Cutting, slashing, repeatedly getting to the foul line and later heating up from beyond the arc, Bouknight did what Dan Hurley had been pleading for for the past month. Stack one dominating half with another dominating half. Not in fits and starts. Not in spurts.
And so he did. Bouknight was so good, so devastating for stretches against No. 9 Creighton that only an overtime loss could make Hurley look like his dog died and the finance company had foreclosed on his mortgage.
“I just had my heart ripped out of my chest,” Hurley said after his team surrendered a win in the closing seconds of regulation and then lost it officially in overtime,
76-74. “We should have won that one in regulation.”
Yes, they absolutely should have. Yet when Hurley does get around to stuffing his heart back in his chest, he should welcome this news: His team also has heart. And a bona fide star who proved it in the school’s first Big East game in eight seasons, a star that opponents are going to do everything to stop in the coming weeks, a star that may well end up a first-round NBA draft pick. And when this season is over, Big East coaches will wonder how the heck did they keep him off the preseason all-league first team?
“Having not played in 17 days is tough for any team,” Bouknight said. “I was proud of our performance. We’ve got to knock down more shots and make our free throws. It’s definitely frustrating. We thought we had the game in the bag. I think we got a little happy too early. To lose this game definitely hurts, but it shows how much progress we’ve made.”
It turns out the Huskies didn’t need 40 points Sunday from Bouknight. They needed 43 for the win and he damn near gave it to them.
“Coach has been telling me since the CCSU (opening) game to play a full 40 minutes,” Bouknight said. “I don’t think there was a certain time during the game when I felt like it was my day. I just kept going. When I missed a shot, I didn’t hesitate to shoot the next one. I just kept
playing and stayed focused.”
It would be unfair and incorrect to call this a breakout game for the sophomore. He had 23 last year against Cincinnati and all sorts of high doublefigure games. No, this was much more an affirmation of how good he is when 20 minutes become 40.
“It was a big step, a big step for his confidence,” Hurley said. “A big step in terms of a full-game attacking effort. Obviously, people are going to take the film of this and really gimmick and do things. We’re going to have to find creative ways to get him the ball in key spots. I don’t know if we’re going to get
40 from him all the time, but he is the type of guy that (can have) a lot of days like this when people are watching. We got to get him
20 shots a game and find a second scorer.
“Never mind a secondary scorer, we couldn’t find scoring anywhere else, which pretty much left him out there on an island.”
Bouk Island was something else, though. This was a terrific basketball game, the reason why everyone in Connecticut wanted a return to Big East basketball.
What was missing at Gampel, thanks to COVID, were the fans.
What was missing for the UConn fans was the W.
And what was missing for UConn was a dependable second scorer and a handful of winning plays that will help close out days like this one against topechelon talent.
Oh, yeah, and two free throws.
Look, R.J. Cole did such a terrific job dogging Big East Preseason Player of the Year Marcus Zegarowski into 4-for-14 shooting, including 1-for-8 from three, and five turnovers, it’s a shame to have to point out he butchered two free throws with 11 seconds left that could have iced the game.
Zegarowski scored a layup with 13 seconds left. Cole was immediately fouled. Instead of four up with free throws, it was two and Damien Jefferson hit a difficult short jumper to send the game into overtime with two-tenths of a second remaining. You’ve got to feel badly for Cole.
“He is 10 for 10 on the line at that point on the season, 6-for-6, in the game,” Hurley said.
Cole gets cut less emotional slack for shooting 2-for-12 overall.
“Right now I think he’s our best chance at a secondary scorer,” Hurley said. “Somebody who could potentially get us 13-14 a game that could support James on the perimeter. He hasn’t played in a while. He hasn’t had a lot of games to play to get into some kind of rhythm.
“We’re going to get behind him and support him. I thought he really battled one of the best point guards in the country. Minus missing the big free throws, him and Zegarowski were kind of a push today. If you would have told me at point guard it would have been a push, we definitely would have taken R.J.’s game. Give the guy some time. He sat out a full (transfer) year and just like all of us (because of COVID) he hasn’t had a traditional lead up to conference play.”
Maybe the 17 days without a game left the Huskies jittery early, missing some defensive assignments, going 2-for-14 on threes in the first half. Maybe the 17 days off left them fatigued in overtime. This we do know. Beyond Cole’s 2for-12, Jalen Gaffney was
1-for-8, Brendan Adams
1-for-5, Tyrese Martin 1
for-6. Isaiah Whaley got into foul trouble, including a bad one early in the second half, and that hurt in stopping Christian Bishop inside. Freshmen Adama Sanogo and Andre Jackson, Hurley said, couldn’t handle this game defensively.
Down 29-17, UConn needed something. Bouknight scored 10 of UConn’s final 12 points in the first half. It started with a tough baseline jumper and he just kept going. Finally, the Bluejays slowed him down. UConn didn’t score a basket over 8:22 before Bouknight hit two desperation threes in the closing seconds of overtime.
“We flooded (Bouknight) a little more in his penetration,” Creighton coach Greg McDermott said. “I thought there were times, Denzel closed out a little short on him and gave him a three. We encouraged him to get up into him more and make him put it on the floor, but if you’re going to do that the defense behind him has to be there. And for a good portion of the game it was not. Late in the game and overtime we did a much better job of meeting him with bodies in the paint.”
“They got really physical with him off the ball, which made it harder for him to cut,” Hurley said. “They sent obviously multiple defenders at him when he got the ball in his hands. He wasn’t going to have 45 by the end of the regulation. This isn’t a video game.”
Still, the 40 was the most by a UConn player since Amida Brimah had 40 against an overmatched Coppin State team in 2014.
“This is a step forward for me and for the team to be able to score and open up the floor for opportunities on the court,” Bouknight said. “That’s my job on the floor.”
Bouknight went on to talk about how nobody practices as hard and furiously as a Dan Hurley team. He said no one gets babied and it will be no different when they reconvene Monday. He insisted his older teammates likely will step up and the younger ones will develop.
“Once we figure it all out,” Bouknight said, “I feel like we’re a team that can really make a run in the (NCAA) tournament.”