Dancin’ days return
UConn will open NCAA Tournament play against Maryland
Dan Hurley called it “gratifying,” the culmination, at least to this point, of his rebuild at UConn.
Tyler Polley said the Huskies “were lit.”
James Bouknight? Pharrell Williams had nothing on the UConn star.
“I’m just happy,” Bouknight said. “I’m happy for the seniors, I’m happy for the freshmen, happy for Coach, happy for the fans. Right now, I’m just a happy person.”
UConn’s return to the NCAA tournament for the first time in five years became official on Sunday evening. The Huskies earned the No. 7 seed in the East Region and will face 10th-seeded Maryland on Saturday in Indiana. Tip time and other information will be announced later.
UConn was one of the final four teams announced on CBS’s Selection Sunday Show. The Huskies gathered in a restaurant at their New York City hotel to hear the news.
“The team’s excited,” Hurley reported. “That was one of our goals going into the season, to compete for the top of the Big East Conference, and to get into the NCAA tournament. We’ve been able to do both things this year, so it was a great celebration.”
“I don’t think it was a big goal, this was the main goal,” Bouknight added. “I can’t even explain the feeling. Over the past two days, my emotions have been up and down.
This is what you work for the whole year, to be able to play under these bright lights. All the tough practices, Coach screaming at us, all the brutal days ... this is what you work for. This is what you want to be a part of.”
For Polley, one of three seniors on the team, it marks the high point of a career that had been filled with too much losing (not to mention a season-ending injury) over the past three years.
“It was a crazy feeling,” the 6foot-9 forward said. “That’s a feel
ing I’ve been waiting to feel since I got here. Just a whole bunch of different emotions, and just blessed to be in the tournament.”
This is the second time UConn has been a No. 7 seed. The last time was 2014, when the Huskies rallied all the way to their fourth national title.
This is UConn’s 34th trip to the NCAA tournament and 21st trip since Jim Calhoun took over in 1986, but first time since 2016. The Huskies have a 59-30 alltime record in the Big Dance, including four national championships.
UConn is 15-7 overall after finishing third in the Big East (11-6) then clobbering DePaul in a Big East tournament quarterfinal game before being edged by Creighton in the semifinals. The Huskies have won seven of its last nine games overall.
Maryland, coached by Mark Turgeon, is 16-13 overall this season and went 9-11 to finish eighth place in arguably the best conference in the country, the Big 10.
“Mark’s an excellent coach,” Hurley noted. “(Maryland has) a number of veteran players that have played really, really well on last year’s team that was one of the best teams in the country. Really athletic wings, I love (Eric) Ayala ... It’ll be a really, really tough first game.”
Hurley could only hark back to where the program was when he took over three years ago.
“You pop the hood sometimes, what the car looks like is worse,” he recalled. “All those practices, every day when you’re fighting over behavior, habits, mindset, mentality, professionalism from when you walk in to this point, and the battle continues every day. We’re trying to create a winning culture and a mindset. It certainly wasn’t that type of mindset a couple of years ago.”
“I love these rebuilds,” he added. “It’s very gratifying, thinking about where we were a couple of years ago.”
And now, UConn is back in the NCAA tournament.
“This is where we belong,” Bouknight said. “This is our identity, where we thrive. This is our time of the year, and we just want to go out, put on a show and make fans proud.”
The sophomore guard, coming off what he called his worst game in a UConn uniform in the loss to Creighton, added that he’s anxious to get going and wants to play right now. The Huskies will have to temper their excitement a bit, however. They’ll likely fly to Indiana on Monday and will have to quarantine for a couple of days before they can start practices.
Either way, UConn is back in the Big Dance, and James Bouknight is happy.
“We’re going dancin’, man,” he said. “That’s just crazy.”
RIM RATTLINGS
⏩ Hurley reported that junior point guard R.J. Cole, who missed the last 4 1/2 minutes of the Creighton game after banging his head on the floor and bleeding profusely, suffered a mild concussion and is in protocol. Hurley said the fact that UConn’s first game is on Saturday, and not Friday, improves his chances of playing against Maryland.
⏩ Bouknight suffered severe cramping in UConn’s Big East quarterfinal romp over DePaul and missed much of the second half. It’s the second time this season that cramping has sidelined him for part of a game.
“He’s got to have that personal discipline to hydrate during the game,” Hurley said. “The staff is all over it. We can’t lose a game this time of year and not advance because James didn’t take in enough fluids or have enough potassium, or whatever. That can’t happen. He’s got to be more diligent. That’s all part of his growth as a player.”