The buzz is back, but work to be done
As the victories began piling up starting in midFebruary, seven wins in eight games, all by double digits, UConn looked as good as any team in the country.
An 18-point clobbering of Marquette, which had won at North Carolina a couple of nights earlier. A 16-point drubbing of Georgetown that wasn’t even that close.
A 34-point win over DePaul in the Big East Tournament, even with James Bouknight cramping up.
The sky appeared to be the limit for the “healthy Huskies,” with Bouknight back from a six-week hiatus and the band back together.
Perhaps it was all a bit of a mirage. Fool’s gold.
The combined Big East record of those teams UConn vanquished was
49-68. Only one (10-9 Seton Hall) had a winning league mark. None were NCAA Tournament teams.
UConn went 4-5 against NCAA tourney teams this season. It’s worth noting that all five losses came to teams that employ a positionless, five-out type of lineup — Creighton (three times), Villanova and, in a first-round tourney game Saturday night, Maryland.
“A bad fit,” coach Dan Hurley noted, though it’s the coach’s duty to adapt to that style and find a way to overcome it.
Two of those wins over tourney teams came over Georgetown (which went
8-11 in the Big East but rallied for a conference tournament title) and one over Hartford. The fourth came against USC on a
neutral court, by far the Huskies’ best win of the season.
UConn finished third in the league at 11-6, but a lot of that came beating up on the lower half of the conference. Against the other three teams that comprised the top four seeds for the Big East tourney, UConn was 0-5 (0-3 vs. Creighton,
0-1 vs. Villanova, 0-1 vs. St. John’s).
And it’s fair to say the Big East was down this season. The league has averaged more than five NCAA tourney bids since
2014, but had just four this year — and it would have been only three had Georgetown not made its run through Madison Square Garden.
There is no question that UConn took a big step forward in Year 3 of Hurley’s rebuild. But ultimately, the Huskies were a team that looked really good against average or bad teams, but usually couldn’t quite get over the hump against the good ones.
This is about where Hurley envisioned the Huskies at this point of his tenure, and he’ll be the first to tell you that he’s accurately predicted his team’s progression since taking over three years ago. Struggles but late-season improvement in Year 1. Excruciating losses turned to confidence-building wins in Year 2. A top-four Big East finish and an NCAA tourney trip in Year 3.
What to expect in Year 4? At Rhode Island, Hurley’s fourth season was derailed a bit by a season-ending injury 10 minutes into the season by E.C. Matthews, the Rams’ best player. Years
5 and 6 saw Hurley take
Rhody to the Big Dance for the first time in 20 years, and win a game both trips.
Year 4 at UConn will be interesting. Bouknight will almost certainly leave for the NBA draft, where he’s projected to be a potential lottery pick. Doesn’t matter if another year might do him good. The NBA drafts on potential, and Bouknight still oozes with it.
It’s likely that seniors Isaiah Whaley, Tyler Polley and Josh Carlton, as well as junior graduate Brendan Adams, will move on, despite being granted an extra year of eligibility by the NCAA due to the COVID-19 situation.
Hurley has had precious few players transfer, but these days, that always remains a possibility.
That’s a lot of offense, rebounding and shot-blocking to replace. The Huskies have a highly-touted recruiting class of Jordan Hawkins, Rahsool Diggins and Samson Johnson coming in, but it’s hard to expect too much production from freshmen right off the bat. Akok Akok will ostensibly be healthy again, but who really knows? UConn will certainly scour the transfer market, as well. There will be a lot of impressive names available.
Who’ll be the go-to guy next season? R.J. Cole? Tyrese Martin? Both players, Martin in particular, had struggles down the stretch. Will the Huskies’ offense run through a sophomore big man, Adama Sanogo? That would be somewhat new for a Hurley-coached team. Can Jalen Gaffney make a big jump in production? Can Andre Jackson develop his shot?
Many questions. The exciting part will be finding the answers. And maybe that’s the biggest takeaway from this season, strange as it was: the excitement is back at UConn.