WORK TO DO
Press breaking, passing out of post high on Hurley’s list
STORRS — Three games in three days against good, defensiveminded competition down in the Bahamas helped UConn learn a lot about itself.
“How tough we are mentally,” grad forward Isaiah Whaley said. “It’s hard to get a look at it playing lower-level teams, but once we got to playing the higher-level teams, we figured out how tough we were mentally and physically.”
It also revealed areas where the Huskies still need work. UConn needs to be able to break opponents’ fullcourt pressure more easily. And, as well as Adama Sanogo has played, most recently earning Big East Player of the Week honors on Monday, the sophomore center needs to be able to pass out of the double- and tripleteams he’ll be seeing on the low post the rest of this season
These are the type of things the Huskies can work on over their next two games against a pair of low-major opponents, starting with Maryland-Eastern Shore on Tuesday (7 p.m., CBS Sports Network) at XL Center. Consider it a respite for the 17th-ranked Huskies, sandwiched between three grueling tests in the Bahamas and a pair of high-major, non-conference foes next week against West Virginia and St. Bonaventure.
“We’ve obviously got areas where we’ve got to get better,” coach Dan Hurley said following practice on Monday.
UConn (6-1) struggled against fullcourt pressure against Auburn and, particularly, VCU last week. The Huskies turned the ball over 24 times in the double-overtime win over Auburn and 22 times in the overtime win over VCU.
“We probably don’t have the type of overall handlers at guard,” Hurley said. “We are playing bigger, we don’t have a lot of natural, gifted dribblers and ballhandlers and passers.”
Of course, sitting on the bench for all three games was Rahsool
Diggins, a freshman four-star recruit out of Philadelphia. Diggins only played sparingly in UConn’s first four games against low-majors, scoring just four points on 25-percent shooting and turning the ball over two times against just one assist.
Clearly, Hurley doesn’t believe Diggins is ready for more run.
“Potentially, down the line,” Hurley said. “He’s got to fight his way into the rotation. I’m not gonna put a guy in the rotation because you think he’s just a press-breaking specialist.”
Back from the Bahamas, where UConn played three straight earlyafternoon games and had little chance to work on things, the Huskies can now make more adjustments in practice.
“We can work on spacing, maybe different strategic things to move your chess pieces around,” said Hurley. “But we’re gonna have to do it with a little bit more strategy. Most of the teams I’ve had have had so many handlers, you haven’t been able to press us. But, we don’t have that type of handling team.”
Meanwhile, while Sanogo, the team’s leading scorer and best player, is hardly one of Hurley’s biggest worries,
it’s clear he must learn to find his teammates better when defenses collapse on him.
“Adama’s a guy that’s still developing his dribbling and passing skills,” Hurley said. “He’s obviously a tremendous low-post player, and does it at a very high level. He’s got to get better at recognizing the help defense and the double-teams. Sometimes, he struggles to throw it out of the post, because he still has to develop the mechanics of passing the ball. Sometimes, it’s not because he doesn’t want to pass, it’s because as a young player, he’s still developing skills to skip the ball to the weak side out of the post, or have a feel of where to go with the ball.”
And, the coach added, Sanogo’s teammates need to get open for him better, as well.
All things to work on over the next week or so, before things get very difficult on the Huskies’ schedule again.
RIM RATTLINGS
⏩ Sanogo is UConn’s first Big East Player of the Week this season. He averaged 18 points, 7.7 rebounds and 2.7 blocks at the Battle 4 Atlantis and was named to the all-tournament team.
The 6-foot-9 forward had a careerhigh 30 points in Wednesday’s double-overtime win over nationallyranked Auburn,and followed that with a double-double — 18 points and 10 rebounds — against Michigan State.
“If I keep being what I’m being,” Sanogo said. “I will get more of that. So, it’s exciting.”
⏩ Meanwhile, UConn actually moved up five spots to No. 17 in this week’s AP Top 25 poll.
“That’s a great thing,” Hurley said. “We want to keep going, get better. Hopefully, being good again, playing good basketball will get us a good crowd at the XL crowd ... even when you don’t play a huge-name opponent.”