Huskies hoping to halt two-game losing streak
It was Game 1, A.B. — After Bouknight.
Playing its first game without star guard James Bouknight back on Jan. 9, UConn got a secondstraight sizzling performance off the bench from Tyler Polley and topped Butler 72-60 at Hinkle Fieldhouse.
Polley was named Big East Player of the Week two days later, Bouknight appeared as though he’d be back fairly soon, and the Huskies completed a threegame road trip sweep with a win at DePaul and were ranked in the AP Top 25 for the first time in five years.
Two weeks later, Bouknight is still at least a couple of weeks from returning — maybe more. Polley is coming off a scoreless, 0-for-4 clunker at Creighton, and UConn has lost two straight and is out of the Top 25.
UConn (7-3, 4-3 Big East) hopes to get back on track against Butler, which makes its first-ever visit to Gampel Pavilion on Tuesday (8:30 p.m., FoxSports1).
Hurley said the absence of Bouknight, who had elbow surgery on Jan. 12, has had a “psychological affect on the team, just from a confidence standpoint.” But as he pointed out to his players, the program’s best stretch on the road it’s had in years a few weeks ago was accomplished mostly without Bouknight.
“So, we’ve got to find a way to rally around that,” Hurley said. “Obviously, when you lose one of the best players in the country, you’re in Year 3 of rebuilding a program and you’ve gone up in level significantly in conference, this is not an easy situation. But, we did win three in a row, basically without (Bouknight).”
Now, it’s Butler (5-7, 4-5) that has won two straight, including a win over 17thranked Creighton, which completed a two-game series sweep of UConn on Saturday, and a 14-point win a week ago at DePaul.
Butler (5-7, 4-5) has won two straight, including a win over 17th-ranked
Creighton, which completed a two-game series sweep of UConn on Saturday, and a 14-point win a week ago at DePaul.
“We’ve kind of flipped spots with them,” Hurley said. “It’s kind of a flip of the script from the first game, when we were riding high and they were struggling coming in.”
Less than a week ago, it appeared this game might not even happen. Butler went on pause due to COVID-19 issues within the program. Its scheduled game with Seton Hall on Friday was postponed, and it appeared a certainty that Tuesday night’s game would also be postponed.
But on Saturday, Butler announced that the player testing positive was a false positive, and the Bulldogs quickly got back to team activities.
Now, UConn looks to get back on track, despite missing not only Bouknight but highly-touted freshman Andre Jackson (wrist) and, possibly, sophomore Akok Akok (shin) — three of the foundations for Hurley’s rebuild.
The Huskies have only had nine players available in practice lately and are unable to go 5-on-5.
“No matter what situation you’re in, you don’t want the message sent that losing is OK,” Hurley said. “Because there’s always a path to victory. Sometimes, it’s incredibly narrow.”
“Our margin for error, with this particular team right now, is very thin.”
RIM RATTLINGS
Hurley is looking for more from his three seniors — Josh Carlton, Tyler Polley and Isaiah Whaley.
“Josh is at a point where he’s a senior, I’m sure disappointment has set in that a freshman (Adama Sanogo) has taken the starting spot,” Hurley said. “But, he’s got to make something of his career and of his year and help this team. He hasn’t given us much.”
“Tyler’s got to get better moving without the ball, use screens better. And his poor defensive play has affected his confidence at the offensive end.”
“With the people we have out, we need all-conference level play from Isaiah, or else we’re gonna have a very hard time winning. We need double-figure points and close to doublefigure rebounds, and we need a monster (game) defensively. He’s been OK, but he hasn’t been what we need him to be with what we’re dealing with with the injuries.”