Huskies could be the team to beat in Big East Tournament
UConn is the No. 3 seed for this week’s Big East tournament. It’s the Huskies’ highest seed for a conference tournament since 2009, when they were the third seed for the Big East tourney .
You remember what happened that year, right? A certain six-overtime classic against Syracuse.
No one is expecting any six-overtime games this week at Madison Square Garden, but the competition promises to be intense. The league has been ultracompetitive throughout this truncated season, with upsets seemingly coming every night. Ultimately, the first-place team in the league (Villanova) had just three more wins than the 10th place team (Butler). And while much of that has to do with the varying number of games each team played, there’s no doubt parity reigned in this year’s Big East.
That will make for a wide-open tournament beginning on Wednesday night, made even more so by injuries and other issues surrounding some of the higher-seeded teams. Villanova’s senior point guard Collin Gillespie, the frontrunner for league Player of the Year honors, tore the
MCL in his left knee last week and is done for the season. On Saturday, Justin Moore, who replaced Gillespie as the Wildcats’ starting point guard, suffered a “pretty severe” left ankle sprain late in the first half against Providence and never returned.
So, the conference tourney’s top seed could be without its two point guards.
“Obviously, prayers and speedy recovery to Collin,” UConn coach Dan Hurley said on Saturday. “Brutal stuff right there. That dude’s a warrior and a champion and he’ll be back better than ever.”
Then there’s No. 2-seeded Creighton, which is currently embroiled in controversy after head coach Greg McDermott told his players to “stay on the plantation” during a postgame speech. McDermott was indefinitely suspended late last week, and it’s uncertain when he’ll return — though the Bluejays looked real good on Saturday in a 20-point win over Butler without him.
St. John’s, which clinched the fourth seed on Saturday, has been without potential league Freshman of the Year point guard Posh Alexander the past couple of games due to a thumb injury.
With all that in mind, UConn just might be the prohibitive favorite to win its first Big East tournament since the miracle five-games-in-fivenights in 2011. The Huskies are the hottest team in the league, winning six of their last seven games and four in a row — the longest win streak of any team heading into the tourney.
Unlike many of the teams around them, the Huskies are healthy. After injuries to leading scorer James Bouknight and talented freshman Andre Jackson sidelined both for different six-week stretches, they are back and as good as ever. In fact, other than Akok Akok, still not quite ready for prime time after tearing his Achilles tendon a little over a year ago, the band is back together again.
So the Huskies might be in the best shape heading into a tournament that Hurley felt was going to be wide-open even before the situations with Gillespie, McDermott, etc.
“I felt there were multiple teams who could win this tournament next week, regardless,” he said. “Maybe five, six teams that have the ability, whether there were injuries or not. This is a much better league than we get credit for. We didn’t play enough non-conference games to jack up the NET, like a lot of these other leagues, even some of the mid-major leagues that have no big non-conference wins, have these incredible NETs. The numbers are skewed this year. The league hasn’t gotten enough credit.”
The Huskies begin play on Thursday at 9 p.m. against the winner of Wednesday night’s bout between No. 6 seed Providence and 11th-seeded DePaul.
“I know we can win it,” Hurley continued. “I know Creighton, Villanova, Seton Hall could win it. St. John’s could win it. Xavier could win it. There are a number of teams … Providence can win it. There are six, seven teams that have a shot to win this thing.”
The healthy Huskies just might have the best shot of all.
BOUKNIGHT, SANOGO HONORED
Bouknight only played nine Big East games this season, but it was enough to convince the league’s coaches that he’s a first-team all-conference selection.
Bouknight was one of six players to earn first-team recognition on Sunday. He joins Villanova’s Collin Gillespie and Jeremiah Robinson-Earl, Seton Hall’s Sandro Mamukelashvili, Creighton’s Marcus Zegarowski and St. John’s Julian Champagnie as firstteam picks.
Bouknight averaged 20.2 points per game overall this season and 20.6 in Big East play. Both would have led the conference if the sophomore guard had played enough games, but he only played 12 games overall and nine in league play. Players must compete in at least 75 percent of their team’s games to qualify as Big East statistical leaders. The Huskies played 20 games overall and 17 in the Big East.
Instead, Champagnie was the Big East scoring champ, both in league play (19.5) and overall (19.9).
Meanwhile, UConn forward Adama Sanogo made the All-Freshman team.
Sanogo finished his freshman season averaging 6.9 points and 4.9 rebounds per game. He’s averaged 13 points and 9.5 boards in the Huskies’ last two games, including a doubledouble (10 points, 10 rebounds) in Saturday’s win over Georgetown.
Joining Sanogo on the All-Freshman team are St. John’s Posh Alexander, Marquette’s Dawson Garcia, Butler’s Chuck Harris and Xavier’s Colby Jones.
LOCALS HONORED
Several local players received honors from their respective leagues over the past week. Woodbridge’s Tyler Thomas, a sophomore at Sacred Heart, was named to the All-Northeast Conference second team. He was joined on the team by Waterbury’s Ty Flowers, a redshirt senior at Long Island University.
New Haven’s Walter Whyte, a junior at Boston University, earned All-Patriot League third team honors, while Stamford’s Jonas Harper, also a junior at BU, made the Patriot League’s All-Defensive Team.
Also, New Haven’s A.J. Edwards, a freshman guard at Eastern Connecticut State, was recently named the Little East Conference’s Rookie of the Week after scoring 24 points in a win over UMass-Dartmouth.