Even Hurley knows UConn ‘a mystery’ entering Big Dance
UConn coach Dan Hurley arrived in Indianapolis this week with an opponent lined up, an itinerary in place and a strange season to look back on as a gauge for what his team is capable of in the NCAA Tournament.
He does not have the crystal ball needed to predict, with any certainty or clarity, how his team will respond during the final leg of a COVID-19 endurance race and basketball roller coaster.
“I think right now this is a mystery, as to who we are going into this tournament,” Hurley said. “Which is kind of exciting. I think we’re a hard team to predict. Are we a one-anddone? Or can we make a run?”
Seeded seventh in the East Region, UConn opens plays Saturday against 10th seeded Maryland on the Purdue University campus in West Lafayette, Ind. Tip-off is at 7:10 p.m. on CBS.
This is a reward and opportunity for the Huskies. They have put checkmarks next to the general goals for Hurley’s third season by finishing near the top of the Big East and making the NCAA field for the first time since 2016.
The Huskies have grown, significantly, since 2018 and even since December. The team did, however, lack the type of signature victories now required to play on. A five-game winning streak that pushed UConn up and over the NCAA bubble was bookended by an eightpoint loss Feb. 20 at Villanova and a three-point loss Friday to Creighton in the Big East semifinals at Madison Square Garden.
“Mystery, that’s a good word to put on us,” senior forward Isaiah Whaley said. “I feel like we’re very
slept on and we can make a run in this tournament. Each one of those big games, we’ve been right there but we haven’t had a ton of those big games where we just keep on building. We’d have a stretch of games where it was like, OK, again we’re getting to that big game. And then we’d have to adjust again. So losing to Creighton was, I wouldn’t say a good thing, but it was a good lesson for us because now we see what this tournament is going to be like.”
Maryland (16-13) defeated Michigan State before losing to Michigan in the quarterfinals of the Big Ten Tournament at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, about 65 miles southeast of West Lafayette and the site of the Final Four.
Reaching Indiana alone is enough to label 2020-21 a success, no matter what happens from here, an advancement of Hurley’s project and a shift in the state of the UConn program. But the Huskies will have to win more games than the ones they’re supposed to for this to be a prolonged run. Secondseeded Alabama (24-6) is the likely second-round opponent. The Crimson Tide face Rick Pitino and Iona (12-5) in the opener.
UConn’s recent losses in games of opportunity were close, and complicated.
At Villanova, James Bouknight was playing just his second game after missing eight in a row while recovering from elbow surgery. At the Big East Tournament, Bouknight left a quarterfinal victory with severe cramps and shot 4-for-14 against Creighton, a game that slipped away after guard R.J. Cole left with a concussion and a gash above his eye.
UConn (15-7) is 11-3 with Bouknight, 4-4 without him.
“It’s hard, really, for us to read, to get a sense of just how good we are,” Hurley said. “I think we had a chance the other night vs. Creighton, potentially to show how good we were by closing that game out. But we don’t win that game. Then there’s these circumstances that we’ve dealt with the whole year. I think we’re a tricky team right now. I don’t think we quite know what level we can take this to because we didn’t win the game at Villanova late in the year, which would have been a statement game — but it’s James’ second game back and chemistry is not there. Then you get to that showdown game with Creighton and James is coming off the full body cramp and double I.V. bag, and you lose your point guard the last five minutes.”
COVID has wrecked momentum to some degree for all teams in this tournament. The pandemic and its disruptions — UConn had nine games canceled or postponed, for instance — has made the ramp-up to pursuit of a national championship more difficult to undertake and understand.
“You basically wait for (test results) every day,” Hurley said. “That’s why I have so much respect for everyone in college basketball — all the coaches, all the players — that have soldiered on and gotten through this type of season.
I don’t think people on the outside that haven’t lived it or experienced it have any idea what it’s been like for the coaches and the players just to complete a season — never mind being your best.”
How good is UConn? Hurley and everybody else will find out starting Saturday.
For now, we know this: The Huskies are better.
“We made that big step and Coach has told us that he’s proud of us for making that next step, but now we just want more,” Whaley said. “The Creighton, game, it hurt all of us. We’re basically trying to keep on getting better even while we’re at the end of the season, fixing some of the problems that we have and some of the mistakes we made in the Creighton game. It’s a big step, but we’re trying to make another big step.”
Hurley, who previously led turnarounds at Wagner and Rhode Island, said the UConn program is where he had hoped it would be at this point.
“Just based on where we were,” he said. “Every job you take is different. Some programs are closer to this point than others. This was pretty far away, so I’m thrilled with where we’re at.”
The ride isn’t over. “It’s obviously an exciting time of year,” Hurley said. “These guys have earned the opportunity to get out on the biggest stage in college basketball on Saturday.”