The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Adams a game-time decision for Huskies
STORRS — A fire alarm blared throughout UConn’s practice at Gampel Pavilion on Thursday. No big deal, just a result of a little too much sawdust from a construction crew blasting holes in a backroom ceiling.
A bad omen for UConn’s first and only exhibition game? Nah, too allegorical. Just a simple old fire alarm.
Still, when the Huskies are unveiled for the first time publicly on Friday in an exhibition game against Scott Burrell’s Southern Connecticut State Owls at Gampel, fans may be a bit alarmed. And not necessarily in a good way.
“We’re gonna make a lot of mistakes on defense, we’re gonna struggle with execution, we’re gonna be out of position,” first-year UConn coach Dan Hurley predicted, somewhat morbidly but honestly. “But with the pedigree, hopefully, of the guys that play at UConn, we can make up for being a half-step or a step out of position with our length, athletic ability and pedigree.”
The Huskies will be without the services of redshirt sophomore Sidney Wilson, whose long-awaited UConn debut will be delayed due to a violation of university policy that occurred at some point last season. UConn may also be without its best player, Jalen Adams, who was held out of Saturday’s closeddoor scrimmage with Harvard for a violation of team rules.
“We’re still working through that,” Hurley said of Adams’ status on Friday. “It’ll be a game-time decision.”
While no one is saying what Adams (or Wilson) did wrong, it’s clear Hurley was unhappy with Adams not living up to the responsibilities of being the team’s best player.
“It’s great to be the best player because you get all the attention, but you get held to a higher standard, because everyone’s watching you,” the coach noted. “If I allow the best player on the team to cut corners and do the things he wants to do, we’re gonna have a soft, weak, losing team.”
For Hurley, it’s all about changing the culture of a team that has gone 30-35 the past two seasons.
“Culture is something you’ve got to fight for every day,” Hurley continued. “Our culture is not where it needs to be, overall. When you win 30 games in two years, it’s not just a talent issue, it’s not just one thing. There was a national championship in 2014 ... the culture, the commitment
level, the work ethic, doing the next hard thing or just handling your business — you get held to an even greater standard when you’re the best player, because you set the pace for the pack.”
Both Adams and Wilson practiced on Thursday, but neither was made available to the media.
Hurley said the Huskies had a productive practice, and that getting into a realgame scenario will be beneficial.
“You’re in front of a crowd, you smell the popcorn, fans are in the seats, you run through the tunnel,” he said. “It’s pretty cool. Everyone’s juiced up.”
Grad transfer Tarin Smith agreed.
“It’s always fun to play against someone else, finally,” Smith said. “We’ve been practicing against each other for so long, we’re all excited just to go against someone else.”
Hurley wants his team to play with intensity — all the time.
“We hope to play well, to
play incredibly hard,” he said. “We hope to move the ball well, play at a high level. We hope to win, get that confidence. These Division II teams that play in the Northeast-10, they’re good teams, they have good players. They have a couple of Division I transfers, athletic guys. Scott, obviously, will have his guys ready to play. For us, it’s a game, and we’ll treat it like a game.”
And, unlike Saturday’s scrimmage against Harvard, this time the public gets to watch.
“They’re quick, aggressive, they can shoot, they’re scrappy,” Hurley said of the Owls. “We’re bigger than them but slower, we’re gonna be chasing them around. It’s gonna be a real game. There’s gonna be some adversity in the game. It’ll be interesting to see how our guys handle it. We’ve got to be locked in. We’re not good enough at anything for us to kind of roll the balls out and sleepwalk through, or we’ll have a real low-point night if we’re not fully engaged.”