Takeaways: Huskies an entertaining group

UConn improved to 2-0 with a 94-66 whitewash of UMKC on Sunday night, its best start to a season since — well, last year.

Let’s not forget, the Huskies were 4-0 at one point last season, with a nice win over Oregon in Portland, Oregon, before Alterique Gilbert went down with another shoulder injury and the whole season turned into garbage time.

But let’s not compare last season to this season. The Huskies are playing an entertaining, fun brand of basketball. Dan Hurley seems to have changed the culture. Things get significantly tougher later this week, when UConn faces No. 15 Syracuse, then either No. 13 Oregon or Iowa at Madison Square Garden. Both games will be a much truer test to how much UConn has improved over the past year. For now, here’s five takeaways from the Huskies’ first two wins.

⏩ Run for your life!: It became an annual rite for Kevin Ollie and even latterday Jim Calhoun to promise the Huskies would run, run, run more each season. It never seemed to come to fruition. When Hurley came aboard promising the same thing, you could be forgiven if you rolled your eyes a bit. But UConn has truly lived up to Hurley’s promise so far. The Huskies scored 21 fast-break points in the season-opening win over Morehead State. They had

26 against UMKC and scored 27 points off 18 Kangaroo turnovers. They look to run all the time. The first basket of the season was a fast-break layup from Gilbert to Josh Carlton. Later in the opener, Carlton grabbed a rebound, quickly spun around and hit Jalen Adams on a long outlet for a layup. On Sunday, Christian Vital hit Eric Cobb on a long outlet for a layup.

The Huskies are thinking “run” as soon as they touch

the ball. And they have to, because with some questions in the frontcourt, UConn will need to push the pace to beat bigger, stronger teams. And it will have to do so on Thursday night to beat Syracuse’s long, 2-3 zone up the floor.

⏩ Vital-ogy: We’ve almost got the full Christian Vital Experience over the first two games. He’s played hard and with passion, forced up some unnecessary shots, grabbed a team-high 18 rebounds but missed 10 of the 12 3-pointers he’s hoisted

up. All that’s been missing so far was one of his patented hot streaks where he buries three or four straight treys. That’s coming. Perhaps against the ‘Cuse zone on Thursday night.

⏩ Gilbert got-feed: There’s still a bit of rust on Alterique Gilbert’s game, but the early results are promising. He doled out four assists in about the first 10 minutes of play in the opener, and though he’s only had four dimes since then, he looks quick, shifty and, most

importantly, healthy. Never a great shooter, he’s hit five of his first eight 3-pointers, as well. A healthy Alterique Gilbert changes everything for the Huskies.

⏩ Who are you?: Yes, all this has come against Morehead State and UMKC — hardly powerhouse programs. But the Huskies did what they had to do, and looked good doing it. Would you prefer losses to the likes of Wagner and Northeastern, or ugly, overtime wins over Columbia and Monmouth? Because that’s what you’ve had the past couple

of seasons. Sure, Hurley’s locker-room celebration after a 10-point home win over Morehead State was a bit ... over the top. But he’s trying to infuse energy into this program and, perhaps most importantly, his players seem to dig it.

⏩ With a little help from my friends?: A total of 52 teams received at least one vote in this week’s AP Top 25. Not a single one of those teams is in the American Athletic Conference. The league is down this year. Perennial powerhouses

Cincinnati and Wichita State have already lost at home. So has UCF, which was picked to win the league in the preseason coaches’ poll. Finishing third or fourth in the AAC this season may not get you an NCAA bid. For the Huskies to get back to the Big Dance for the first time in three years, they’re going to really have to make hay in the league — and possibly need to the conference tournament in Memphis to earn the automatic bid.