The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Toughness a constant for Vital this season
Perhaps a bit lost in the mix of Saturday night’s rather unsightly, 61-46 win over Manhattan was an impressive performance by Christian Vital.
The junior guard threatened a triple-double the hard way, finishing with 13 points, eight rebounds and seven steals.
“Christian really saved us, with his toughness and aggression,” coach Dan Hurley said afterwards.
Indeed, beyond any stat line, that may be Vital’s most crucial contribution to the team. He’ll go through nights where he can’t buy a basket, and is still prone to some unwise decisions (shot selection, etc.) on the floor. But he plays hard, with heart and passion, every night. And that’s something that can be lacking in some of his teammates.
“I just try to do my part,” Vital said. “Everybody on this team has a role, everyone has to help in more than one way. That’s what I try to do, bring that extra presence on the boards, help the big guys on the post, and just do my part.”
UConn is back in action on Tuesday at the XL Center to face Drexel (7 p.m., SNY). For all the team’s flaws, many of them highlighted in Saturday’s ugly win, it’s easy to forget the Huskies are 8-3. They’ve taken care of every midor-low-major in their way, and usually quite convincingly. They’ve popped off Syracuse and come agonizingly close against Arizona and Florida State. They’ll have another chance at taking down a big boy on Saturday against defending national champ Villanova at Madison Square Garden.
But first comes Drexel (5-5), whom the Huskies know they can’t overlook.
“We can’t even think about Villanova right now,” said Vital. “Drexel is not a bad team. Coach keeps telling us they’re a team that can play really well, they have good guys on their team. Saturday’s gonna come, but we need to make sure we take care of Drexel first. Then, we’ll go on to that next one.”
Added Alterique Gilbert: “Our approach to practice has to be at a high level, each and every day, going into these games. We can’t take these games for granted.”
Ah yes, we’re talking ’bout practice. According to sophomore Josh Carlton, part of the team’s poor play on Saturday night could be because of its demeanor in recent practices.
“Just being too lackadaisical in practice,” the big man said. “We’ve got to rally as a team and bring game-like intensity to practice, working on limiting turnovers and things like that.”
For Hurley, it’s not just what the Huskies do during practice. They need to go above and beyond long after practice is over.
“We have 20 hours a week for strength and conditioning, practice, video,” he noted. “So, we get our 20 hours we’re allowed to allot to our preparation and maintaining their strength and conditioning and staying healthy. If that’s the only time you spend in the gym is the 20 hours with us ... you’ve got to get in the gym, get extra shooting in, at night, in the morning, before school, when school’s over. But that’s a cultural thing. It takes a little time to build it.”
He quickly added: “If they want to. That’s voluntary for them to do, too.”
A bit of classic, sardonic Hurley wit to ward off any potential NCAA violations. But Hurley wasn’t in a witty mood after Saturday’s game, 15-point win or not. He knows this team has a lot of work to do in a lot of areas — 3-point shooting, rebounding, cutting down turnovers. And his hardestworking player knows there’s plenty of room for improvement, as well.
“Do we have things we need to work on and clean up? One-hundred percent,” said Vital. “But, it’s a long season. We’re 11 games in, we’ve got a lot of time. We plan on playing in March, so I feel we do have time to pick it up until then.”
RIM RATTLINGS: Akok Akok, the 6-foot-9 forward who committed to UConn a couple of weeks ago and intends to join the team as a walk-on for the second semester, isn’t enrolled at the school yet but is hoping to be soon, according to a source close to the player. If and when Akok enrolls at UConn, he can begin practicing with the team immediately, since first semester exams are finished. It’s not entirely known yet whether Akok will be in uniform on the bench during games, but there is no current plan for him to play this season.