Hurley, Huskies looking to get back up off the mat

STORRS — The night couldn’t have gone worse for UConn. St. Joe’s may have put a rebuilding A10 team on the floor, one without a lot of size or a deep rotation, yet with bigs who can shoot the three and guards who can post up, the Hawks were an inverse matchup problem.

Wednesday night was a bitter cold one, and the Huskies started like a dead battery in the South Lot garage. Josh Carlson couldn’t make a layup. Christian Vital, among others, couldn’t cover a three. Sidney Wilson seemed bent on setting an NCAA record for most mistakes per minute. On and on it went, and it didn’t help that a shockingly small crowd of 4,081 showed up at Gampel Pavilion.

St. Joe’s couldn’t miss, and a 140 opening turned into a shocking 27point lead. Every moan, every groan could be heard in a 60 percent empty arena. Even UConn’s secondhalf comeback, spurred by fullcourt pressure, fell short as Alterique Gilbert played less like a seasoned point guard and more like a doomed actor in a reenactment of the Charge of the Light Brigade. When it mattered most, his small body was engulfed time after time by a forest of arms in the lane and ended with turnovers or wildly forced shots.

By the end of the disturbing 9687 earlyseason loss — the Huskies had been favored by 13 points — the play of freshman Akok Akok was the only thing that stopped a distressed Dan Hurley from throwing the entire burning mess in the rubbish. The film session afterward was not pleasant.

Immediately afterward, Hurley said what it takes to change the course of a program are special people who believe in themselves and believe they are the guy who

can bring UConn back to greatness. Hurley talked about needing an infusion of youthful exuberance. He searches for swagger.

A program puts together three straight losing seasons, he said, and it turns into a culture, accepting of losing. “You start wearing it like underwear,” Hurley said. Hurley used a fascinating phrase, “It seems like a burden we’re carrying into games.”

UConn fans, even if they didn’t show against St. Joe’s, will show in sellout fashion Sunday afternoon at Gampel Pavilion for No. 15 Florida. Some will claim freezing temperatures as the reason for not showing Wednesday. Some simply are biggame hunters. All will be praying for a giddy repeat of what happened in December 2013 when Shabazz Napier, like Kemba Walker before him, proved anything is possible. They will be loud and if the Huskies lose and do not play well, they will be loud in dumping on this season and jumping ahead to next when a fine 2020 recruiting

class joins a fine one from 2019.

It will become about what Dan Hurley is going to do when he mixes recruits Javonte BrownFerguson, Andre Jackson and Richie Springs with Akok, James Bouknight and Gaffney.

It will become about what he can do when he finally gets rid of Kevin Ollie’s players.

And that would be the biggest mistake of all.

If UConn fans think this is going turn like a switch, they are delusional. This isn’t Duke or Kentucky where a slew of fivestar guys are rolling in every year. Even with four national titles, it never was like that in Storrs.

What happens this year is connected to the rebuilding in every way. And if we were going to stamp on Ollie for an earlyseason stink bomb, certainly Hurley deserves a onenight stamping, too.

“The entire night felt like such a step back,” Hurley said. “I feel like we have taken a bunch of steps forward. This is a big year for us to show growth, to show development of our juniors, for our freshman to show improvement throughout out the year. You’re trying to grow as a program, develop winning habits. We’re trying to get this program together, man.

“There’s a lot of things that fans see, (the media) see and there’s a lot of things that go on behind the scenes that contributed to this program not being where it once was. The last thing anyone was thinking about after that performance Wednesday was let’s blow it up and let’s tank. We’re trying to squeeze every ounce out of these guys.”

Remember that. Remember it as Bouknight returns from suspension after Florida and tries to incorporate his multidimensional scoring. Remember it as Hurley finds more minutes for Gaffney and lives with his early mistakes. Remember it as Tyler Polley must demand the ball when toes to the line, he is open for the three. Remember it as Carlton reminds himself he absolutely can’t turn tissue soft again and needs to play like he did down the stretch next season. Etc.

Hurley is trying to stack good practices, winning habits and confidence. And, yes, recruiting classes. It’s a huge part of it. It’s not all of it.

Zion Williamson isn’t walking through that door next summer.

The defensive performance against St. Joe’s was a joke. The 40 shots combined by Gilbert and Vital were far too many. The five points off the bench far too few. The seven assists indicative of how badly the ball moved. The 8for34 shooting on twopointers shouted how many longrange contested twos — the worst shot in the basketball — were hoisted.

With all his injuries, Gilbert still has another year of eligibility remaining. Whether he uses it, is a question for another day. On Friday, Gilbert said he talked with Hurley about leadership. Asked how he’d like to see it manifest itself on the court, Hurley gave an answer of more than 200 words. He said it’s about losing yourself in in your teammates, in trying to win the game, in the details of the scouting report and execution. It’s not wrapping yourself up in how you’re playing or how many points you have.

What we saw from Gilbert on Wednesday, Hurley insisted, wasn’t selfishness: “That was just Al going about it in the wrong way to try to help his team win. I’ve got to do a much better job coaching him and having him better prepared to lead the team and to play as a point guard.”

With his speed and creativity, Gilbert needs to get Polley shots and Vital good shots so Vital doesn’t force bad ones. Gilbert’s play is the single biggest factor in UConn getting 20 wins this year, getting itself to postseason play, even if it’s the NIT.

“Al has got to generate more offense and be a charismatic leader and I’ve got to do a better job of reminding him of that,” Hurley said.

UConn stunned Syracuse early last season at MSG and lots of folks were ready to make Hurley governor. Iowa blew out the Huskies the next night and UConn finished 1617 in Hurley’s first season. Look, if UConn comes out with great energy, sticks around and the crowd gets into it, a win over Florida is possible. The one piece of good news from the St. Joe’s trash — Hur

ley’s word — is they won’t come like punks again. Again, Hurley’s word. No one plays harder than an athlete with a guilty conscience.

Sure, Hurley has seen Napier’s shot that beat Florida. He shows it as part of a video on recruiting visits to demonstrate what it means to be a UConn player in an intense environment … DeAndre Daniels tipping the ball back, Napier hitting at the buzzer, the place going nuts, Napier running out of the gym, returning, kicking in celebration, yeah, Hurley has seen it at least 125 times.

“I understood what this was,” Hurley said. “I understand what it is, daily. This is a climb, man. We’re not going to get there overnight. We’ll have moments like that, hopefully for us in the near future, hopefully sooner rather than later. We’re a long way from that, from playing a game at that level. That’s why they hired me here.”

To rebuild in 2019.

Not to dream for 2021.