Men’s squad gets up off the mat, responds with a satisfying win

STORRS — If UConn was going to win this game, rebound from a terrible loss to St. Joseph’s, really learn something about growing together and celebrating as a basketball team, a Shabazzstyled buzzer beater wasn’t going to do.

No, not this time against Florida. Not this place. Not this day. Something less elegant was needed. Something grittier. Something with more elbow grease and less flourish. Something that, as Christian Vital said, screamed “team” and would turn a locker room that was distraught on Wednesday night into four walls of unrestrained Sunday joy.

So, with the Gators down three and looking to push the game into overtime, how does Alterique Gilbert jumping a pass on Keyontae Johnson and getting a hand on the ball to allow Vital make a steal sound? How does Vital racing down the court and pulling away before dribbling out the final six seconds of a 6259 victory over the No. 15 Gators sound? With each dribble on the Gampel Pavilion court, the sellout crowd of 10,167 fans grew louder and louder toward a final buzzer crescendo.

“There was water, liquid in both locker rooms,” UConn coach Dan Hurley said of his last two games. “On Wednesday was tears. Today it was Gatorade cups on the head and (coach) Tom Moore’s slicked back hair. There was crying the other day. It was like a morgue, man. It was like some of the worst moments you’ve ever had in your life. It feels like somebody ripped your guts out and you’re doing it in front of a lot of people on TV and in person.

“And today … life happens for you, not to you. If you stay in there and you’re selfaware, look in the mirror and instead of blaming and complaining, if you get back in the fight, fix the things that you failed at, learn from it, like in life there is always another opportunity.”

The Huskies hadn’t beaten a ranked team since the beginning of last year against Syracuse at Madison Square Garden. They hadn’t beaten a ranked team at home since SMU at the XL Center in 2016. They hadn’t beaten a ranked team at Gampel since — you guessed it — DeAndre Daniels tipped Shabazz Napier’s missed shot back to Napier and he hit that 15footer to lift No. 12 UConn over No. 15 Florida on Dec. 2, 2013. We all remember how that season ended with a fourth national championship.

No one is suggesting such a monumental ending this season, yet to return to those glory years a program must put one positive step in front of the other consistently and with great steadfastness. When you get knocked back two steps like that stinker against St. Joe’s

at Gampel, it is imperative to get up and show the resolve to take two steps forward. That’s what happened here.

“This was all about the response,” Gilbert said. “Obviously it was a bad loss for us, but we knew everything we did wrong immediately. We knew how to fix it. We didn’t panic.”

The Huskies had shot and defended miserably against St. Joe’s. Veteran guards Gilbert and Vital had forced the wrongs shots to try and dig the Huskies out of trouble. Only 4,081 fans were in the Gampel stands. Forget the locker room. Gampel was a morgue. Everything was wrong.

Sunday was different. So different. The crowd and students, as Hurley said,

provided a special atmosphere. Gilbert went a step further: “Without the crowd we wouldn’t have won it.”

Hurley said he thought this game was won in practices in Thursday, Friday and Saturday. His players agreed. No one panicked, Vital said, but there was a lot of intent listening. There had better be. The defense was lousy against St. Joe’s and Tyler Polley said, “The coaches were on our butt.”

Vital and Gilbert knew that had to do a better job of distributing the ball and getting others involved. They combined to shoot 10for40 against St. Joe’s.

“That can’t ever happen again,” Vital said. “That won’t ever happen again. That was on us. We needed to get our teammates involved.”

The Huskies started out shooting lousy again, but unlike St. Joe’s they defend

ed. They only shot 35.6 percent for the game, 25 percent from three, and, really, an eightpoint outburst early in the second half by Tyler Polley stood as the only thing resembling offensive lightning. Still there was sharing and a team that shares the ball, shares the love and collective responsibility.

“Tyler was bigtime today,” Vital said.

“In my opinion Tyler is the best shooter in the country,” Gilbert said.

“Those two showed what leadership is today,” Polley said. “We shared the ball. That was a big key for us.”

Florida was held to 20 points in the first half and wasn’t the team that made the big plays when it mattered most. The Huskies played mostly stellar defense, quick hands on the perimeter, long arms protecting the rim.

“We just kept fighting,”

Vital said. “That’s the motto of this team.

“That’s the thing about sports. You can have a bad night. You’re going to have bad nights. It’s how you respond. The good thing about sports is you get the chance to recover and prove yourself that the last game was fluke. It’s a long learning experience. No one left (the program). We stayed. I think that’s why the win today felt as good as it did.”

Yes, Gatorade cups were emptied instead of tear ducts.

“A major difference, man, a major difference,” Gilbert said. “Water everywhere. We’re going to enjoy it for a second.”

And then it’s onto to Charleston.