The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Bouknight set to make debut with Huskies
Freshman held out of first three games following arrest
CHARLESTON, S.C. — Dan Hurley struggled with offthecourt issues early in his career as a player at Seton Hall.
“I remember what I was like,” he said on Wednesday afternoon. “I’m very selfaware, to this day, of my flaws, and I try to get better at it. I’m not a judgmental person.”
That makes him perhaps the best possible coach to handle James Bouknight’s situation. Bouknight, UConn’s talented freshman guard, has been held out of the Huskies’ first three games this season — as well as two exhibition games — after being arrested for an oncampus vehicular incident in the earlymorning hours of Sept. 27.
On Monday morning at Rockville Superior Court, Bouknight was accepted into an accelerated rehabilitation program that can clear those charges in a year. On Thursday night at TD Arena, he will make his longawaited UConn debut on the basketball court, when UConn (21) faces Buffalo in a firstround game of the Charleston Classic.
“He made a mistake,” senior guard Christian Vital said. “I haven’t met one perfect person in this world, including myself. I told him, ‘Listen, it was a bad mistake, but it wasn’t detrimental to your career.’ He’s still able to play, and now he’s got to learn from it and move on.”
Hurley has always been very open and honest about his own personal failings as a college player at Seton Hall. In an extensive interview with Hearst Connecticut Media a little over a year ago, he admitted he “kind of lost my
mind a little bit” after experiencing a newfound freedom at college that he never had during his strict upbringing at home and at St. Anthony High in New Jersey.
And when he started off his career not playing very well, he rebelled by going out, drinking, staying out late and acting “like a crazy college kid.” He even admitted that once he stayed out partying until 2 a.m., then played a nationallytelevised game against Ohio State at noon.
Just a few games into his junior season, Hurley stepped away from the game and didn’t return until the following year.
To a certain degree, Hurley has walked in Bouknight’s shoes.
“We’re all imperfect, man,” Hurley said following practice on Wednesday. “We all make mistakes. He made a big one. He’s in the public eye because he plays basketball at UConn. But I was a mess when I was his age. So, I’ll just try to help him be better than I was.”
Bouknight was not made available to the media on Wednesday, but his teammates and coaches had plenty of praise.
“He’s gonna be a great player,” veteran guard Alterique Gilbert predicted. “His length, I think he’s a great rebounder, too, which a lot of people don’t look at. I think he’s gonna have a big role for us. I think he’s gonna come in and play well. And if he doesn’t, it’s just great to have him on the court.”
“Talent. An athlete,”
Hurley added. “A guy who has the ability to make plays. He can put it in the bucket and can make plays that a lot of other players with regular talent can’t make.”
Just don’t necessarily expect Bouknight to jump straight into the fire and score 20 points in his college debut. Buffalo (21) is a tough, veteran, guardoriented team that is hardly the ideal matchup for a freshman making his collegiate debut.
“The more talent that we can put on the floor, the better,” said Hurley. “We’re struggling offensively, especially the last two games. We could really use a boost of talent offensively. But this is a tough game ... Just to expect to drop him out of the sky against this group of guards, it’s gonna be tough. But hopefully, he can help us.”
Just like Hurley and his teammates helped Bouknight get through his current situation, especially dealing with outside criticism.
“There’s people that sit behind their computer on social media and have a cartoon character as an avatar and won’t put their name on things, but take shots at people,” Hurley noted. “It’s pretty pathetic.”
“He’s been through a lot before he’s even played his first game,” the coach added. “A humbling last couple of months for him. One thing he has going for him is an incredibly supportive locker room, incredibly supportive teammates that thinks highly of him and a staff that believes in him.”