The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
New mindset leads to new results for senior Irwin
HARTFORD — It has been a memorable few days for UConn’s Kyla Irwin.
On Sunday, Irwin, a State College, Pa., native, contributed seven points off the bench against Temple, much to the delight of the 75 or so family and friends who traveled to see her. Then on Tuesday versus Virginia, she delivered undoubtedly her best performance as a Husky. The senior scored a careerhigh 13 points, along with six rebounds and five assists.
What’s to make of Irwin’s recent success?
“This season, she’s just completely comfortable,” coach Geno Auriemma said following an 8344 victory over the Cavaliers at the XL Center. “This is my role, this is what I can do, this is what I’m good at, and that’s all I’m going to do. I’m not going to try to do anything to prove to anybody that I deserve to be here.”
Essentially, Irwin is accomplishing more by doing less. She’s taking a simpler approach after trying to be someone she’s not.
“I’m just doing whatever I possibly can, whatever it is,” Irwin said. “Giving the ball to someone who’s going to score or just knocking down a 3 whenever I can … that big screen, I want to do whatever I can. I’m just doing whatever that is.”
Right now, that’s all the Huskies (40) are asking of Irwin, a 6foot2 forward. With limited depth, they need her to contribute when she’s on the floor, even if it’s just in limited spurts. That’s something she rarely did last season, or the two before that.
Irwin was unranked by most recruiting services coming out of high school in 2016, but Auriemma took a chance on her, hoping
she’d exceed expectations. She proceeded to play an average of only 9.1 minutes over her first three seasons in Storrs, recording 2.1 and 1.4 rebounds per game.
“There weren’t a lot of people that recruited her to play at this level, so when that happens, I think kids try to prove too hard, ‘Yeah, I can do this.’ So every day at practice, she would try to do 10 things she’s not good at, and would just make herself frustrated and dig herself a deeper hole,” Auriemma said. “She would try so hard that it would just completely backfire.”
Big assist(s) from Makurat: Anna Makurat came to UConn with a reputation as a standout shooter, but she’s struggled in that area so far. The 61 guard from Poland is just 5of22 from the floor and has made only 2of16 attempts from beyond the arc.
Still, Makurat’s found other ways to contribute, most notably as a passer. She had five assists against Virginia, just below her average through four games.
“She knows how to impact the game, whether she’s scoring points or she’s not,” Auriemma said. “She’s going to have an effect on the game. When the shot’s are going in, she’s going to have a huge effect on the game.”
Makurat misfired on her first 11 3point tries, causing her to press. She finally sank one Tuesday, much to the relief of Auriemma, who raised both arms in celebration. Now her teammates are hoping she’ll relax.
“Freshmen, you know, they’re nervous,” junior Megan Walker said. “You can hit them all day in practice or all day when you’re working out, but when you get in a game it’s different. I’m glad that she finally got in there and hit some shots.”
Officially official: On Wednesday, UConn officially announced its 2020 recruiting class, which features three players ranked in the top 30 by ESPN. The Huskies landed No. 1 overall recruit Paige Bueckers, No. 21 Mir McLean and No. 26 Aaliyah Edwards, as well as international prospect Nika Muhl and unranked Piath Gabriel.
“I think we’ve got a good mix of inside, outside, middle,” Auriemma said in a statement. “When you look at our team now, we’re young in some ways. We’re inexperienced in some ways. We don’t have the kind of size that we’ve had in the past. … I like how we’ve been able to package a lot of different things into five different players. Not one of them is remotely like the other, and that’s a really neat thing.”
ESPN rated UConn’s class second in the country behind Oregon. The headliner is Bueckers, a 511 point guard from Minnesota, who is the fourth No. 1 prospect in six years to choose UConn following Katie Lou Samuelson (2015), Walker (2017) and Christyn Williams (2018).
Auriemma said he likes Bueckers’ unselfishness and ability to get to the basket.
“She’s going to add, to us, a bigger guard that can impact the game, whether she’s shooting it or passing it,” he said. “It’s important for us to get kids that are talented and unselfish and can score, and Paige has been able to do all those things.”