The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
SAINT PETER’S at UCONN
When: Wednesday, 7 p.m.
Where: XL Center, Hartford
Records: Saint Peter’s 24, UConn 63 TV: SNY
Radio: UConn/IMG Sports Network, 97.9 FMESPN Hartford, WAVZNew Haven (1300 AM), WICCBrideport (600 AM), WINEDanbury (940 AM), WGCH Greenwich (1490 AM)
KEEP AN EYE ON
TURNOVER A NEW LEAF: UConn is shooting 33.7 percent from 3point land — tied for No. 160 in the nation. Not great. But some of that is offset by the fact that the Huskies have taken care of the ball pretty well this season. At least until last week’s loss to Indiana.
UConn turned the ball over a whopping 22 times against the Hoosiers, their most in a game since Dan Hurley took over as coach.
When asked what deficiencies he saw in the Indiana game, Hurley noted: “I just felt like, offensively, the shot selection, obviously ball security, not doing things with the ball that you’re not capable of, being more physical to create better opportunities offensively. I felt like we were soft at the point of screens, both use of them and setting them. We feel like we’ve made a lot of progress defensively and how hard we’re playing, even as a rebounding team. But offensively, we’ve really got to clean up that end of the court.”
PAGING ALL YOUNG GUARDS: UConn’s trio of young guards — sophomore Brendan Adams and freshmen James Bouknight and Jalen Gaffney — truly stood out in the Huskies’ thirdplace finish at the Charleston Classic a few weeks ago (particularly Bouknight and Adams). But the trio has been relatively silent in the Huskies’ last few games.
“We need to do a better job of getting them ready to help us more,” said Hurley, “because we need them.”
JERSEY BOYS: Hurley said Saint Peter’s plays a “north Jersey style of basketball” that could negate UConn’s own recent improvement in toughness and hard play.
The Peacocks are deep, too. Coach Shaheen Holloway (who succeeded, and exceeded, Hurley as Seton Hall’s star point guard more than 20 years ago) has 11 different players averaging doublefigures in minutes played.
HISTORY LESSON: UConn and Saint Peter’s are tied 33 in their alltime series. They haven’t met since Jim Calhoun’s first season at UConn, when the Huskies traveled to Jersey City and got beat badly, 7550.
That probably explains why the teams haven’t met since.