The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Ahead of the curve
Huskies appear better equipped than most for new ‘normal’
For the past few weeks, nearly every member of the UConn men’s basketball team has been voluntarily working out on campus.
Players have been working in small groups on the basketball floor and in the weight room. Dan Hurley and the rest of his staff have largely been functioning like they normally would in the summer, as well, meeting each day in the offices of the Werth Family Champions Center practice facility to work on future scheduling, recruiting plans, etc.
“We’re probably functioning as close to normal as any college program in the country is right now,” Hurley told Hearst Connecticut Media.
The only thing the coaches haven’t been able to do is interact with their players on the court, per NCAA guidelines established in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Barring any last-minute adaptations to the NCAA’s plan, that will change next week.
Starting on Monday, men’s and women’s basketball coaches can begin oncourt skill instruction with players for a maximum of four hours per week.
Coaches can work with players in small groups, but one at a time. Coaches will be wearing masks (it’s not clear whether the players are required to, as well).
This can last until the first day of classes are slated to start at the end of August.
Currently, the coaching staff can interact with players off the court and offer instruction via Zoom calls, etc. But the only staff players have been able to interact with in a workout capacity has been strength and conditioning coach Mike Rehfeldt, who replaced Sal Alosi at that position last week.
Although most schools will be in the same boat come Monday, UConn is well ahead of many programs. That’s largely a result of the way the state has handled the pandemic, with cases, hospitalizations and deaths precipitously down in recent weeks. Last week, UConn announced that 150 COVID-19 tests had been performed on student-athletes since June 19, and none had come back positive. The men’s basketball coaching staff has all tested negative, as well.
Compare that to a place like Houston, which has been a hotspot for the virus recently. According to Houston men’s basketball coach Kelvin Sampson, his team has had three or four players miss voluntary workouts over the past few weeks due to fears that the city might get shut down. Parents
haven’t wanted to risk flying their sons in and out and back into Houston in the event of a shutdown.
The only UConn player who hasn’t been at voluntary workouts is incoming freshman Javonte BrownFerguson. The 7-foot-1 center lives outside of Toronto and may have had issues attending UConn as an international student if all classes were moved online. Now that that policy has been rescinded, Brown-Ferguson could arrive on campus within the next week or two.
Even though UConn is ahead of the curve, there are still countless questions about college athletics in general and basketball in particular. Will the season start on time? Will it start earlier, in October, as NCAA senior vice president of basketball Dan Gavitt has suggested? Will it start in January, with only conference games being played? Will some schools not have seasons at all?
Will the entire season be wiped out?
Such questions continue to hang over the start of a season that otherwise would have been brimming with the excitement of UConn’s return to the Big East. Hurley has noticed it with his players.
“I think the uncertainty has certainly kind of dampened the day-today build-up of it,” Hurley said. “But, the enthusiasm and the excitement of the preparation that we’re doing, the guys are talking about (returning to the Big East).”
Hurley has called the upcoming UConn season perhaps the most anticipated
in the NCAA this season. Despite all the questions, he still believes that is true.
“I just think there’s so many parts to it: One of the best fanbases in college basketball, and it’s been deprived of winning for the last couple of years, combined with a talented roster with some young players that resemble the type of talent that was once littered throughout the program. The return to the Big East, the way the season ended in terms of the program taking a big step and learning how to win again, I just think there’s so many parts to it that come together to make it this kind of perfect storm.”
Since it doesn’t have to worry about football, the Big East may be betterequipped to handle the scheduling of a 2020-21 basketball season. Hurley knows that it isn’t the same league as it was when he played at Seton Hall, or even in 2011, when the league sent a remarkable 11 teams to the NCAA tournament.
“I don’t think that any conference will ever again be what the Big East was,” Hurley said. “Looking at 2011, I don’t think there’s ever been a conference that’s been anything like that. But the reality is that the Big East, year-in and year-out, has been one of the best basketball conferences in the country. And in some years, it’s been the best. If UConn is holding its end of the bargain, the way that we should, we’re gonna make the league even better.”