The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Struggling Huskies look for road win at Xavier
So UConn has been hurt by COVID-19 pauses as much as any team in the country, or at least in the Big East, right?
“Hold my beer,” Xavier coach Travis Steele, who’s been known to visit a local bar after his team wins a big game, might counter.
Steele didn’t actually say that, but he did reveal to reporters that Xavier, which hasn’t played since Jan. 30 and has played just one game since Jan. 10, only returned to full practices on Thursday after its latest pause.
“It feels like we’re starting a whole new season, yet again,” Steele said on Thursday. “I know our guys are tired of being in their rooms.”
Of course, few — if any — teams in the league have dealt with the injury issues that UConn has had this season, and that bad luck continues heading into the Huskies’ tilt with Xavier on Saturday (noon, FOX) at Cintas Center in Cincinnati.
Coach Dan Hurley announced on Friday evening that leading scorer James Bouknight is still not ready to return. The sophomore guard is practicing and “looking better and stronger,” per Hurley, but hasn’t been cleared yet for game action by the doctor who performed his left elbow surgery on Jan. 12.
There’s more. Tyrese Martin, the Huskies’ second leading scorer, rolled his ankle during a shooting drill on Thursday and has missed the last two practices. Hurley said the junior forward will be a gametime decision on Saturday.
“It’s a coin toss with him,” the coach said.
Senior forward Isaiah Whaley hurt his ankle in the first half of Wednesday’s loss at Providence and has been limited in practice, but is likely to play against Xavier.
“I think (Martin) and Isaiah are likely to play and soldier on,” Hurley noted.
“Tyrese’s is more concerning than Isaiah.”
There is some good news: Akok Akok will return to action after missing the past several games with a shin injury. Akok is less than a year removed from a season-ending torn Achilles tendon. He’s played in three games this season, scoring just two points.
“This team needs an infusion of energy,” Hurley said. “I think Dre has given us that, I think Adama (Sanogo, the freshman forward) gives us that with his confidence. Akok’s got a tremendous spirit out there. Obviously, he’s less than 12 months out from his (sur
gery). Akok’s not gonna come back and save us, but he’s looked better in practice since he returned from his shin. I think you have to have fair expectations for a guy who’s less than a year away from an Achilles. How well he performs is gonna dictate his minutes, because we’re searching right now.”
Hurley said that freshman Andre Jackson will make his first college start. The 6-foot-6 forward, who returned to action two games ago from a broken wrist, has impressed Hurley with his enthusiasm and passion in practice recently.
“He’s had the loudest voice in practice, really the last several days,” the coach reported.
The Musketeers will still have players in COVID-19 protocol for Saturday’s bout, though Steele didn’t reveal which players or how many.
UConn (8-5, 5-5 Big East) has at least been able to play its last two games — both losses. In fact, the Huskies have dropped four of their last five games, a skid that stretches over a nearly fourweek span.
Xavier (11-2, 4-2 Big East) has won three straight games, but that’s come over a span of 51⁄2 weeks. The Musketeers have had seven of their last eight games postponed, including a slated Jan. 20 bout at UConn.
“It’s really hard to have a grasp of how they’re gonna play us,” Hurly noted, “because they haven’t played much lately.”
What a season. Although Xavier wasn’t in the Big East during UConn’s first run in the conference from 1979-2013, these teams are no strangers. The Musketeers edged UConn 75-74 in double overtime on Nov. 22, 2019 in the Charleston Classic. Naji Marshall hit a tough 3pointer with 21 seconds left in regulation to send the game to overtime, and finished with a team-high 21 points, while Bloomfield’s Tyrique Jones added 17 points and 10 boards for Xavier. Both players have since moved on.
For UConn, it was a coming-out party for Bouknight, who scored 19 points off the bench in just his second collegiate game. Now, the team continues to wait for the star guard’s return — which Hurley assured would happen at some point this season.
“There’s a path to victory in these games,” Hurley said. “I think there’s a level of desperation that we’ve got to get to (Saturday) at noon to have a chance to win.”