Karaban leads UConn to rout of Georgetown in D.C.
The Hornets waived former UConn star James Bouknight earlier this week. Bouknight was the No. 11 pick in the 2021 NBA draft.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — With just over six minutes left to play on Saturday and his team leading by 25 points, Dan Hurley called a timeout.
It wasn’t to praise his UConn men’s basketball team for what would end up being a dominating, 89-64 victory over Georgetown at Capital One Arena. Not at all.
“What are you doing!?!?,” Hurley screamed from the sidelines, red-faced, neck veins bulging, at his team before calling the timeout. “What are you doing!?!?!”
It was more a case of what the Huskies doing. Namely, hustling back on defense.
“We made a 3, and three guys on the weak side just jogged back,” Hurley reported, “and I was absolutely beside myself.”
The No. 1-ranked Huskies dominated Georgetown in the first half so thoroughly in the first half that they caused Hoya coach Ed Cooley to call three timeouts within the first 11 minutes of play.
But in the latter half, Hurley sensed his team letting its foot off the gas a bit too much. The Hoyas shot much better and were outscored by just a point over the final 20 minutes.
“We had a bunch of moments of weakness in the second half,” Hurley noted. “If you don’t keep a foot on the gas in these games, maybe not today, but we’re getting to that point of the season where, on a made basket, you don’t sprint back and get loaded up to the ball, your season ends. You lose, and yo go home and you’re disappointed with how it ends.”
“Those are habits and behaviors that have to be entrenched,” he continued. “whether you’re up 27 with six to go, or you’re in a one-point game. Those are habits that have to be formed.” His players agreed. “We know that we have a chance to do something big this year,” freshman Stephon Castle said. “We don’t want to ruin that by doing the human nature stuff that Coach talks about when we think we’re better than a team
Dan Hurley and Kimani Young had a “difficult” conversation with James Bouknight on Thursday.
Less than three years after being selected as an NBA Draft lottery pick by Charlotte, Bouknight had been waived by the Hornets earlier in the day. So Hurley and Young picked up the phone to get in touch with the former UConn men’s basketball star.
“He knows he’s going to get another opportunity in NBA, but he’s going to have to handle things off the court in a much different manner,” Hurley said on Friday. “He’s got to get to an organization with a coach that’s going to coach him and is highly accountable in terms of behavior and culture. He needs that to kind of get back on track for the foreseeable future.”
Indeed, while Hurley certainly wasn’t absolving Bouknight of any blame, it seems clear the Charlotte organization