Hurley’s goal
Huskies, heading to Big East next year, don’t want to leave empty handed
The UConn men’s basketball team holds its first official in-season practice, and the Huskies are keeping a poster of the AAC trophy at courtside, and wherever they go, to keep their eyes on coach Dan Hurley’s title goal.
Expectations are replacing optimism; goals are replacing hopes as the UConn men’s basketball team begins preparing for Dan Hurley’s second season.
And in case anyone has a momentary lapse, the goal will be visible everywhere — the poster of the American Athletic Conference trophy.
“That trophy is not only there [during practice],” freshman James Bouknight said. “We take that when we go eat, in the locker room. It’s basically a sign to make sure we’re doing the right things to reach that goal.”
The Huskies, who began their in-season practices on Saturday, last won a conference title in 2016. They are headed to the Big East in 2020, but do not want to leave the AAC empty handed. “Leave with a statement,” Bouknight said, “with an exclamation point, yeah.”
UConn is coming off three consecutive losing seasons, as you may have heard, and has never been higher than a No. 4 seed in an AAC tournament. When Rhode Island, Hurley’s last coaching residence, was ready to contend, he made sure his players’ eyes remained on the Atlantic 10 trophy. Now, he has his managers poster-izing the AAC, setting this one up on an easel wherever the Huskies may be.
“Eyes on the prize,” said Sidney Wilson, a redshirt sophomore.
“We did that at Rhode Island, just as a reminder of what the expectations should be for us,” Hurley said. “and what you should be constantly in pursuit of. You should not be in pursuit of individual accolades, you’ve got to be chasing a championship. If we get our three older players playing at an all-Conference level and we get a jump from those other guys and then the freshmen are good, we’ve got to chase that this year.
There is no reason we shouldn’t.”
The Huskies are split 50-50 — six scholarship players recruited by Hurley, and six he inherited from Kevin Ollie. The holdovers, including Alterique Gilbert, Josh Carlton and Christian Vital, feel more like Hurley’s guys now.
“The huddle,” Hurley said, “I always look to that, what does the huddle feel like? I feel like when I’m in the huddles now, it’s just more time spent together, an additional 70 practices, and with everyone in that huddle I think the trust level is higher and they have better expectations of how we’re supposed to work here.”
Hurley spent a lot of time this offseason with Vital to resolve any issues left from their rocky first season together.
“We understand him better,” Hurley said, “and he understands how I need him to carry himself. I want him to play with the mindset that he’s not at odds with the staff. The staff ’s behind him, ‘we just need you to play a certain way.’ ”
Vital, who averaged 14.2 points and 5.6 assists, said, “The communication is the best that it’s been. I think we have the relationship a coach and a senior guard are supposed to have in a winning program.”
Hurley declared that the 2019-20 Huskies are “Christian and Al’s team,” with junior Josh Carlton, at center, the other player who needs to play like an allconference player. He’s looking for frontcourt players Carlton, Isaiah Whaley and Tyler Polley to be more assertive, more vocal. Wilson, though he missed a month over the summer with a thumb injury, could make a big difference if, in his third season in college, second on the court after transferring and sitting a year, he can realize his potential.
“I feel a lot more comfortable with a year under my belt,” Wilson said. “I know what it takes to be a good player in college, know how to get better, what to work on. … I feel like I made a big jump, leadership-wise, trying to be vocal, I have the personality to be a great leader, so I’m working on that as well.”
UConn’s incoming freshmen, Bouknight, Jalen Gaffney, Akok Akok and R i c h i e S p r i n g s, h ave brought new energy to the program.
“They’re extremely talented,” Vital said. “[They need to] just take Coach’s coaching seriously, and not personally. They remind me of the group I came in with [in 2016], where there was five of us and four were ranked in the top 100 on ESPN. Those guys are talented, ‘just understand the concepts and don’t try to rush it.’ ”
Said Wilson: “They’re all talented, I feel like they’re very comfortable as well. I feel like they’re going to make a good impact, but just as coach is saying, they’re not going to save us – the older guys have to do what we’re supposed to do, and they’ll help us out.”
Huskies in Hartford more often
UConn, on its first official day, practiced in the morning at the Werth Center, then after a break, bused to Hartford to get some work in at the XL Center. Last season, Hurley was bothered by the lack of practice time at the second home, and wants to get periodic time in that building. “I think it will allow us to perform better,” he said, “we’ll get there a bunch, get more comfortable in the surroundings because it’s a unique situation. It’s awesome to have an opportunity to play in a big arena like that. We want to give them something to cheer about instead of groan about.” The Huskies’s first regular season game in Hartford is Dec. 1 vs. Maine. … Niels Lane, a guard from New Jersey UConn has been recruiting, cancelled his scheduled visit to Storrs this weekend. UConn awaits a decision from Andre Jackson, a 6-6 guard from Albany who visited last weekend. … Hurley, recovering from spinal surgery Sept. 6, has not yet been cleared to fly. It could be another month before that happens, but he has been able to drive to see recruits. … Walk-ons on the Huskies roster include sophomore guard Matt Garry from Southington and senior guard Temi Aiyegbusi from Pennsylvania.