Huskies Vs. FSU
No. 11 Seminoles offer tough, physical challenge and feature roster that boasts height, girth
The UConn men are preparing for a physical battle against the Seminoles Saturday.
STORRS — Leonard Hamilton goes back a long way with UConn, back to the original Big East, to Jim Calhoun, Ray Allen, Scott Burrell, Donyell Marshall.
“Coach Calhoun did a tremendous job of creating a legacy there,” Hamilton said, “and a level of identity that really made it very challenging.”
Hamilton, 70, was coaching Miami, then in the Big East, all through the 1990s, the Huskies’ glory decade, and he lost 10 of the 15 games he played against the Huskies. Since moving to Florida State, he has faced the Huskies once, losing in overtime in the Battle 4 Atlantis in 2011, Calhoun’s last season.
Now, he takes the Seminoles, who reached the NCAA Tournament’s Elite Eight last March, against Dan Hurley’s resurgent Huskies in the Never Forget Tribute Classic at the Prudential Center in Newark, N.J., Saturday at 6:30 p.m. It is, in a sense, a confluence of three clear identities — UConn’s, Hurley’s and Hamilton’s — all of which revolve around the words “toughness” and “physical.”
“We’re developing a reputation of being a tough team,” Hurley said, “but we’re playing a team — the reality of Florida State is they are one of the toughest teams you’ll play against.”
Hamilton had a losing record at Oklahoma State, at Miami, and a 19-63 record in one season as coach of the NBA’s Washington Wizards. But since coming to Tallahassee in 2002, he installed a philosophy of playing tough, physical defense, has recruited the players to execute it, and has been over .500 every season but his first.
The Seminoles (7-1), ranked 11th by The Associated Press, have beaten Florida, LSU, Tulane and Purdue in nonconference play, losing only to defending national champ Villanova by six. They will be without
top scorer Phil Cofer who is injured.
“The good thing about our team is we’ve been able to have some measure of success while we’re still developing,” Hamilton said.
“By no means have we accomplished our goals. You’re going to see a team that’s growing, takes a lot of pride in playing hard on both sides of the ball with an unselfish spirit.”
Fl o r i da St a t e starts Christ Koumadje, 7-foot-4, and Mfiondu Kabengele, 6-11, players with height and girth. The Huskies haven’t seen a front-court like this, so it will be a challenge for Eric Cobb and Josh Carlton, both 6-9, and whatever combination of big men, or small lineups, the Huskies play.
UConn can out-quick the Seminoles with guard play, but that will mean cutting down on mistakes.
“When you go up in competition,” Hurley said, “the war that goes up when the ball goes up on the glass, especially with a Florida State team that really tries to punk you physically. When they shoot it, they attack [the boards] … with men
“… We’re going to have to take a locked-in approach, and not give away many, if any, possessions, offensively or defensively. We can’t have any weakness in terms of shot selection, we can’t have any weakness in terms of driving it into their length and throwing wild things up on the backboard and turning it over. We’re going to have to play really responsibly at both ends.”
So there is little doubt this will be the strongest test yet for UConn (7-2), which has beaten six mid-majors without much trouble, defeated Syracuse, ranked 15th at the time on Nov. 15, but lost to Iowa and Arizona.
A win here, and UConn would take at least two high-leverage wins into conference play — they still have a game against Villanova at Madison Square Garden Dec. 22 — and the making of a tournament resume.
“They’re just really athletic and long,” UConn forward Tyler Polley said, “we’ve got to keep them out of the paint and rebound and try to get this ‘Dub.’ … It’s a big-time win for us, if we do.”
The Never Forget Tribute Classic helps fund scholarships for the children of 9/11 victims, and has various story lines for UConn, and Hurley, who comes from Jersey City and got his first head coaching job at St. Benedict’s Prep in Newark, the place, Hurley said, he “learned how to be a head coach,” and run a program.
“There’s no question they will be well coached,” Hamilton said. “[Kevin Ollie], I thought, did a good job recruiting. They have talented guys who have grown and matured. I’ve enjoyed watching the progress of UConn’s team. It seems as though they are really buying into the coach’s intensity, his energy, the execution. It seems as though they are representing a little bit more what the Hurley tradition has always been, tough, aggressive, hard-nosed, competitive play. I have no doubt over a period of time, it’s not going to be long, that they’ll get there. …They seem to play loose, with a level of freedom and confidence. They play with that air that we represent something special.”