‘CHAMPIONS FOR CHARITY’
Dan Hurley is revealing a fascinating, game-by-game journal of the UConn men’s season on Instagram
Woods and Manning team up to defeat Brady and Mickelson in charity match.
UConn men’s basketball coach Dan Hurley has been meeting with staff and players, making his case to recruits and preparing for the move to the Big East and what he has called “the most anticipated season” the program has had in a while. But he has also been looking back on the 2019-20 season, his second at UConn. The Huskies finished strong, 19-12, before the coronavirus ended play just before the AAC Tournament. He has been breaking down each game on his Instagram account, showing a clip or two and then offering stream-of-consciousness analysis on each game, almost in diary form. Some of it you’ve heard before, some more candid and self-revealing than usual. He’s letting it pretty much all hang out in these posts. As of Wednesday, Hurley had posted on 28 games, and here are some of the highlights, edited for flow and clarity:
‘Total program meltown’
Nov. 13: St. Joe’s 96, UConn 87. The Huskies came out flat before a small crowd at Gampel Pavilion and fell 27 points behind, their comeback bid falling short. The Hawks finished 6-26.
Clip: Opening tip, UConn misfired, St. Joe’s scores.
Hurley’s take: “Total program meltdown! Distractions internally going into the game. … soft defensively and selfish offensively. … Our closeouts were weak and we never played chest-to-chest defense on the ball. … We never established an inside game vs. a smaller team and our shot selection and decision-making was awful. This performance reflected very badly on me as a leader and a coach at this point. It’s rare that I feel embarrassed after losses — frustrated-angry-disappointed are more of what I feel. Actually it felt more like shame. Every time I saw a St. Joe’s score this winter it brought back feelings from this
game. … I like to fix things, so in a weird way I enjoyed the challenge of getting the program moving back up the mountain, but this evening felt like falling off of a cliff.”
‘The TRUTH … is hard to handle’
Nov. 17: UConn 62, Florida 59. The Huskies bounced back to beat a ranked team before a full house.
Clip: Isaiah Whaley pops a mid-range, baseline jumper.
Hurley’s take: “The TRUTH of how you performed is hard to handle when you fail so publicly. … it really hurts, but it’s the only way to avoid it happening again/often. … Learn what you can from it and then leave it there in the past. … Players are better at that than coaches, by the way. It takes us much longer to get over the feeling of defeat. It was important for our season to win our next game, to show an improving character as a program. This game was
important for us to win back over our fans … to give them hope in the direction of the program again after three straight losing seasons, which is unimaginable at a place like this. Gampel was [electric] that Sunday. We won the game with Defense, Toughness, Togetherness and Our Crowd.”
‘Xavier could smell how weak we played’
Nov. 22: Xavier 75, UConn 74 (2 OT) at Charleston Classic. UConn suffers the first of a series of what Hurley always called “excruciating losses.”
Clip: James Bouknight putback.
Hurley’s take: “We needed to respond early in the second half because Xavier could smell how weak we played in the first 20 minutes. Xavier and Houston were easily the two most physical teams we played this past season, by the way. … We showed our growth as a program with our second-half response. We controlled the second half.”
‘It can break you mentally’
Nov. 24: UConn 80, Miami 55. Final game of the Charleston Classic, UConn bounces back and Hurley rises to the defense of Alterique Gilbert, who had taken a beating on social media after a rough game vs. Xavier.
Clip: Whaley block, Jalen Gaffney 3-pointer on the other end.
Hurley’s take: “Most important [was] dealing with the disappointment from the tough loss on Friday night. … We invest so much of our lives into reaching this level of our sport, these games, these big moments. When you come up short or fail to perform at your best level, it’s absolutely deflating and incredibly humbling. … It can break you mentally and wreck your self-confidence.
“You can’t let a member of your program stay in that moment of failure; collectively we all must correct our mistakes and then love and support that individual/individuals that are struggling. If not, that individual can become a real drain on the program … they become a major distraction. We watched the film from Xavier on Saturday and as a group we realized that we ALL were responsible for the loss. We ALL played our part in it. Then we left it in that meeting room and turned our total focus to Miami on Sunday! We played a very clean game on Sunday.”
‘The bus was dead silent’
Dec. 10: Indiana 54, UConn 51. Another close loss and opportunity missed, this time at Madison Square Garden.
Clip: Carlton scores, Akok Akok makes a block.
Hurley’s take: “Jimmy V Classic vs. Indiana at MSG. It was an honor to be a part of the doubleheader! Great crowd. … Akok was the best player on the court until he picked up second foul. … We had our chances in the second half but we didn’t deserve to win … too many missed opportunities … missed layups. … failed transition opportunities … bad shot selection, and we were too loose with the ball and turned it over at a high rate. We were just trying to do too much and we just wouldn’t let the game breathe. … It was a long bus ride back to Storrs that night. The bus was dead silent. Coming up small on a big stage like MSG is humbling. … The bottom line was that we didn’t know how to win anymore at UConn — three years in a row of losing creates losing habits. It creates a mindset just like winning does. UConn had lost that sense of confidence, that swagger. We eventually would break through and develop that mentality as a program again. I just wasn’t sure when.”
‘The worst that I have been a part of’
Jan. 1: Cincinnati 67, UConn 51. The conference opener was a downer for the Huskies.
Clip: Cincy’s Chris Vogt blows by for a dunk, and one, on first possession.
Hurley’s take: “We weren’t sharp and focused in our Game Day shoot-around. … It was the worst that I have been a part of at the college level. We were sloppy, disconnected and eerily quiet. We looked dysfunctional. Our dress rehearsal was a sign of things to come later that night.”
‘We were in a bad place’
Jan. 4: South Florida 75, UConn 60. This time there was no bounce-back. UConn sunk deeper in Tampa.
Clip: Akok Akok hits a 3pointer early in the game as UConn surges ahead.
“We were in a bad place as a team leaving Ohio. The confidence of the team was shaken. When you are on a run of three straight losing seasons, that becomes a heavy weight to carry as a new program. … You don’t have a strong culture to fall back on. … You don’t have a group of players that have experienced winning or developed the habits and mindset that leads to winning.”
‘Our time was coming’
Jan. 18. Villanova 61, UConn 55. Another excruciatingly close loss against a ranked opponent, an opportunity lost in Philadelphia. Villanova had blown out the Huskies each of the previous two seasons.
Clip: UConn scores with Josh Carlton on the first possession.
Hurley’s take: “This was a big opportunity for us to show real program growth … real character as a group. Our whole mindset was that we had to establish ourselves early in this game as a different UConn team and earn their respect. We had to set the tone and get off to a fast start — and we did. … We weren’t ready to close out games like these yet, especially away from home. We weren’t confident. We would try to do too much. We just needed more time to improve/develop as a program. It was a very difficult loss, but I was more confident than ever in our direction. Our time was coming.”
‘A real litmus test for us’
Feb. 9: UConn 72, Cincinnati 71 (OT). The Huskies began knocking off conference opponents that had defeated them earlier, and began to finish close games.
Clip: Bouknight blows past Jarron Cumberland and scores on a reverse.
Hurley’s take: “This game was a real litmus test for us, a chance to continue the upward trajectory in the rebuilding of one of the great brands in all of college basketball. … This was one of the most intensely physical games and we got the big stop vs. a championship-level program to seal it! You could feel the progress happening. This is the best part of this process: going from bad to good, actually from good to [championship-level] is actually better, but we had some confidence and momentum going for the first time in years here in Storrs.”
‘A soul-crushing moment’
Feb. 16: UConn 64, Memphis 61. Akok Akok was lost for the season with a ruptured Achilles.
Clip: Carlton dunks on a follow-up.
Hurley’s take: “An incredible crowd at the XL Center and what turned out to be an exhilarating win, but it was beyond costly. Injuries are part of the deal, but this one was devastating. It was a soul-crushing moment that will always stay with you. We developed a relationship during the recruiting process that turned into a family type bond since the time Akok stepped foot on campus. I knew the nature of the injury immediately; the next two hours I alternated between coaching and crying. The worst time was halftime, where it was all we could think about once the distraction of the game came to a pause. We struggled to get the level of focus needed to win as players and coaches.”
‘A proper send-off’
Feb. 26: UConn 81, Central Florida 65. UConn’s season-ending flourish is under way.
Clip: Isaiah Whaley scores underneath.
Hurley’s take: “The last game at the XL Center for our seniors. … CV [Christian Vital] and Al [Gilbert] endured a transition period at UConn during their time in Storrs. Not everything was in place for them to win and excel. They both experienced tremendous adversity and struggles at times which made them even tougher people. Their ability to endure and continue to commit to the process was admirable. They are the type of strong men that you can build strong foundations with. … They are workers and competitors and we wanted their last night in Hartford to go the right way, to have a proper send-off!”
Dom Amore can be reached at damore@courant.com.