Surging Jays may have material on bulletin board
OMAHA, Neb. — There was no shortage of motivation for the Uconn men’s basketball team when it welcomed Creighton to Gampel Pavilion earlier this season. The Huskies had lost two in a row on the road, their first two losses of the season, and were desperate for a win in front of the Gampel Pavilion crowd.
Powered by 26 points and nine rebounds from the “grizzly bear” that was Adama Sanogo — poked by comments Creighton center Ryan Kalkbrenner made on a podcast over the summer about Sanogo’s preseason Big East player of the year nod — Uconn earned its first-ever victory over the Bluejays, 69-60.
After the game Sanogo didn’t hesitate to give the 7-footer some bulletin board material when he related defending him to going against 7-foot-2 freshman teammate Donovan Clingan in practice.
“Donovan is good,” Sanogo said. “You can’t just score against him, you have to find a way to score against him. That’s the same thing against Kal .... uh, what’s it? Kalkbrenner. You have to find a way to score against him.”
Sanogo and Kalkbrenner were both named top 10 candidates for the Kareem Abdul-jabbar Center of the Year award and were both listed on the 30-player Naismith Player of the Year Midseason Team.
This time, when the teams tip-off on Saturday, similar motivation is in play for Creighton.
The No. 23 Bluejays (16-8, 10-3 Big East) are one of the hottest teams in college basketball, winners of seven straight, and cracked back into the AP Top 25 this week after spending eight weeks out. That stretch was highlighted by home wins over Providence and Xavier. Creighton is 11-1 at home this season.
The Huskies, winners of three straight, are riding a hot streak of their own that included a critical domination of Marquette at the XL Center on Tuesday. Still struggling defensively, the first half against the Golden Eagles gave head coach Dan Hurley a positive sign moving forward.
Game notes
Guarding the four: The Huskies proved in January that they know how to guard Kalkbrenner at the five, but what about Arthur Kaluma, who scored a team-high 14 points in the first matchup?
Uconn freshman Alex Karaban guarded him after back-toback games against top Big East
going to be possible. So you knew some kind of letdown was coming, I just didn’t expect it to be that extreme.
“... We just didn’t respond for the first time all year. We just didn’t respond. And I think it got to the point where it was just, I don’t have it in me for this fight tonight. And nothing wrong with that.”
Dorka Juhász said that the Marquette loss felt like the first time all season that players were so physically, mentally and emotionally exhausted that they just didn’t have enough in the tank to find a way to win. Auriemma said afterward that he was surprised the Huskies had held on for as long as they did.
“As competitors having that loss, obviously that day just felt like it’s the end of the world,” Juhász said. “If you really like playing basketball and you love the game and you love winning, when you lose that just feels like everything is falling apart.”
Juhász said the emotions were high after the loss, so that night wasn’t the time to reflect on what had just taken place. But the close-knit Huskies have regrouped since.
“Everybody is a professional in that way of they know like, hey, ‘we don’t have time to feel sorry for ourselves,’ or ‘what could I have done better in that moment’ and just take it all in their heart,” Juhász said. “We regroup, we practice, we prepare for Georgetown. I think everybody is in a great mindset. The goal is still the same. … This was the first loss that I felt like it was just nothing that we could have like really done with the mental fatigue and physical fatigue. I think we gave everything we had for that game and it was just not enough.
“So I think we can definitely learn from that. And I think we’re very strong women. We all love to win, we are competitors, so we’re gonna find a way to win next time. But there’s no time to be negative about stuff and look back and just kind of have an impact on you for the next game.”
Mühl echoed the sentiment that the Huskies are in a better mindset and looking forward to the next challenge ahead.
“I feel great going forward,” Mühl
said. “I feel like this was a fluke. … That just wasn’t Uconn basketball that day. And it’s okay. It’s not an excuse that we’ve been going through a lot, I feel like every team has been going through a lot. So that’s definitely not an excuse, but it is something that’s reality too. We’re not looking back, we’re looking only forward from now on.
“We’re going to try to fix as many mistakes as we can in the period of time that we have with the bodies that we have, and I’m sure everybody’s gonna do their best job and as usual give their best effort. So I have no doubt in this team, even after a loss like this. … It’s only up from here.”
The Huskies have responded to adversity all season and they expect to do the same on Saturday. But fatigue will continue to be something to keep an eye on as the regular season winds down, with just six games remaining.
“Everything that we’ve asked of them, they’ve done it,” Auriemma said. “I don’t think the two losses are as much of an issue as our physical state and our mental state … I’m not as much concerned about are we going to get over the losses as how do we figure out how to play through this physically and be consistent and be mentally present? That’s going to be our biggest challenge going forward.”