New Haven Register (New Haven, CT)
Second best?
Huskies picked to finish behind Villanova by Big East coaches
NEW YORK — As Dan Hurley fielded questions at Big East media day on Tuesday at Madison Square Garden, he couldn’t help but hark back to a less pleasant experience in the same building three years earlier.
On Dec. 22, 2018, in the second of what was still a three-game, non-conference series with UConn, Villanova whipped the Huskies, 81-58.
The differences between the programs couldn’t have been more evident at the time. Villanova was coming off its second national championship in three years, coached by Jay Wright, who’s now a Hall of Famer.
UConn was in the midst of a third straight losing season, the first under Hurley.
“There was nowhere to go but up, from when we saw them in here in Year 1,” Hurley recalled. “It really ruined Christmas, and was a real wake-up call as to how far away we were at that time.”
Fast forward to Tuesday, near the corner baseline of the Garden’s vaunted floor. Earlier in the morning, Wright and three of his players met the media, just a few yards up the sidelines from where Hurley, Isaiah Whaley, R.J. Cole and Tyrese Martin did so a bit later.
Villanova and UConn were a lot closer than they
were three years ago, both physically and in the conventional wisdom of the Big East coaches.
The Wildcats were picked to finish in first place in the conference this season. UConn was picked to finish second. It’s not precisely where the Huskies want to be, as Hurley jokingly quoted Will Ferrell’s Ricky Bobby character: “If you’re not first, you’re last.”
But it’s a lot closer than where the Huskies were three years ago.
“I feel like that’s what our expectation is supposed to be,” Cole, the senior point guard, said. “That’s where the goal for UConn is supposed to be at — top of the league, top of the food chain. That speaks to the work we put in, day-in, day-out.”
Villanova, however, remains the standard.
“That’s where we want to be at,” Cole noted.
A day earlier, UConn was ranked in the preseason AP Top 25 poll for the first time in five years. The Huskies were ranked No. 24. Villanova was the only other Big East team that was ranked — at No. 5.
“Villanova’s not just the class of the Big East right now, they’re one of the elite programs in the country,” Hurley pointed out. “You want to have a barometer that you’re striving for in your conference. We feel like we’re much betterpositioned, short-term and long-term, to go into every season, in our minds, believing we can compete for a championship in this league — and that we’re national championship contenders, too.”
The Huskies are getting closer to Villanova in other ways. Under Hurley, UConn has fostered a culture not all that different from what Wright has established in his 22 seasons at the Wildcats’ helm. Both teams had their star players selected in the 2021 NBA Draft — UConn’s James Bouknight at No. 11 overall, ’Nova’s Jeremiah Robinson-Earl at No. 32. Neither team has had many players transfer out of the program in recent years. And both are among the few high-major programs that didn’t take in a new player out of the transfer portal this past offseason.
They didn’t really need to.
Quinnipiac’s Baker Dunleavy played for Wright at Villanova and was an associate head coach for the Wildcats’ 2016 nationalchampionship team.
“I think it’s a place that’s had incredible consistency,” Dunleavy said. “It starts with Coach Wright. There’s an identity to their program, so that when their players come and go, as a fan, you know how they’re going to play, you know the things they’re going to do well.”
Dunleavy noted that Wright’s staff is comprised by people who’ve been around the program for years. Two of Wright’s current assistants played for him.
“Kids that choose Villanova, they and their parents have been watching the same coach there for 20 years. They know what the place is about. They’re not gonna target every top-20 (recruit). They really do a great job bringing in people that fit the culture and what they’re trying to do every day.”
Hurley employs a similar philosophy, not necessarily honing in on national top-20 recruits, but rather three- or four-star guys who will grow as players over two, three, four seasons in Storrs. Hurley noted recently that he if he hears a recruit asking about name, image and likeness (NIL) opportunities right off the bat, he won’t even consider the kid. He’d rather go for a guy like Bouknight, a top-75 recruit who emerged as an NBA lottery pick in two seasons.
There is mutual respect between the two programs. In fact, since coaches can’t vote for their own team in the preseason poll, Wright gave UConn its only firstplace vote.
“I just think they have great experience, great talent, great depth,” said Wright, who was inducted into the Naismith Hall of Fame last month.
“Their culture and their mentality, they don’t give many games away,” Hurley said of the Wildcats. “They make very, very few mistakes. Hopefully, with us, with such a veteran, older team, we’ll make less mistakes and blink less, especially at the end of games.”
Villanova’s veterans, fifth-year guard Collin Gillespie, the Big East Preseason Player of the Year, and fourth-year forward Jermaine Samuels, returned the praise.
“They compete, they play hard, their guys are real skilled,” Gillespie said of the Huskies. “Their coach does a really good job with what they do. I think that’s what makes them successful. It’s really good to have them back in the league. They make the league better.”
Added Samuels: “As a program and as a team, they’re always tough. They always execute well, on the defensive and offensive end. They use their athleticism to their advantage a lot. They’re really predicated on their athleticism. And, they compete. That’s probably the biggest thing about UConn. They come in and compete.”
And now, Villanova and UConn are picked to finish 1-2 in the Big East this season. That’s a long way from three years ago.
“It’s good to be ranked second, but it doesn’t really change anything internally, with this team,” Martin pointed out. “We’re still gonna be the hunters. That’s just who we are, the type of mentality that coach brings every day. We know we’ve got a target on our back, but we know not to let up.”
Top of the food chain, indeed.
COLE, MARTIN, SANOGO HONORED
Cole and Martin were named to the All-Big East Second Team, and sophomore Adama Sanogo earned Honorable Mention honors.
Cole is the Huskies’ top returning scorer (12.2 points per game) and led the team last season in assists (4.3) and 3-point field goal percentage (.386). Martin led UConn in rebounding last season (7.5) and led the conference in offensive rebounding (3.0) while also scoring 10.3 ppg.
“It feels good, but I’m not really into all the accolades,” Martin said. “My biggest goal coming into college was to win a championship. My three years of playing college basketball, I haven’t had a chance to win one. That’s my biggest goal, to win the Big East championship.”
Cole echoed those sentiments.
“It’s all right. I think being Second Team is cool,” he said. “But I’m more just ready to play with my teammates and make a push for the Big East championship. The extra individual accolades will come with winning.”
Sanogo was a Big East All-Freshman Team selection last season after averaging 7.3 points and 4.8 rebounds and leading the team in field-goal percentage (.554).
“I felt like Adama could have been on one of those teams, but that’s probably gonna be another chip on his shoulder,” said Whaley. “He’ll probably put a mental note on that, knowing him. But it’s really good to see him being recognized.”
Whaley, the 6-foot-9 inch, fifth-year senior and last year’s Big East co-Defensive Player of the Year, could have merited all-league mention, as well.
“I always have a chip on my shoulder,” he noted. “That’s no surprise to me, I always have a chip. I was glad I was left off, I just took a mental note of that, too.”
He did add that he’s likely to repeat as league Defensive Player of the Year “to make sure people know it’s not a fluke that I got it.”
BIG EAST PRESEASON COACHES POLL
Team (First-place votes) .............................. Pts
1. Villanova (10) ........... 100
2. UConn (1) ................... 84
3. Xavier ......................... 76
4. St. John’s .................... 73
5. Seton Hall .................. 68
6. Butler ......................... 60
7. Providence ................. 45
8. Creighton ................... 38
9. Marquette .................. 26
10. Georgetown ............. 25
11. DePaul ....................... 10
PRESEASON ALL-BIG EAST FIRST TEAM
Nate Watson, Providence*
Julian Champagnie, St. John’s*
Paul Scruggs, Xavier* Jared Rhoden, Seton Hall Zach Freemantle, Xavier
PRESEASON ALL-BIG EAST SECOND TEAM
R.J. Cole, UConn
Tyrese Martin, UConn Posh Alexander, St. John’s
Justin Moore, Villanova Jermaine Samuels, Villanova
PRESEASON ALL-BIG EAST HONORABLE MENTION
Adama Sanogo, UConn Chuck Harris, Butler
BIG EAST PRESEASON PLAYER OF THE YEAR
Collin Gillespie, Villanova
BIG EAST PRESEASON FRESHMAN OF THE YEAR
Aminu Mohammed, Georgetown