Hurley, Young to return to sidelines
Dan Hurley will be back on the sidelines on Sunday. Kimani Young, too.
Can the UConn men's basketball team get its groove back?
Following the Huskies' home loss to St. John's on Jan. 15, Hurley insinuated that he was going to make some changes to snap the team out of its funk. Find a “spark.”
A couple of days later, he tested positive for COVID-19 and didn't make the trip to Newark, N.J. for UConn's bout with Seton Hall. With Young also out due to COVID assistants Luke Murray and Tom Moore took over head coaching duties. The Huskies trailed the Pirates for exactly eight seconds in the game, but wound up losing its third straight, 67-66.
If UConn was going to make any wholesale changes (starting lineup, rotations, offensive/defensive schemes), it wasn't going to happen with Hurley out sick and Murray and Moore in control. With Hurley back on Sunday, however, it's possible the Huskies could shake things up a bit to try to snap out of a skein that's seen them lose three straight and five of their last six games.
As of Saturday afternoon, it appeared that 15th-ranked UConn (15-5, 4-5 Big East) would be able to field a healthy roster for Sunday's game. That would include Samson Johnson, the 6-foot-11 sophomore who has been out of action with a stress reaction in his right foot since UConn's seasonopener on Nov. 7.
Johnson was in uniform for Wednesday night's game at Seton Hall and might have been available in an absolute emergency. There is no word on whether he might play on Sunday, but
Hurley said last week that it was possible, by this time, for Johnson to be a “gametime decision.”
With or without Johnson, the Huskies must overcome the problems that have led to this nightmarish skid. UConn has not been getting good play from its point guard position, hasn't played well defensively and hasn't shot particularly well from 3-point land. The Huskies haven't shown the toughness and connectedness that highlighted their incredible 14-0 start to the season.
UConn beat Butler 6846 back on Dec. 17 at historic Hinkle Fieldhouse in both teams' Big East season-opener. The Huskies had let a 13-point lead whittle down to four midway through the second half of that one. Incredibly, that was the closest opponent had been to UConn that late in a game all season, other than when Alabama was tied with the Huskies with eight minutes left in an eventual 15-point UConn win.
But Adama Sanogo drained a 3-pointer out of a timeout, and UConn cruised the rest of the way as Sanogo finished with a 27-point, 14-rebound double-double.
Somehow, the Huskies have only gone 3-5 since. Meanwhile, Butler has played better, with a recent home win over Villanova to go with wins over DePaul and at Georgetown. At 11-9 overall and 3-6 in the Big East, the Bulldogs only one game behind UConn in the conference standings.
Still, if UConn's loss to Seton Hall after leading for just about the entire game at “The Rock” was, indeed, rock bottom for the Huskies this season, a loss to Thad Matta's crew on Sunday would be much worse.