The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
What’s eating (Alterique) Gilbert?
Evansville won at No. 1 Kentucky. Nicholls won at Pittsburgh, a few days after losing at Illinois in overtime.
Every year, earlyseason upsets happen in college basketball, for a variety of reasons: bad style matchups, overconfidence, lack of preparedness. So, in the grand scheme of things, while UConn’s 9687 loss to St. Joseph’s on Wednesday night was embarrassing, awful, chooseyourown adjective bad, it’s hardly unprecedented and not the end of the world. Nobody’s suggesting the season is over for Kentucky, or even for Pitt, which had beaten Florida State a few nights earlier. (And Florida State won at Florida, which comes to Storrs on Sunday …).
Still, there were some bad signs on Wednesday night that, if not remedied, could mean the Huskies are in for a long Year 2 of the Dan Hurley rebuild. WHAT’S EATING GILBERT?: Hurley publicly criticizes his players as firmly as anyone since Jim Calhoun. But he went easy on Alterique Gilbert on Wednesday, even after the redshirt junior had played one of his worst games as a Husky.
“Al’s a warrior, he’s got a huge heart,” Hurley said. “He’s got to find himself, find some confidence. He’s been through so much since he’s been here, just with the injuries and the reputation he came in with.
When you go through what he’s gone through from a health standpoint and you’re in your fourth year and it hasn’t happened for you, you end up carrying that.”
Gilbert has seemed completely outofsynch in UConn’s first two games. He was 2for9 from the floor and missed all four of his 3point attempts in a seasonopening win over Sacred Heart. On Wednesday night, Gilbert finished with 22 points, but that was misleading. He shot 5for19 from the floor and 4 of 9 on 3pointers, but two of those treys came in the final 45 seconds, when the game’s outcome had basically been determined.
And it had been determined largely because of a couple of Gilbert turnovers during a gameclinching, 80 St. Joseph’s run a couple minutes earlier — two of five turnovers the 6foot guard had on the night. And it felt like more.
Gilbert arrived on campus four years ago as a McDonald’s AllAmerican. But injuries have ravaged his career, and though he’s healthy now, it seems perhaps they’ve had a cumulative effect.
“I think he carries it, as opposed to being joyful and excited just to be back out there,” Hurley said. “I think right now, he’s carrying a little frustration of what the first couple years have been like for him here. But, he’ll get himself going. We’ll get him right.”
NO SWAG: Hurley believes that carrying the burden of UConn’s three straight losing season weighs not only on Gilbert but all of the players involved in those seasons.
“What it takes in a program when you’re trying to turn it around is special people who really believe in themselves and believe that they can play great and change the course of the program, and they’re gonna be the guy that brings UConn back,” he said. “It’s a selfbelief, a swagger you have to have in sports.”
We can’t go on repeating Hurley’s hope for a more confident, charismatic team all season. We just can’t. But it remains an issue.
THE DEFENSE RESTS: Hurley warned that St. Joe’s would be a “matchup nightmare” which plays five men out and heaves up a million 3pointers, stressing all week the importance of guarding the perimeter. Then UConn went out and allowed the Hawks to hit 10 of their first 15 3pointers.
St. Joe’s hit just 3 of 18 from distance the rest of the way, but the damage had been done. Bottom line: While UConn has shown some improvement defensively in some areas, it must guard the 3point line with more urgency.
ZONE PROBLEMS: It’s pretty far down the list of issues they’ve had so far, but the Huskies struggled against the zone defenses played by Sacred Heart (just about all game) and St. Joe’s (about half the game). What’s worrisome is that neither team’s zone is as long and athletic as the type UConn faced last season against the likes of Iowa (a blowout loss) or Syracuse (a seasonhighlight win).
AKOK AKOK’N: One of the earlyseason highlights has been freshman Akok Akok. He’s made some freshman mistakes, allowed his man to his some 3s and doesn’t appear to have great hands. But he’s blocked seven shots in the first two games and, on Wednesday, scored an efficient 12 points (4for5 shooting, including both 3pointers) and grabbed nine rebounds. With 3:43 left, he came up with a steal just over midcourt and took it all the way for a dunk that brought the Huskies to within four (8278) and gave the paltry crowd hope for a comeback. St. Joe’s countered with a gameclinching 80 run, however.
david.borges @hearstmediact.com