Wright still believes Huskies are good
NEW YORK — Jay Wright has seen a lot of UConn basketball over the years.
Before Wright owned a pair of national title rings and was on the fast course to the Basketball Hall of Fame, he was unceremoniously bounced from the NCAA tournament by the Huskies — en route to a national title of their own — in 2014.
The Villanova head coach saw the Huskies last season and beat them by 20 in Hartford, leading by 31 at one point. On Saturday at Madison Square Garden, Wright walked away with a 23-point win over UConn. While that might not appear that the Huskies have improved over the past year, Wright doesn’t see it that way at all.
“Preparing for that many dynamic guards, I was a little jealous, to be honest with you,” Wright said after Saturday’s 81-58 win. “It reminded me of some of our old teams. I think they do a great job of keeping you spread-out, and then scoring in transition and speeding up the game. When you play that way, this (result) can happen at the end. But, at halftime, it was a close game. Then we broke away, they’ve got to press, and we were able to finish it off. They’re a good team.”
COBB ON THE BENCH
Eric Cobb, who has had his biggest games this season against the likes of Syracuse, Iowa and Arizona, did not play at all on Saturday. Walk-on Temi Aiygbusi even entered the game in the last minute, with Cobb still on the bench.
Cobb played just nine minutes total in the Huskies’ prior two games. Hurley’s explanation: “When you’re at where we’re at as a program, your day-to-day effort, showing up to practice, your attitude and mindset, when you’re trying to build a culture and strong organization, you’ve got to put tons of value in the way guys show up every day and how hard they’re getting after it. That’s not to say Eric isn’t, but Kassoum (Yakwe) is really coming on and giving great effort. Eric’s got to do more to unseat some of those guys. Defensively, today would have been a tough ask for him. Ballscreen defense, when they play (Dhamir Cosby-) Roundtree at the five would’ve been tough. And they play (Eric) Paschall at the five a lot, and that wouldn’t have been a very good matchup for UConn.”
Yakwe finished with two points, three rebounds and two blocks. He also was called for a pair of goaltends.
SPRINGFIELD-BOUND?
Former UConn star Richard Hamilton and coach Dee Rowe are on this year’s Basketball Hall of Fame ballot. Wright is also on the ballot for the first time.