Huskies back in action after weeklong break
STORRS — After a weekand-a-half of non-stop activity, UConn’s break from game action over the past seven days came at exactly the right time.
Or, on the heels of a closebut-no-cigar loss to No. 10 Florida State on Dec. 8, perhaps exactly the wrong time.
“You don’t want to have the bitter pill of losing when you have the break,” coach Dan Hurley said prior to practice on Friday. “Just to have to live with coming off the loss is always tough. But it was probably a good break for us. I think we were on a 10-day stretch of practice or game, and we needed a little break.”
With midsemester exam week coming to a close, UConn (7-3) gets back into game action on Saturday at Gampel Pavilion against Manhattan (8 p.m., SNY). That kicks off another busy stretch for the Huskies, who’ll host Drexel in Hartford on Tuesday before closing out their non-conference slate against defending national champ Villanova on Dec. 22 at Madison Square Garden — their final chance to add a resume-boosting, non-league win to the mantlepiece alongside their Nov. 15 win over Syracuse.
“We know what’s coming up down the road,” said guard Tarin Smith, “but we know we have to take care of these games first for that to even matter. So, we’re focused.”
In another quirk to the schedule, UConn won’t play another game between the Villanova showdown and its American Athletic Conference opener on Jan. 2 at South Florida. The Huskies will try to accommodate that 10-day break from games by bringing in some referees for an intrasquad scrimmage, but that can only do so much.
“You deal with it the best you can,” Hurley said. “Ideally, you’d like to have a game after the holidays, as a bridge to conference play. But that was something we didn’t have any control over, being that the schedule was done.”
Indeed, had the schedule not essentially been in place before Hurley was hired at the end of March, he would have likely tried to schedule a non-conference road game or two. Alas, the Huskies first true road game will be that Jan. 2 bout at USF.
“You need to have at least one road, non-conference game,” Hurley explained. “Now, two, with the way you get an at-large bid. Getting road wins
is big, in terms of that whole recipe now to get an at-large bid. I just think it’s something you want to experience before you get into those valuable conference games. You should have at least one experience (of a) hostile crowd, getting signals from the bench instead of verbal cues or calls. That’s something, moving forward, I think you’ll see road games on the schedule.”
But it’s this season’s schedule that Hurley is dealing with now, and that means Manhattan on Saturday night. The Jaspers (2-7) are in a rebuilding year under coach Steve Masiello, the former Louisville assistant who famously was hired, then quickly fired by USF a few years ago after it was learned he hadn’t actually graduated from Kentucky, as he had said on his resume. A New Yorker through and through, Masiello goes way back with Hurley.
“Excellent coach,” Hurley noted. “He recruited my players at (St.) Benedict’s when he was at Louisville. Any guys that grow up in the metropolitan area and play ball, it’s a small fraternity.”
Manhattan plays a frenetic style, akin to what Masiello learned under Rick Pitino at Louisville, that could pose some difficulties for UConn. But Hurley is more concerned with his own team right now — eliminating bad stretches that turn leads into losses, cutting down on turnovers (14 per game), improving defensively and on the backboards.
And the Huskies need to look past a couple of opportunities lost against Florida State and Arizona (76-72 loss on Dec. 2) and recognize they can still accomplish some goals this season by taking care of business against the Manhattans of the world, along with big-time foes like Villanova or AAC foes No. 24 Houston, Cincinnati, UCF and others.
“There’s gonna be more chances in the conference to pick up quality wins, home and road,” said Player Nehemiah Mack Christian Hinckson Tyler Reynolds Tykei Green Pauly Paulicap Player Christian Vital Alterique Gilbert Jalen Adams Tyler Polley Josh Carlton Hurley. “You have to communicate to your players, that the league is gonna represent even more opportunities than we thought in the preseason with quality-win chances. We’ve missed some opportunities to get some quality wins, but (it’s a) long season and the league hasn’t started yet.”
“We’re definitely not happy with those results,” added Smith, referring to the losses to Florida State and Arizona. “We felt like those outcomes could have been different if we had done a couple of things differently ourselves. So, we’re working to correct those things, and make sure in close games in the future, we’ll come out on the other side.”