SACRED HEART at UCONN

When: Friday, 7 p.m.

Where: Gampel Pavilion, Storrs Records: Sacred Heart 01, UConn (2018

19) 1617

TV: SNY

Radio: UConn/IMG Sports Network, 97.9 FMESPN Hartford, WAVZNew Haven

(1300 AM), WICCBrideport (600 AM), WINEDanbury (940 AM), WGCH Greenwich (1490 AM)

KEEP AN EYE ON

AKOK GAINING CONFIDENCE: If Akok Akok is in the starting lineup on Friday (as he was in the Huskies’ Oct. 30 exhibition win over Saint Michael’s) he’ll be the first UConn freshman to start in a seasonopener since Tyler Polley, who’s currently a junior on the team.

“He works very hard,” coach Dan Hurley said of Akok. “With hard work comes confidence. I think he’s confident because of his work ethic. But the early part of his season is gonna be tough for him. The Division 2 exhibition with Saint Michael’s was tough for him. He gave up three or four 3s vs. a pickandpop 4man, which are gonna be growing pains he has to go through. It’s gonna take him seven, eight, nine games to figure out what’s going on out there. Then you’ll see the talent take off.”

PRAISE FOR PIONEERS ... AND FRIARS?: Hurley’s first comment when asked what he learned watching Sacred Heart’s 10660 loss at Providence on Tuesday night: “Providence is good.”

He also had some good words for the

Pioneers.

“They’re one of the top teams or two in their conference. Their starting four and five would have a chance to for us. They’d be competing for minutes in our frontcourt. They’ve got pretty good perimeter depth, really good offensively. But Providnece looked like a secondweekend team in the NCAA tournament. They looked sharp.”

E.J. Anosike, a 6foot6 junior forward, led SHU with 20 points in the loss to Providence. Tyler Thomas, a former Amity High star expected to contribute to the Pioneers as a frosh, went scoreless with three rebounds in 16 minutes. HISTORY LESSON: UConn is 60 alltime against Sacred Heart, its most recent win on Dec. 2, 2015 at XL Center.