‘Most important player’
Whaley was heart and soul in Huskies’ victory
PARADISE ISLAND, Bahamas — When Friday’s helter skelter game and this thorny tournament were over — only unofficially, but certainly — Isaiah Whaley yelled and punched and head-butted the padded basket stanchion inside Imperial Arena, a little house of mirrors and horrors where UConn had to prove itself time and again this week.
Whaley had just converted a basket while fouled, part of a three-point play with 4 seconds remaining in overtime to seal UConn’s 70-63 victory over Virginia Commonwealth, and here he was ferociously channeling all the trying times of the past 48 hours into a final burst of joy and a rewarding exit from something so taxing.
“We were just really desperate to win that game,” said Whaley, who fainted at the end of Wednesday’s double-overtime victory over Auburn, was held out of Thursday’s loss to Michigan State and returned Friday as the heart and soul of a team that needed a lot of both. “We knew it was going to be ugly, but the goal was just to come out with a win. It didn’t matter how it looked or how we did it. The goal was to come out with a win. Just, when that play happened, a lot of emotions of this whole time of being here.”
UConn closed the Battle 4 Atlantis with a third-place game that that looked as if it was played in the back of an 18-wheeler speeding through the winding walkways of this gigantic resort. It was a mess, as if the ball was coated in Crisco, a just-hold-on experience that was excruciating in its aesthetics and execution — but beautiful for the Huskies in the body of work it left them to bring back to Connecticut.
The Huskies went 2-1 in the Bahamas through three wars, as coach Dan Hurley said. They are 6-1 overall.
That’s an ocean-width’s difference between 1-2 and 5-2.
UConn preferred, of course, to play Baylor in Friday morning’s championship game. With that opportunity by the wayside due to the late-game breakdowns of a four-point loss to Michigan State, they needed 45 more agonizing minutes of play to earn the next best thing.
“I can live with the trip,” Hurley said. “I can live it.”
UConn was outplayed for long stretches by VCU, which shakes up games with a menacing defense that gave Huskies and their dearth of ball-handlers fits. Ultimately, though, UConn’s athleticism and will won out, with senior point guard R.J. Cole scoring 26 points in 41 minutes.
Whaley was the only other player in doublefigures, scoring 16, including all three of his 3-pointers — his first three of the season. Whaley’s 3 with 1:05 left in regulation pushed UConn into a 56-56 tie that forced overtime, and he opened the scoring in the extra frame with another 3, 1:06 in.
UConn never trailed again, leading by as many as eight, finally freeing itself and celebrating around Whaley, the fifthyear senior affectionately known as The Wrench for the many ways he can fix or affect a game.
“In terms of skill level or putting up gaudy numbers, no, he’s like the best all-around player,” Hurley said. “But he’s the most important player. He’s our most important player.”
And he was just an onlooker the day before, held out for precautionary reasons after falling unconscious after playing 43 rugged minutes in the Auburn victory, fatigued, dehydrated.
Whaley’s Thanksgiving meal?
“Just constant fluids and foods, eating and drinking non-stop,” he said. “I’ve been having to use the bathroom every other second. It’s been a roller coaster. I really wanted to play (Thursday) and I was shut down. It was a good thing I was shut down. When they gave me the call to say I could go, a lot of emotions. We’re going to fight the whole time. It doesn’t matter what the game looks like.”
It wasn’t pretty. UConn committed 22 turnovers and shot 33.3 percent (20 of 60) and this game, the tournament’s 10th, had the look and feel of something that everyone — from players to coaches to refs to fans to arena ushers — had grown almost disinterested in.
The Huskies did the dirty work though, winning ugly by grabbing 19 offensive rebounds, making 23 of 28 free throws and holding VCU to 22 of 62 from the field. Andre Jackson shot 1-for-6, but had 14 rebounds.
No November game or tournament is going to make or break a team, with almost four months remaining in the season, but UConn did establish a baseline and set a certain 2020-21 trajectory.
“We beat the hell out of each other,” Hurley said of the Battle 4 Atlantis bracket. “Our game vs. Auburn was an epic war. Our Michigan State game was, you know. And now you’ve got to play a proud program like VCU … a highmajor program that really took it to us. But we have figured out how to win.”
Cole added, “Just a bunch of adversity. We knew this was going to be a tough game. I was just happy we were able to break through, because there were a lot of moments where it was tough.”
The images of Whaley are lasting ones. He played terrific defense in the victory over Auburn, one of the best games of the young college season. Then he was laying on the court, with fear and panic delaying a UConn celebration Wednesday night as medics rushed the court. He was in street clothes for the Thanksgiving game against the Spartans.
And then he was scoring, pushing UConn ahead for good, and punching and head-butting the stanchion, celebrating, releasing pent-up frustration that UConn had no desire to carry off the island.
“Zay is probably the most important player on the team,” Cole said. “You see what he brought to the table defensively and offensively, because we didn’t have a lot of that today. He’s a very valuable player and I’m just happy he’s doing well.”
The season’s on. UConn is on track. Style points are essentially irrelevant. The Huskies have a lot to clean up but they’ll be doing so as a team that went 2-1 in the Bahamas — and 2-0 with The Wrench in the mix.
“We knew it was not going to be pretty and we were going to have to show a lot about our soul as a program,” Hurley said. “Three days, three games, all early games. For the guys that didn’t have it today, this was pretty taxing. We played three, just, complete war games. We’ll draw a lot of confidence, that we can find a way to win.”