‘Earned his wings’
Jaylin Stewart’s emergence a big plus for Huskies
STORRS — The UConn men’s basketball team is certainly “in the mix for six” as the No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament.
For the Huskies to win their sixth national championship, however, they had to get to eight first. If that makes any sense.
Dan Hurley has preached since the start of the season that he’d like to get his team’s rotation to at least eight-deep. It’s been a struggle, from early-season injuries to Stephon Castle and Donovan Clingan to the typical growing pains of freshmen.
Alas, just in the nick of time, UConn appears to have the depth Hurley has craved.
Jaylin Stewart’s emergence in last week’s Big East Tournament has clearly moved him into the Huskies’ rotation as third man off the bench, behind Hassan Diarra and Samson Johnson. In UConn’s semifinal and championship games against St.
John’s and Marquette, respectively, Stewart scored 17 points in 23 minutes. He missed just one of his eight shots over the two games and went 3-for-4 from 3 against Marquette.
Stewart’s 3-pointer from the corner midway through the second half Saturday night was his first of three from distance over a 3 1/2-minute stretch that extended UConn’s lead from three to 11 en route to an eventual 73-57 victory.
“That was the funnest game of my life,” Stewart said. “Those are memories I’ll have forever.”
It’s a good bet Stewart, a 6-foot-7, 205-pound freshman forward, will make plenty more memories before all is said and done.
“I was genuinely so happy,” Alex Karaban added. “He’s grown so much since he came in this summer. Seeing the progress he’s made, all the work, through the ups and downs that he’s had, he deserved it a little bit more than anybody else. For him to play with that swagger and confidence, celebrating after the 3’s ... I loved it. I’m probably the happiest for him right now.”
And that’s ironic, because Stewart’s chief role right now is as Karaban’s back-up, giving the sophomore forward whom Hurley calls “maybe the most important player on our team” a much needed
breather here or there. As far as Karaban is concerned, if Stewart has the hot hand, he doesn’t mind cheering him on from the bench.
“I was telling the coaches, ‘Leave him in, I don’t need to finish the game,’ ” Karaban reported after Saturday’s game. “‘He’s killing, just leave him in. As long as we win, I don’t care.’ ”
In fact, Stewart’s recent emergence has Hurley thinking of him playing not only instead of Karaban, but alongside him.
“Stewie earned his wings,” the coach said. “I think it’s a great story, it’s a great lesson. It’s opened up other opportunities for us for these next couple of days, that we’ve got more confidence that we can find a way for him to be on the court with Alex and a center, and scheme some things so it’s not him or Alex on the court, potentially, if he’s playing well.”
“That’s always a goal of mine, to be able to space the floor and play the 1 through 5,” Stewart said. “That’s one of my traits. I think I’ll be able to be used in a lot of different ways.”
It hasn’t been an easy road for Stewart. The Seattle product got a late start with the team this summer, not arriving on campus until late-June due to his school system’s later schedule. Once he did arrive, he battled some injuries and took a while to become engrained in the flow of big-time college basketball.
“College basketball is tough on freshmen,” Hurley noted. “There’s multiple reasons for that. But he’s such a talented kid. We tried to push him, but also stayed positive with him. We’ve tried to preach patience with his family and people around him, so he doesn’t go one-foot-out-the-door on us.”
Was Hurley worried that Stewart might contemplate the transfer portal?
“With what goes on, I get the intel from my staff, the different programs that, while other people are still playing, that are tampering ... The whole thing’s just an embarrassing mess, the way some programs operate. I don’t know that that’s on his mind, but our game is so despicable in some ways, with the way people are functioning in March.”
“If he stays with us,” Hurley added, “he’s a future star.”
Stewart admitted he “got kind of homesick” at one point this season. But he adjusted, with a little help from his second cousin, Donny Marshall, and a lot of help from his mom, Sherrill Jones, and stepdad, Jamar Jones.
“But my parents told me to just keep going, you have what it takes,” he recalled. “My coaches believed in me, my teammates believed in me.”
Stewart also noted on Saturday night that he plans to be back at UConn next season.
“It’s always good to develop as time goes on,” he said. “I feel like I did a good job, as the games went on, I dealt with physicality better and my defense.”
His teammates agreed. “We’ve watched Jaylin grow this year,” said Diarra, winner of the Big East’s Sixth Man Award. “He’s had a lot of growing pains, but it’s great to see him out there on this big stage, at this big moment, having a coming-out party like that. It’s truly amazing. I’m so, so happy for him.”
“We go head-to-head every day, he’s a pain in the ass sometimes to go up against,” Karaban added. “I’m glad the rest of the people found out why he is. I love him, I love what he did.”
Stewart is a laid-back, somewhat shy kid who seems a little uncomfortable in the media spotlight of March.
“Honestly, I prefer not to be the main attention. But, you know, it comes with it. So, I’m just having fun.”
And now, thanks to Jaylin Stewart’s recent emergence, UConn is eightdeep.
“I had a couple of conversations with Coach about how we needed somebody else to get into the rotation,” Stewart said. “I felt like I had to take that role. That’s what I’ve been doing, embracing it. A lot of teams have an eight-man rotation, that’s typically the number of people that you need. For me to step up at this time of the year, it’s very important for our team.”