The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Huskies to battle ‘big boys’ in PK80 tournament
PORTLAND, Oregon — At long last, here it is: the PK80 Invitational. Perhaps the greatest collection of programs in an early-season college basketball tournament. Ever.
The event, which is celebrating the 80th birthday of Nike founder Phil Knight (who doesn’t actually turn 80 until February), features three of last year’s Final Four teams (Oregon, North Carolina and Gonzaga) and four teams currently ranked among the top 10 in the nation.
It also boasts four of the 10 active coaches with 600 career Division 1 wins, including Oregon’s Dana Altman, who joined the club on Friday.
And that’s not even counting UConn or coach Kevin Ollie, who happens to be one of the four coaches in the tourney who owns a national championship ring as head coach.
“The big boys are here,” Ollie said, “so we’ve got to put our big-boy britches on, go out and play hard.”
Indeed, the Huskies seem to be flying under the radar a bit in this 16-team event that features No. 1 Duke, No. 4 Michigan State, No. 7 Florida, No. 9 North Carolina and No. 17 Gonzaga, along with Oklahoma and Ohio State.
UConn (3-0) kicks off play on Thursday (9 p.m., ESPNU) against Oregon, one of the de facto home teams. It’s a huge earlyseason game for the Huskies, who need big nonconference games to boost their RPI. A win would likely set up a Friday bout with No. 4 Michigan State. A loss, and there’s a good chance UConn ends up facing three unranked teams this week.
Things are going pretty well right now for the Ducks, fresh off a trip to the Final Four (where they lost to eventual nationalchampion North Carolina). They’re 4-0, have scored at least 95 points in three of those wins, and just signed Manute Bol’s son, Bol, giving them the top-ranked recruiting class in the country, according to several recruiting services.
But this is a bit of a ’tweener season for Oregon, which lost three play-
ers (Dillon Brooks, Tyler Dorsey and Jordan Bell) to the 2017 NBA draft. Indeed, these Ducks bear little resemblance to the team that played in the Final Four — or, for that matter, beat UConn in a Maui Invitational game a year ago.
The only key returnee is sophomore guard Payton Pritchard, who scored just three points in that 79-69 win over the Huskies on Nov. 23, 2016. That was UConn’s second game after a season-ending injury to Terry Larrier (and third game since a season-ending injury to Alterique Gilbert).
The Huskies fell behind 30-9 in the first nine minutes. Led by a yeoman’s effort by Jalen Adams (27 points), UConn battled back and was within six (67-61) with 4:08 remaining. But the Huskies couldn’t get over the hump, and fell to 2-4 on the season.
Now, UConn is thinking of a little revenge.
“I know the team is looking forward to it,” guard Christian Vital said.
Vital, who poured in a career-high 30 points in UConn’s win over Boston University on Sunday, said there are almost no similarities between this year’s version of the Huskies and last year’s. He and Adams are the only two players who faced Oregon last season.
“When we went out to Maui, we were 1-2,” he recalled. “This year, we’re 3-0. This is a completely different vibe in the locker room. We feel good together.”