The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Let the record show: Huskies have improved
After another excruciating loss, another game effort against a better team that came up just short and another injury to a front-line player, perhaps Christian Vital summed it up best.
“I do think, clearly, we would have lost this game by a lot last year,” Vital said of UConn’s 78-71 loss to Temple on Thursday night. “Let’s just be honest about it.”
Vital, the brazen, loquacious junior guard, says a lot of things. A minute later, he added, “I think this team is learning and we’re gonna click at the right time. I think we know what March is around here.”
Well, not the past couple of seasons — and probably not this one, either. Especially now that both Jalen Adams and Alterique Gilbert may not return. Gilbert suffered a facial injury on Thursday night and was taken to the emergency room. There was no word on his status on Friday, but UConn was hoping to release some information on Saturday morning.
Still, Vital’s belief that the Huskies would have lost by a lot more than seven points on Thursday night might be the most telling statement of how much the Huskies have improved over the last year — heck, over the last two years.
You won’t find proof in the record. UConn went 14-18 overall last season. It is currently 14-16, with one regular-season game at ECU on Sunday and at least one American Athletic Conference tournament game remaining next week. It is entirely possible the Huskies could finish with the exact same record as a year ago.
They won’t improve their league record. The Huskies were 7-11 in the AAC last
season; the best they can finish this season is 6-12.
But those numbers don’t tell the whole story. UConn has been infinitely more competitive this season. A year ago, the Huskies had 11 double-digit losses, including nine by at least 15 points and a school-record eight by 20 points or more. This season, UConn has suffered just five double-digit losses and only one (81-58 vs. Villanova on Dec. 22) by more than 20 points.
There have been no backto-back losses at Gampel to Wagner and Northeastern, as there was to start the 2016-17 season. In fact, the Huskies nearly completed their first undefeated season at Gampel in a decade before losing to Temple. They took care of business, often in resounding fashion, against the low-to-mid-majors, winning seven of those November/December games by 15 or more points. That’s a big reason why UConn’s NET ranking of 96 (which takes into account margin of victory) is so much higher than its RPI of 156 (which doesn’t).
The Huskies have largely been competitive in league play. They lost in overtime at No. 20 Cincinnati. With Gilbert sidelined, they lost by six at No. 25 UCF. With both Gilbert and Adams out of the lineup, UConn battled No. 12 Houston in an eventual eight-point loss. Since Gilbert’s return but still without Adams, they lost consecutive, last-second heartbreakers to Cincinnati (at home) and at Wichita State.
Thursday night’s close call at Temple only added to this list.
“Here’s how it goes,” coach Dan Hurley said on Thursday. “You go from playing non-competitively at times, (then) the next step is to play close games and have some brutal losses. I said to the staff, if we did things right this year, we would win enough games that we would feel good about, based on the circumstances. And that we would have some excruciating losses. Because that’s what you do as a next step, coming from not being very competitive.
“The next step we’re gonna have to take, which is gonna be a tough one, is winning these close games.”
Not that there haven’t been some steps back along the way. There have been embarrassing losses at USF, Temple and SMU. The Huskies still haven’t won a road game, and while Hurley has downplayed it, there’s no doubt that breaking through for a road win would be an important step. Winning on the road, after all, is one of the biggest indicators of a team’s progression and maturity. UConn has one last chance on Sunday at ECU — which, ironically, is where it won its last road game, back on Feb. 18, 2018.
There is actually one similarity between the last two seasons: both had arguably their best wins before Thanksgiving. Last season, it was a 71-63 win over Oregon at the PK80 Invitational in Portland, essentially a Ducks’ home game. This season, it was a 2K Classic win over Syracuse at Madison Square Garden.
Did the Huskies’ peak in that Nov. 15 win over the Orange? Maybe in terms of fan excitement and national exposure. Hurley’s quick transition from chest bump with Adams to handshake with Jim Boeheim may be this season’s most memorable image.
The following night, it all came crashing down in a 19-point beatdown at the hands of Iowa. But while the Huskies never got back up to that emotional high of the Syracuse win, there has been a gradual, steady improvement in the program while it has battled injury, depth and roster talent issues.
“This is what it should look like in Year 1 of what we’ve got to do here,” said Hurley. “It’ll get better. If you can’t see the difference, you don’t know what you’re watching and you should watch football or baseball.”