The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Hawkins should get more run against Binghamton
STORRS — Jordan Hawkins gave a glimpse of how good a player he can be in his collegiate debut on Wednesday night.
He’ll likely get a chance to show more than just a glimpse on Saturday, when No. 23 UConn hosts Binghamton at XL Center (noon, FS2).
Hawkins, who missed the first two games of the season with an ankle injury, felt fine coming off Wednesday’s 8-minute debut. Dan Hurley plans to unfurl the 6-foot-5 freshman guard a bit more against Binghamton (1-2). He wants Hawkins to be a key part of the Huskies’ rotation in next week’s Battle 4 Atlantis, which starts on Wednesday against a strong Auburn team.
“We want to play nine guys,” Hurley noted. “We feel like of the young guys, he’s by far the most ready to take the court with eight other guys and effectively be ready to hit the ground running. He’s a major player for us on this year’s team.”
Hawkins had a bit of a soft opening against LIU, not entering the game until about midway through the second half, when the game was already well out of reach. He jacked up a 3-pointer 30 seconds into his career that missed, and wound up missing both his 3-pointers and shooting just 1-for-4 from the floor. But he grabbed four rebounds and had three steals, one of them leading to an assist on an Andre Jackson dunk, and certainly brimmed with potential.
“He’s aggressive,” senior guard Tyrese Martin noted. “He’s young, but he’s aggressive. He knows what he does great, and he does that consistently. He gets to a spot for his jump shots, makes the open shots. He’s doing pretty well right now, and I can’t wait to see him get going in a game.”
Martin figures Hawkins will
still have the “jitters” on Saturday, and likely again on Wednesday against Auburn. The Huskies (3-0) have won all their games by 35 or more points so far and certainly look like a true force. But all three opponents have KenPom rankings of 283 or lower, and Binghamton (314) is no better.
With that in mind, Hurley doesn’t want his team playing like “fat rats” on Saturday. He’s looking for a team that’s still hungry, that’s locked-in and connected on every possession. He doesn’t want the Huskies to become another victim of a mid-major upset this season.
“How many teams lose games like this?,” he asked, rhetorically. “You see it every day on Twitter.”
So when will Hurley know he truly has a very good team?
“I think it takes the season. You find out your quality over the course of a 30-plus game season. Obviously, we know what’s ahead of us. When we get through Saturday’s game, we’re looking at 25 highmajor games out of the next 27.”
And Jordan Hawkins figures to play a key role in those games.
“Jordan’s a big-time talent, a special player,” Hurley continued. “He’s gonna really add to our offensive firepower. He’ll be a guy that has the ability to really open up the court for others, and also to go along with what we’re gonna be able to do offensively and rebounding, he just gives us some more offensive punch.”
RIM RATTLINGS
With Jim Calhoun retiring from his head coaching job at the University of Saint Joseph, seemingly this time for good, Hurley is looking forward to having the Hall of Famer back around the UConn program.
“When Coach decided to stay coaching, it was awesome and inspirational to see a true coach continue on, just because he loved being a coach and loves molding young men and winning. That was inspiring. But, to not have him around in the winter as a resource has (stunk). But the fact that Coach is gonna be around a lot is awesome. It’s gonna be great for me as someone who’s still a relatively young coach.”