Huskies Open With Caribbean Crush
The story: Senior Katie Lou Samuelson scored 22 points and was one of six players to reach double figures in scoring as UConn rolled to a 90-50 win over Ole Miss in the opening game of the Paradise Jam in St. Thomas on Thursday.
Napheesa Collier had a double-double with 18 points and 10 rebounds and Megan Walker, who finished with 12 points, had a career-high nine rebounds.
AVOIDING THE MIXER: Ole Miss thought it had a chance to hang with the Huskies by scrapping in the paint and crashing the boards, but the theory only worked for so long. UConn (3-0) proved to be much more durable, holding a 44-30 rebounding margin and outscoring the Rebels in the paint, 30-20.
“That’s what every team is going to do,” Geno Auriemma told reporters after the game. “Every team is going to try to … physically beat us, beat us up. They know we don’t have any subs that are as good as the guys that are starting. What they’re trying to do is get us into our bench, so we have to be really, really tough physically and mentally. That’s just the way it’s going to be.”
GOING DEEP: The Huskies shot only 50.7 percent from the floor, but they did make 11 of 27 3-pointers. Samuelson made four of her nine attempts to become only the fourth UConn player to ever make more than 300 3-pointers in her career.
ABOUT THAT BENCH: Auriemma hasn’t desired a deep rotation in recent years, preferring to give seven or so players a significant run during games. With three games in three days, and a 20-point lead earned early in the second quarter, he had the ability to turn to Kyla Irwin, who played 14 scoreless minutes, and Olivia Nelson-Ododa and Mikayla Coombs, who each played 12. Nelson-Ododa, a freshman, scored a season-high 11 points.
UP NEXT: UConn will face St. John’s tonight in the second game of the round-robin event. The Red Storm (3-0), perennially one of the better teams in the Big East, beat Purdue on Thursday, 68-62, in their Paradise Jam opener. Oddly, four players each scored 14 points for St. John’s in the win.
The Huskies have lost to St. John’s only once in the last 25 years — a span of 31 games — but they have not met since the 2014-15 season.
Men’s Hoops Ready To Go Wild
The story: The UConn men’s basketball team (4-1) will look to keep racking up victories on Saturday afternoon when it hosts New Hampshire (2-3) at the XL Center. The Wildcats have not walked away from a meeting between the teams with a win since Jan. 9, 1983.
STRIKE A BALANCE: UConn has relied heavily thus far upon Alterique Gilbert, whose 13.2 points per game are second only to Jalen Adams, and though the redshirt sophomore has been fully cleared from his injury woes of the past two seasons, a game like this could offer him a breather. After all, there won’t be many more with what’s at stake once conference play begins.
Four of UConn’s starters are averaging at least 25.4 minutes per game, with Josh Carlton significantly bringing up the rear at just 17.4 minutes this season. Coach Dan Hurley doesn’t have the deepest bench — nine players have earned their way into the rotation thus far — and games like the one on Saturday could allow him to give a closer look at Brendan Adams, Kassoum Yakwe and Isaiah Whaley.
CRUISE CONTROL: The Huskies have shown through their first five games that their guards will push the pace, but they must discover how to do so without being careless. They took a step in that direction in the win over Cornell on Tuesday, matching a season low with 12 turnovers, and despite leading the team in that category, Christian Vital showed significant improvement with just one.
COME OUT FIRING: Adams, averaging a team-high 18.6 points per game, should actually be shooting and scoring more. Hurley said he wants Adams to “take over” and handle the bulk of the Huskies’ scoring. “He wants me to be in attack mode, be that alpha guard,” Adams said.
Final Test For Football
The story: UConn (1-10) will face Temple (7-4) on Saturday afternoon at Rentschler Field in its final game of this woeful, misery-laden, we-can’t-wait-to-forget-about-it season. It will be an unfortunate goodbye for several seniors, including quarterback David Pindell, center Ryan Crozier and several others.
NICE GUYS FINISH LAST: Coach Randy Edsall was effusive in his praise earlier this week for Pindell, who will finish with one of the best individual seasons ever among UConn quarterbacks despite his team’s lack of success. If Pindell has any faults, Edsall said, it’s that he wished he was more vocal on the field.
“I just want them to remember me as a nice guy, a quiet dude that’s laid back,” Pindell told reporters on Tuesday. “Just, ‘Hey, David’s a nice, quiet guy. He’s just a good guy.’”
PATHS DIVERGED: Oh, how we long for the days of using revenge as a marketing tool to drum up interest for the game between these two teams. Instead, as UConn has embarked upon a slow, painful slide into the doldrums, Temple has secured a winning record for the fourth consecutive season.
The Owls have six defensive touchdowns, the most in the FBS, and are one of the conference’s better defenses. Meanwhile, it could will be a long day for UConn’s run defense, with Owls running back Ryquell Armstead having run for 1,042 yards and 13 touchdowns this season.
Just make it quick and painless.
Hockey Wants Luck Of the Irish
The story: The UConn men’s hockey team has made its first trip across the Atlantic to take part in a four-team tournament in Belfast, Northern Ireland, this weekend.
The Huskies (5-6-1, 2-5-1 Hockey East) will face Boston University (3-5-1, 3-3-1 Hockey East) in a conference game at the SSE Arena in the first round of the Belpot Trophy on Friday, with the winner moving on to face either No. 11 Union or Yale in championship or consolation game on Saturday.
BIG-TIME HOCKEY: The tournament, in its fourth year, will be played in front of a sold-out crowd of 20,000 — that’s eight times larger than the 2,500-seat arena UConn wants to build on campus, mind you — and is a chance for the Huskies to show off on a larger stage.
“I think it’s special any time you can compete for a trophy,” coach Mike Cavanaugh said, according to UConn’s website. “But being able to go to Ireland is going to be one of those truly unique experiences.”
Morning Read
HURLEY EYES COULIBALY: Karim Coulibaly, a 6-foot-8, 230-pound center from the Scotland Performance Institute in Pennsylvania, said UConn has stepped up its recruitment efforts, though they haven’t offered him a scholarship. “They think that I can be a pro one day,” Coulibaly said. “They interest me. They are a big-time school.” Coulibaly has an offer from not-big-time school Boston College. (Rivals.com)
SIZEABLE SETBACK: The decision of Aliyah Boston to commit to South Carolina means Geno Auriemma has only received a commitment from Aubrey Griffin, though top-rated recruit Haley Jones is set to make her decision next week. (Manchester Journal-Inquirer)
BACK AT HOME: New Hampshire boats a pair of Connecticut players who are excited to face UConn in front of a hometown crowd on Saturday. (Hartford Courant)
