Hurley Looking to Future After Humiliation
The Story: Guard Alterique Gilbert returned after missing five games with a shoulder injury, but he wasn’t anywhere near enough as the men’s basketball team struggled and lost 77-59 at SMU last night. After the game, Dan Hurley called the performance “dreadful,” said he was “humiliated” and promised wholesale changes for the rest of the season after the Huskies lost their fourth consecutive game to fall to 13-13 and 4-9 in the AAC.
WHERE’S THE FIGHT? The Huskies were badly overmatched against the Mustangs (13-12, 5-8), who they defeated in rather spirited fashion at home earlier this season. They shot 30 percent (21-of-70), by far their worst performance of the season, against SMU’s rather disjointed 2-3 zone and were beaten on the boards, 39-33. They missed their first nine shots, seven of which were layups, and made only one of their first nine shots of the second half. They were also passive and disinterested on defense, which may have been the most irritating part of it all.
GILBERT’S BACK: After missing nearly a month, Gilbert played 23 minutes off the bench, though he made just three of his 10 shots and finished with six points. The guard injured his left shoulder, which has been twice surgically repaired, in the win against Wichita State on Jan. 26 and figured to give the Huskies a lift in the absence of Jalen Adams.
He did somewhat as UConn took a brief lead midway through the first half because he was able to control the flow of the game and help his teammates space the floor. His confidence and rhythm will come, but in a game of disappointment, it was encouraging to see him back.
POLLEY STRONG AGAIN: Tyler Polley scored a team-high 19 points, two games after he set a season high with 20, off 6-of-15 shooting. He went 5-of-9 from beyond the arc with a few timely 3s and looked lethal during the first-half run. The sophomore has found his groove lately without Adams, and Gilbert-to-Polley could be something we’re seeing a lot next season. Otherwise, Christian Vital helped shoulder the rest of the offensive load with 14 points.
VANISHING ACT: Outside of Polley, who still faded in the second half, the rest of the team disappeared. Josh Carlton, again plagued by foul trouble, played 17 minutes and had two points and five rebounds. Tarin Smith, who stepped up in Gilbert’s absence, had just one point and finished without an assist — an astonishing feat for a starting point guard. Somehow, Eric Cobb led the team with four assists, and he also had a team-high six rebounds in 18 minutes off the bench, and Sidney Wilson made just two of his 11 shots, though his touch around the rim was jittery at best.
ROAD WOES: The Huskies have always struggled at Moody Coliseum, but they’re now 0-7 in road games this season and haven’t won away from home in more than a year, having last beaten ECU on Feb. 18, 2018. That’s … unforgivable. (Thanks to reader Miguel for pointing out our error with this stat yesterday.)
WHAT DID HURLEY SAY? “We dishonored the uniform today. We embarrassed ourselves. There wasn’t an aspect of the game that we did a good job with. We failed in every aspect of the game. It was just a complete embarrassment.”
INSIDE THE BOX SCORE: The Huskies took 27 3-point attempts, tied for their third-most of the season, and made 10 of them, finishing a collective 37 percent from the perimeter. SMU, meanwhile, shot 57.1 percent for the best shooting performance by a UConn opponent since UCF did so on Jan. 5. Jahmal McMurray led the Mustangs with 25 points.
MOVING FORWARD: Hurley vowed after the game that “there will be changes” going into Sunday, but realistically, what can he do? He has 16 players on the roster, but Jalen Adams and now Kassoum Yakwe are out for the year, Mamadou Diarra has been plagued by chronic knee problems during his career, Kwintin Williams has been in indefinite suspension purgatory since Jan. 2 and three players are walk-ons, leaving him with nine players.
Does that mean freshman Brendan Adams could be given a greater run? Maybe, but he’s shown very little in his opportunity with Adams and Gilbert out, scoring eight points with seven assists in his last seven games. And Isaiah Whaley has been glued to the bench all season, but if he wants to hop into a phone booth, put on his cape and come to the rescue, by all means.
Perhaps most concerning is that the goodwill and excitment of November and December have long since worn off. Hurley entered a more significant rebuilding project than anyone ever really wanted to admit, especially early on, and despite his high energy and overall loveable madness, he has to find a way to reach his players soon, especially the underclassmen, if UConn wants to avoid a third consecutive sub-.500 season.
UP NEXT: The Huskies will host Cincinnati (22-4, 11-2) at the XL Center on Sunday afternoon. The Bearcats, who won 74-72 in overtime at the Improper Fraction on Jan. 12, beat UCF 60-55 last night. UConn will also celebrate the 20th anniversary of the 1999 national championship team, which put Jim Calhoun and the Huskies on the map and seems so, so, so, so long ago.
Hurricane Ready to Blow Into Tulsa
The Story: The No. 3-ranked women’s basketball team will begin a two-game swing through the heart of AAC country when it visits Tulsa on Sunday. (3 p.m., SNY)
WHAT’S UP WITH WILLIAMS? Freshman Christyn Williams played just 16 minutes in the Huskies’ romp over Memphis on Wednesday and was, as Geno Auriemma later described, “a little off.” As it turned out, she has been battling a cold, which is why she unsuccessfully asked to leave the game in the first quarter.
If she’s feeling healthy for Sunday, she could use a strong bounce-back game: Williams has seen her scoring average dip from 13.3 points per game before the start of conference play to 10.8 points per game entering the weekend. She’s a difficult player to stop when she’s in the groove and has the talent and attributes to be a future star, and these last four regular-season games could give her a good boost heading into the postseason.
LIVING WELL: Williams’ classmate, Olivia Nelson-Ododa, just narrowly missed her second double-double of the season on Wednesday when she finished with 10 points and eight rebounds. She has emerged as a reliable option off the bench, having played 21 minutes in consecutive games, and perhaps most notably is averaging a rebound every 3.1 minutes played in AAC games — a rate that’s second on the team only to Napheesa Collier‘s 3.2 minutes per rebound.
Nelson-Ododa said she wants to continue to do the “dirty work,” playing strong defense and grabbing rebounds, to try to help the team. But one area she can certainly improve is in practice, as she has acknowledged. Geno has been pretty critical of her performance when the spotlights aren’t on. “I guess I’ve got to come to grips with that,” he said.
ABOUT TULSA: The Golden Hurricane (11-14, 5-7) has never beaten the Huskies in eight previous meetings, all of which have some since the spawning of the AAC. Even more amazingly — OK, maybe not — the Huskies have won the three games in Tulsa by an average of 50 points. One of the worst defensive teams in the conference, Tulsa is led by senior forward Crystal Polk, who is averaging 13 points and 7.2 rebounds per game, and junior guard Alexis Gaulden, who has a team-high 4.7 assists per game.
Washington No. 1 … For Now
The Story: The football team began spring practice last week and Marvin Washington, a sophomore to be, has been taking the first-team reps at quarterback with Steven Krajewski as his backup.
NOTHING TO SEE HERE? The Huskies are planning to work primarily on fundamentals and the installation of their offense under new coordinator Frank Giufre this spring, so someone has to take those snaps. And, given that two other quarterbacks, graduate transfer Mike Beaudry and true freshman Jack Zergiotis, won’t be enrolling until the summer, the competition isn’t truly underway.
Still, it’s a chance for Washington to atone for some of the mistakes of previous seasons. The backup to David Pindell for much of last year, he was shut down late in the season to focus on his academics at the not-so-subtle prodding of Randy Edsall. “I had to pick a side if I really wanted to be a part of this football life or if I wanted to keep messing up,” Washington told reporters yesterday. “I love football and this is what I want to do.”
THOMPKINS FITS IN: In addition to Beaudry, UConn will benefit from the addition of another graduate transfer at a skill position in running back Art Thompkins, who joined from Toledo. Edsall already raved about Thompkins’ leadership earlier this month and his teammates seem to agree. “It doesn’t feel like he transferred in at all,” right tackle Matt Peart said yesterday. “It is like he has been a part of the team for a long time.”
Kevin Mensah figures to strengthen his hold on the starting job, but Thompkins will add a change of pace to the Huskies’ backfield. He ran for 563 yards and six touchdowns last season for the Rockets, including 122 yards in a win at Kent State in November, and also adds insurance with Zavier Scott, Donevin O’Reilly and Khyon Gillespie all recovering from knee injuries.
STARTING FROM SCRATCH: UConn is breaking in a new defensive coordinator in Lou Spanos, who is tasked with turning around statistically the worst defense in FBS history. Spanos, who spent last season as an analyst at Alabama, said he has known Edsall for years and was intrigued by the challenge of making the defense competent.
“I don’t know what they did the last couple of years,” Spanos said after yesterday’s practice. “All I know is the kids are putting in effort with what our coaching staff is stressing. They’re getting a little more vocal and they’re communicating better. They’re talking a lot and making sure everyone is executing their assignments. They’re flying around and trying to have some fun.”
A NEW RALLYING CRY? Edsall may have inadvertently stumbled on the Huskies’ motto for next season when addressing the last. “Can’t get any worse, can it? So, it will be better. I just turned the page and moved on. Whatever happened last year happened. This is 2019 now, so that’s the only thing that concerns me.”
Baseball Back in Action in South Carolina
The Story: The baseball team will look to build on the momentum from a massive season-opening series win over then-No. 4 Louisville this weekend when it visits the College of Charleston (4-0) for a three-game set beginning this afternoon.
RIDE THAT HIGH: Although coach Jim Penders was quick to dampen the excitement of winning two of three games against the Cardinals last weekend, UConn’s first wins over a top-five team since 2001, the Huskies need to use the lessons they learned if they’re going to have success against the Cougars.
They had similar success on opening weekend a year ago, beating Georgia Tech and Georgia State in a three-game series against Atlanta-area teams, then came out flat in the opener of a series at Southeastern Louisiana the following weekend before taking that series, too.
FEOLE’S DEBUT? Junior left-hander and preseason all-American Mason Feole missed the opening weekend as he recovered from a triceps injury, but Penders said earlier in the week that it’s possible he could be ready to make his first appearance against C of C.
Feole led the Huskies last season with a 2.50 ERA, nine wins, 16 starts and 100⅔ innings pitched, and with 120 strikeouts, he became the first pitcher since Colin McLaughlin in 1979 to hit that mark. The preseason AAC Pitcher of the Year, Feole probably won’t go long if he does make his debut because he’s still working his throwing arm into shape, but he’ll provide a boost for the Huskies regardless.
As it is, the Huskies are planning to go with Jeff Kersten today and Colby Dunlop tomorrow, just as they did in the first two games against Louisville, with Sunday’s starter to be announced. That could be Feole or, as was the case last weekend, a bullpen game.
Morning Reads
BOEHEIM INVOLVED IN FATAL ACCIDENT: Syracuse’s Jim Boeheim is cooperating with police after he struck and killed a man walking outside his vehicle on the highway while driving back from the win over Louisville early yesterday morning. (Syracuse Post-Standard)
JACKSON BOOKS VISIT: High school junior Andre Jackson, a 6-foot-5 wing from Albany who is ranked No. 37 in the nation by ESPN, will take an official visit to UConn on March 4. (Stockrisers.com)
AWFUL NIGHT IN AMHERST: The men’s hockey team was shut out by No. 2 UMass, losing 3-0 in its final road game of the season. (UConnHuskies.com)
END OF THE ROAD: The women’s hockey team will say goodbye to seniors Nora Maclaine, Rebecca Lindblad, Kayla Mee and Jaime Fox tonight against Boston University, its final game of the season. (UConnHuskies.com)
IN SEARCH OF SUNSHINE: The softball team will play two games against Florida Atlantic and two against Florida Gulf Coast this weekend in Boca Raton, Florida. (UConnHuskies.com)
BIG RESPONSIBILITIES: Former UConn pitcher Scott Oberg is in line to take over as the Colorado Rockies’ primary setup guy after Adam Ottavino signed with the New York Yankees. (Denver Post)
