At Long Last, It’s Game Time!
The Story: The men’s basketball team will kick off its season tonight when it hosts Saint Michael’s in an exhibition game at the XL Center at 7 p.m. It’s not on TV, but tickets are available for super cheap.
WHAT TO WATCH FOR: After the Huskies went 16-17 last season, the first under Dan Hurley, it’s time to see how the Huskies will look now that their coach has an idea of how he can mold them into his identity. That’s going to mean an uptempo attack with pressure defense that Hurley hopes will stifle opponents and fuel a transition game. Jalen Adams and four others are gone, but UConn will debut one of the top-rated recruiting classes in a long while tonight. It’ll be fun to see how it all starts to come together.
WILL BOUKNIGHT PLAY? It’s unclear whether any punishment Hurley doles out to freshman James Bouknight will include missing tonight’s game, though he said a decision would be made soon. Bouknight faces charges from an incident involving a car crash late last month and yesterday applied to be enrolled in an accelerated pretrial rehabilitation program that could lead to those charges being dismissed.
AS FOR THE OTHER FRESHMEN? Well, the class as a whole is … not up to par. Hurley said that between Bouknight’s issues and minor injuries to Jalen Gaffney and Akok Akok, he hasn’t had a chance to see what the group can do yet. “We thought we/d be further along with the other two freshman guards, but because of injury and off-the-court [issues], quite honestly, going into the season, we’re not getting as much out of this group as we’d hoped,” Hurley said.
That doesn’t mean they haven’t been impressive in flashes. Akok started the closed-door scrimmage against Harvard last week and, perhaps because he spent the spring semester with the team as a redshirt, “is in a good spot,” according to Hurley.
WHAT DID HURLEY SAY? “The message with these guys is that we’ve got to play with a lot of urgency. We’re not coming off of back-to-back second weekends in the NCAA tournament. We’re coming off three straight losing seasons. We’re trying to establish a winning brand of basketball and that’s got to start with not trying to out-talent somebody in these types of games.”
Win Gives Huskies Extra Juice
The Story: After (technically) ending their long run without a victory over an FBS team, players on the football team are feeling a bit more pep in their steps heading into Friday’s game against Navy.
WHAT A WIN: The Huskies claimed a 56-35 win over UMass on Saturday, marking the first time they’ve defeated an FBS team since they toppled Tulsa at home on Oct. 21, 2017. Randy Edsall said that feeling a bit more confident was only natural, but the Huskies now face a tough task in the Midshipmen, who are 6-1 and sniffing the national rankings.
TRICK? NO, BUT TREATS: Edsall objected to the labeling of Quayvon Skanes‘ touchdown pass to Jay Rose on Saturday as a “trick play,” calling it more of a “deceptive play” because “you do them for a rhyme and reason.” Regardless of all that, Skanes, the Huskies’ primary punt returner, said he was given absolutely no advance warning the play was going to be called. “[I was] not nervous because I did it in high school and I’m pretty comfortable throwing the ball,” Skanes said. “When my number is called, I just make sure I go out there and execute.”
Morning Reads
TIME TO PAY: An NCAA committee has recommended the organization find a way to allow players to profit off of their likenesses in the wake of legislation mandating such, and athletic director Dave Benedict expressed his support for that plan. (Hartford Courant)
CANADIAN CONNECTION: Recent women’s basketball commit Aaliyah Edwards said she always looked up to Kia Nurse, so when it was time to decide on a college, it was only natural for her to follow in her fellow Canadian’s footsteps. (Hartford Courant)
