Huskies Hold Onto Win, Not Much Else; Randy Edsall Signs 20 Players

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UConn Daily

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Huskies Hold Off Saint Peter’s In Sloppy Win

The Story: The men’s basketball team opened a 23-point lead early in the second half and held on to beat Saint Peter’s 66-56 last night in a rather ugly game at the XL Center. Tyler Polley scored a team-high 12 points and Jalen Gaffney had a breakout performance with 10 points and five assists in 20 minutes, but they were overshadowed by another ridiculous number of turnovers.

WHAT WE LIKED: Not much. Yes, the first half showed some spirit as the Huskies got out to a 40-22 halftime lead after shooting 62 percent. UConn was never in serious danger of losing and we will never apologize for winning a basketball game. After that? Polley was a bright spot, making four of his seven shots (and all but one was taken from 3-point range). Gaffney, who has been silent and marginalized as of late, showed promise off the bench. We also want to note Akok Akok‘s performance: While he scored only seven points, he had eight rebounds and five blocks and continues to impact the game without scoring. James Bouknight also added eight points in a nice bounceback game.

JUST BURN THE FILM: If you like turnovers, this was the game for you! UConn had 26 turnovers and took 43 shots. Saint Peter’s had 25 turnovers as well. Having two teams combine for 51 turnovers resembled a middle school rec league game more than Division I college basketball. After a turnover-filled loss to Indiana, the lack of ball security is certainly a big concern. The main culprits? Alterique Gilbert had five turnovers and Gaffney had four. The only UConn player who didn’t commit a turnover was Polley.

WHAT DID HURLEY SAY? “We have a lot of work to do with ball security. The last two games are a poor reflection of my ability to get my team to be tough with the ball.”

BOTTOM LINE: UConn won the game, is 7-3 and has a lot of work to do before Sunday’s game against New Hampshire. We aren’t going to overreact to an awful second half in which the Huskies were outscored 34-26. We liked the production from Akok, Bouknight and Gaffney and feel good that Polley is getting recognition as an important scoring threat. We also liked that Gilbert, who had six points on 2-of-4 shooting, and Christian Vital, who had nine points on 3-of-6 shooting, didn’t force too many shots up and didn’t force things in limited minutes. The Huskies have a long way to go, however, and they are lucky Saint Peter’s was in the building last night and not, say, Cincinnati.

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Huskies Sign 20 Players in Class of 2020

The Story: The football team signed 20 players yesterday, the first day of the December signing period, including a quarterback, two junior college transfers, five players from Florida and none from Connecticut.

WHO ARE THEY? In alphabetical order (click on the names for highlight videos):

HOW GOOD IS THIS CLASS? It’s hard to truly evaluate a class until the players are upperclassmen (remember Geno Auriemma‘s comment from earlier this month about how he now realizes his classes lately have sucked?). That being said, Randy Edsall believes the players who signed are valuable in terms of filling out the position quotas he’s long wanted to fill. UConn added 12 players on offense and eight on defense, and Edsall said many of them want the chance to prove themselves on offense and defense.

WHO ARE THE HEADLINERS? The Huskies’ two highest-profile signees are McCarthy, a 6-foot-6, 222-pound defensive end who was named the defensive player of the year in New Jersey by NJ Advance Media yesterday morning, and Evans, a 6-foot-2, 268-pound defensive tackle who chose UConn over offers from Maryland, North Carolina and West Virginia. They landed at UConn because of existing relationships: McCarthy’s father, Mike McCarthy, played at UConn in the early 1990s, and one of Evans’ high school assistant coaches was a defensive back who was coached by Edsall at Georgia Tech in the mid-1990s.

OTHERS TO WATCH: The two junior college transfers, Walker and Wyant, could push to start this fall, and that’s needed given the Huskies are losing three starters from last season. Bush, in particular, wants to try to play wide receiver and defensive back and will also be given a shot as a returner. Brewton “reminds me of a Larry Taylor-type” of player, Edsall said. Senecal, the quarterback, who tore a ligament in his left knee in the season opener, is “a good player. He can run. He can throw. He’s everything that we’re looking for in a quarterback.”

NO KIDS FROM CONNECTICUT: UConn did not receive a letter of intent from a single player from Connecticut for the first time. That’s because there aren’t many non-prep school players in the state this year who are capable of playing in the FBS, and also because those who the Huskies deemed worthy of recruiting were not interested. “Yeah, there’s kids that we tried to recruit,” Edsall said. “I can’t comment about them, but they decided that they didn’t want to be here. That’s fine with me. We’re only going to go after the kids that want to be here, and whoever wants to be here, that’s what I want.”

A HEAD START: Of the 20 players who signed, Edsall said 10 of them (Alexander, Carter, Chea, Early, Heatherman, Hooper, Marion, Senecal, Walker and Wyant) are planning to graduate high school early and begin taking classes the third week of January. That’s by far the Huskies’ biggest group of early enrollees ever and it will help get many of them ready to play as soon as next fall.

WHO DIDN’T SIGN? Of the known commitments, the Huskies only got one surprise on signing day: offensive lineman Austin Reeves, who instead decided to head 90 minutes from his home and attend Appalachian State. That’s not bad, given the uncertainty the program went through over the past six months, and Edsall said the fact so many players kept their commitments showed the quality of their character.

WHAT’S LEFT? Edsall wants to sign five more players: an offensive lineman, a running back, a linebacker and two cornerbacks. He will consider transfers, but also said there are players he’s recruiting who don’t want to make a decision until the February signing period. It’s also possible the Huskies could add more than five players to reach the 25-player limit. Early enrollees can be counted against a previous or current class, and with only 20 players signing with UConn a year ago, there’s some flexibility there.

WHAT DID EDSALL SAY? “It’s a lot harder than what some of you guys think in terms of putting a roster together and changing a roster and developing a roster. It’s tough. It takes time to do that. And when you get guys that are versatile and athletic and have the ability to do certain things, it helps you because of injuries and everything else. The thing that I like is we’re getting to a point, especially defensively, where [when] you have the numbers you’re looking for and you’ve got guys that have experience, now you’ve got guys that you can bring in who you can develop and grow. That’s kind of where we are with a lot of positions. We’re not there with every position yet, but we’re a lot closer than we’ve ever been.”

Morning Reads

UCONN WHO? With four of the top 10 teams in the country playing in the Pac-12, is the West Coast where the power of women’s basketball is right now? (New York Times)

SIMPLY THE BEST: DePaul coach Doug Bruno, who knows Geno Auriemma better than most, said the Huskies are “the best program in the history of intercollegiate basketball, men or women.” (Hearst Connecticut Media)

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