Vital, Bouknight Earn All-AAC Honors
The Story: Christian Vital was named to the all-AAC first team and freshman James Bouknight checked in on the third team and made the rookie team.
VITAL TURNS SEASON AROUND: We have touched on this in the last several weeks, but Vital has been the best player in the conference the last month and shook off his awful beginning of the season to become one of the most efficient scorers in the conference since February. His play is a big reason UConn went 8-2 over its last 10 conference games. Vital is a candidate for AAC Player of the Year, which will be announced today. Vital has scored 20-points or more in six-of-seven games.
WHAT DID HURLEY SAY? “Christian has been one of the best players in the country the last six weeks. The way he’s led, the way he’s played, he deserved it. James has been one of the best freshmen in the country, especially over this last stretch of games.”
BOUKNIGHT STARS! Bouknight isn’t going to win Rookie of the Year. That will almost assuredly go to Precious Achiuwa of Memphis, but despite only starting half the year, Bouknight has become one of the most explosive players in the AAC. Bougknight is averaging 15.3 points per game in conference play and 17.8 points and 5.6 rebounds over the last 10 games. He was the conference’s player of the week once and its freshman of the week twice during the season.
WHO WINS INDIVIDUAL AWARDS? Let’s see. Achiuwa was the only unanimous selection for the all-AAC first team and it reasons to think he is the leader in the clubhouse for Player of the Year. We are vehemently against Achiuwa getting that award based on Memphis’ finish and his good-but-not-great averages of 15.8 points and 10.1 rebounds per game. Achiuwa has been a good player this year for Memphis, but hardly a dominant and efficient player. Achiuwa and Vital were joined by Jarron Cumberland and Tre Scott of Cincinnati, and Martins Igbanu of Tulsa, on the all-conference team.
CORONAVIRUS UPDATE: The CIAC canceled Connecticut’s high school basketball tournaments and the Ivy League named Yale its champion by cancelling its four-team men’s basketball tournament. Some leagues are playing in empty gyms, but the AAC appears to be all things go for now. As far as Hurley, his son plays for East Catholic, one of the best teams in Connecticut, and will have that experience cut short.
A Goodbye to the AAC
The Story: The women’s basketball team won a seventh consecutive AAC title on Monday and will begin play in the Big East next season. As we look back at their perfect 139-0 record, what are some things to know?
RARE AIR: As we mentioned yesterday, only Texas, which won 143 consecutive games in the South West Conference from 1981 to 1990, has had a streak rivaling UConn’s. The next-closest streak is owned by Old Dominion, which won 115 consecutive games in the Colonial Athletic Association from 1995 to 2001, and then Stanford won 81 straight in the Pac-10/Pac-12 from 2009 to 2013. As for the Big East days? UConn’s longest conference winning streak spanned 69 games, beginning in 2007 and ending in 2012.
PUT UP A FIGHT? Not only did the Huskies win all 139 games against AAC opponents, only twice — at Tulane in 2016-17 and at UCF this season — did they only win by single digits. Their largest margin of victory in a conference game was an 81-point win at home against Wichita State in 2017-18, and they won 13 AAC games by at least 60 points. They won their regular-season games by 41.1 points and their conference tournament games by 35.3 points. All together, UConn defeated its AAC opponents by an average of 40.2 points over seven years.
WHAT DID GENO SAY? “Seven years, whatever it’s been, we showed up. We didn’t take anybody for granted. We treat everybody with the respect that they deserve, and at the end of the game, we’re winning. That wasn’t the goal when we started. It’s hard to put into words anything more than that.”
Morning Reads
SIXTH SENSE: The baseball team scored three runs in the sixth inning to beat Hartford 5-2 in its first midweek game of the season. (The UConn Blog)
INSIDE HOCKEY: Curious to see how the men’s hockey team operates? Take a look behind the curtain to understand practices and preparation. (The UConn Blog)
LION TAMERS: The softball team won its third consecutive game yesterday with a 7-0 shutout of Hofstra. (UConnHuskies.com)
COLUMBIA IN TOWN: The women’s lacrosse team will host Columbia this afternoon. (UConnHuskies.com)
