Geno Joins the Dance Party
The Story: Geno Auriemma is back with the team after recovering from COVID-19, joining the players and staff in Texas yesterday to much fanfare.
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW: When Paige Bueckers speaks, even Geno listens. After Tuesday’s second-round victory over Syracuse, Bueckers told her coach to get his butt down to Texas. Low and behold, Geno showed up at the hotel and the players gave him a welcome fit for a king.
GENO SPEAKS ON EQUALITY: The inequities in the men’s and women’s tournaments has drawn a lot of criticism the last week and with hearings on inequality and the pay gap between men and women, Geno spoke to SNY about his feelings on the subject. The inequity between the tournaments struck a nerve.
WHAT DID GENO SAY? “This has been, for me, as long as I’ve been in women’s basketball, this has been a lifelong issue. This isn’t something new that just kind of cropped up. You can make a case that it’s never been fair, it’s never been equitable. And not that life is supposed to be fair, and not that you expect things to magically be rectified and say, ‘Yeah, we see inequity and we’re gonna fix it.’ The world doesn’t move that way.”
UCONN ON ABC: UConn’s Sweet 16 game against Iowa — which will be hyped as a matchup of the two top freshmen in the country in Bueckers and Iowa’s Caitlin Clark — will be broadcast on ABC at 1 p.m. on Saturday.
Does Hurley Have Enough Next Season?
The Story: It is never too early to speak about next season and we are already trying to figure out a big question — are the Huskies good enough?
WHERE WILL THE SCORING COME FROM? James Bouknight is gone. We know that’s not what you want to hear, and we have no inside info other than it makes no sense for him to stay another year. We saw what life could look like without Bouknight when he was out for eight games with an elbow injury. UConn was 4-4 without him and there are questions whether anyone can help replace his 20 points per game.
IT BEGINS WITH COLE: The best offensive player left is R.J. Cole. The Huskies need Cole as more of a scorer next year after he tried to be a facilitator this year. Cole was a 20-plus-point scorer at Howard and came on late in the year at UConn and was the second-leading scorer at 12.2 points per game while shooting 38.6 percent from 3. The Huskies need Cole to score more next year and need him to be more efficient.
GO INSIDE! We know big men aren’t cool anymore, but we think Adama Sanogo‘s game could cause a revival of the big man. Sanogo doesn’t have the athleticism of Emeka Okafor, but he has good size and his footwork and touch are going to be a problem for the Big East and the country. He is one of the more skilled freshmen big men we have ever seen and can easily see him average in the mid-double-digits next. Now, what does he have to work on? Stay out of foul trouble!
BEST OF THE REST: Tyrese Martin was the third-leading scorer for the Huskies with 10.6 points per game, but he was massively inconsistent this season. He can go for 20 or for 0. A lot of it depends on if he can get good looks since he isn’t able to create his own shot on the wing. He has athleticism and physicality around the basket, but he has to improve his perimeter shooting and finishing on drives to the basket. After that? We were the first members of the Jalen Gaffney fan club and it is now or never for the talented guard. Gaffney has to double his production from the year. Gaffney averaged 6.2 points per game, shot 41 percent overall and 36.2 percent from 3-point range, and bounced back from a terrible start to the season. We saw Gaffney’s best at times, including his 12 points in the NCAA Tournament. He has to be that explosive combo guard to spell Cole and get in the lane and finish.
A MAN CAN DREAM, RIGHT? What if Andre Jackson develops a jump shot? What if Akok Akok comes back at 100 percent 18 months out from a torn Achilles and becomes the stretch four we want to see? What if the Huskies’ incoming freshmen guards, Jordan Hawkins and Rahsool Diggins, can pay immediate dividends? What if the Huskies kill it in the grad transfer market? These things need to happen to get the Huskies where we want them to be. We’ll see how the summer goes.
