Hurley: Time to ‘Build a Great Season’
The Story: The No. 20-ranked men’s basketball team will face its toughest challenges of the season as it heads to Oregon for three games against quality opponents in the eight-team Phil Knight Invitational.
A STEP UP: After blowing out the likes of Boston University and Delaware State en route to a 5-0 start, the Huskies will first encounter Oregon, which is receiving votes in the AP poll, before facing No. 12 Michigan State or No. 18 Alabama on Friday and one of No. 1 North Carolina, Villanova, Iowa State or Portland on Sunday.
• Bring on the Tar Heels! The defending national runners-up will not only provide a measuring stick for how the Huskies stack up against the nation’s best but also boost the NET rankings in what appears to be a down season for the Big East.
BETTER THAN LAST YEAR? The Huskies headed to the Bahamas for a multi-team event last season and beat Auburn in a double-overtime thriller before falling late against Michigan State and then squeaking past VCU.
• UConn, which clearly appeared to be fatigued a year ago, might need to manage its minutes and rotations better. That will be tough to do as Dan Hurley is not only still figuring out how to incorporate eight (OK, really six) new players but also needs to get guards Jordan Hawkins and Andre Jackson more minutes as they return from injury.
• The event could be a showcase for junior center Adama Sanogo, who has looked great this season and certainly evolved his game. How he can do those little things — pump fakes in the high post, adept passing — against better competition will help him measure his progress.
TIRED OF THE CREAMPUFFS: Hurley said after the win against Delaware State, when UConn took its foot off the gas a bit in the second half, that he’s eager to move onto more difficult competition.
• “I just thought you saw a team that was tired of these type of games in the second half, and it is ready to go attack the rest of the season. These games suck worse than the high-major games. You want to play these next-week games. No one likes these, because you could blow your season up playing these. … These games we’re about to play now, now you’re about trying to build a great season as opposed to blowing up your season before you even build [it].”
ABOUT THE OPPONENTS: UConn’s first foe, Oregon, is playing two hours north of campus but will still have the clear home-court advantage. The Ducks are led by senior center N’Faly Dante, who like Sanogo is from Bamako, the capital of Mali, and is averaging 14.8 points and nine rebounds. Redshirt senior guard Will Richardson is averaging 10 points, 4.3 rebounds and four assists per game.
• Alabama, which has been a quality team since coach Nate Oats arrived four years ago, is led by a freshman phenom in Brandon Miller. The forward, ranked the No. 11 player in the class by 247Sports, has 20.3 points and 9.3 rebounds a game. Two other players — junior guard Mark Sears, a transfer from Ohio, and freshman guard Rylan Griffen — are each averaging double figures in scoring.
• UConn and Michigan State have a long history, and we wouldn’t mind seeing the two teams go at it in the second round — especially after the Spartans pushed Gonzaga on an aircraft carrier but lost 64-63 on Nov. 11. And then, of course, UNC may await on Sunday, and that has us salivating.
A Bit of a Breather for Huskies Out West
The Story: After handling two difficult challenges in the past week, the No. 3-ranked women’s basketball team also heads to Oregon and will take place in the Phil Knight Legacy tournament, a four-team event that starts Friday with a game against Duke.
BRAINS VS. BRAWN? Although Duke is only receiving votes in the AP poll, third-year coach Kara Lawson has assembled a deep roster full of players who have been at elite programs around the country.
• Senior point guard Celeste Taylor, who transferred from Texas prior to last season, was one of the best players in her recruiting class coming out of high school. She’s averaging a team-high 12 points per game, slightly better than last year, and is a pesky defender who will challenge counterpart Nika Muhl.
• The Blue Devils have 6-foot-6 redshirt center Kennedy Brown, who transferred from Oregon State prior to the season, averaging 10.8 points and 5.2 rebounds per game. Versatile wing Elizabeth Balogun, a redshirt senior who began her college years at Louisville, comes off the bench for 9.6 points and 4.4 rebounds per game.
SHOWDOWN AVERTED: When the field was prepared for this tournament, the intent was to pit Iowa and junior guard Caitlin Clark against Paige Bueckers in the final. But Bueckers is out with a torn ACL, meaning the clash of the titans won’t take place (that is, of course, assuming No. 4 Iowa gets by Oregon State).
• Clark, a scoring machine, is averaging 26.8 points per game on 45.9 percent shooting — including 35.9 percent from 3-point range. She can spot up from anywhere, and has at times hoisted (and made) jump shots from center court, and she has nearly seven assists and 6.4 rebounds per game to boot.
• She led Division I with 27 points and eight assists per game last season, when she was the Big Ten Player of the Year, and 26.6 points and 7.1 assists as a freshman.
JUHASZ STILL OUT: Redshirt senior forward Dorka Juhasz is expected to miss both games with a broken thumb but there’s a possibility she could return for the inevitable beatdown of Providence at Gampel Pavilion on Dec. 2.
• We’re curious to see if sophomore guard Caroline Ducharme will have recovered from neck stiffness in time to play a larger role in these two games, and whether classmate Azzi Fudd can build upon her Division I-leading 30 points per game with another pair of excellent performances.
Morning Reads
• The first-place men’s hockey team (10-2-3), which will be under the spotlights of Madison Square Garden on Saturday night for a game against Cornell, is up to No. 6 in the USCHO poll. (USCHO.com)
• The women’s hockey team (10-6-2), which kicks off the four-team Nutmeg Classic with a Friday game against Sacred Heart at Quinnipiac, dropped three spots to No. 15 but is still ranked. (USCHO.com)
• The volleyball team will be the No. 5 seed and face No. 4 seed St. John’s in the quarterfinals of the six-team Big East tournament, which begins today at Creighton. The Huskies lost on the road to the Red Storm in five sets in late September. The winner faces top-seeded Marquette. (UConnHuskies.com)
Top photo: UConn men’s basketball coach Dan Hurley during the season-opening win over Stonehill. (Ian Bethune for The UConn Daily)
