UConn Readies for Stonehill
The Story: Dan Hurley and the men’s basketball team are easing into the season as they play Stonehill, ranked No. 350 in KenPom, tomorrow at the XL Center (noon, FS1).
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW: UConn beat Northern Arizona by 43 points on Monday and, with five days of preparation and the first-game jitters out of the way, we’re expecting to see even more crisp and efficient basketball.
• The Huskies are behaving like a new restaurant in town, beginning with a soft opening, and this is the second debut at its alternate location in the XL Center.
• A lot has been written about the lack of marquee games for college basketball’s elite teams the first week of the season, but these early games are literally just like a restaurant — a dry run, in real conditions, before it’s ready for prime time.
• Stonehill is the perfect entree for the Huskies. The Skyhawks, out of the NEC, fell 89-44 to George Washington in their opener.
SPENCER EASES IN: Cam Spencer, a sharpshooter from Rutgers, had a quiet debut in his first game. The senior guard scored eight points and had five assists and was more of a facilitator than a shooter.
• Spencer is here to replace Jordan Hawkins‘ shooting but is more than a one-dimensional player. Hurley lauded Spencer’s ball movement and the 43.4 percent 3-point shooter is coming. He averaged 13.2 points per game at Rutgers last year and is one of the top returning shooters in the nation.
WHAT DID HURLEY SAY? “I just thought maybe the best thing I saw [in the opener] was how Cam approached it. A guy with his type of credentials coming in, the scoring and all of the production in his career, but his willingness to take three shots and just elevate the play of everyone around him — the impact he had on us offensively, whether they were the hockey assists or the ball movement — I thought, to me, that was the story of the night.”
HURLEY SPEAKS ON MENTAL HEALTH: Hurley, in a revealing interview with The Messenger, revealed some of the mental health struggles he has gone through in his career and even after UConn won the national title. Hurley has talked openly about his mental health as an adult, and it’s something he struggles with even in the best of times.
— John Silver
N.C. State A Tall Task for Huskies
The Story: Coming off a season-opening rout of Dayton, the UConn women will be playing for the No. 1 ranking Sunday when they travel to Raleigh, N.C., to face N.C. State (3 p.m., ABC), a team that poses a taller challenge in skill and size.
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW: Due to top-ranked LSU’s loss to Colorado, the No. 2 Huskies (1-0) just need to beat the Wolfpack (1-0) to ascend to No. 1 when the new AP Top 25 poll is released Tuesday.
• N.C. State, however, has the potential to expose a weakness in UConn’s arsenal — interior depth.
THE SIZE FACTOR: Although the Wolfpack was picked to finish eighth in the ACC, they give quality minutes to four players who stand 6-foot-3 and taller, with two of them in the starting lineup.
• N.C. State beat Charlotte in its opener, 84-43, behind junior guard Aziaha James‘ 26 points, but the Wolfpack also took advantage of the size differential to finish with 58 rebounds and 10 blocked shots.
AWESOME AALIYAH: The Wolfpack have an edge over UConn in terms of quantity of bigs, but not quality. That’s because the Huskies have Aaliyah Edwards, who is their tallest starter at 6-foot-3 and among the elite interior players in the country.
• ESPN ranked the top 25 players this season, and Edwards was No. 8, while Paige Bueckers was at No. 3 and Azzi Fudd No. 11.
• Edwards proved she’s more than ready for another All-America-caliber season with a 23-point, nine-rebound effort against Dayton, a performance that Geno Auriemma believes will be “normal” for her.
NEED SOME ICE: Although Edwards’ dominance could be enough for UConn against most opponents, she will need help against teams like N.C. State and others with a multitude of sizeable players.
• There’s hope that Ice Brady will develop into the perfect interior complement to Edwards. The 6-foot-3 redshirt freshman, who missed all last season with a dislocated patella in her right knee, has the strength to score and rebound inside, and her shooting range extends to the three-point line.
• But Brady had a bumpy college debut against Dayton. She made one of six shots and ended up with three points and three rebounds in 10 minutes.
SIZE DEFICIENCY: Other than Brady, UConn has Ayanna Patterson as an undersized post player at 6-foot-2, but the sophomore is still recovering from offseason knee surgery and wasn’t available against Dayton.
• Amari DeBerry, at 6-foot-6, played only the final five minutes and — while she blocked two shots — committed three turnovers to lead the team. Jana El Alfy, a 6-foot-5 freshman from Egypt, was expected to give UConn another productive option inside, but she’s out for the season with a torn Achilles.
• Brady could be an X-factor for UConn as she develops her game, gains experience, and becomes more comfortable on the court over the course of the season.
WHAT GENO SAID ABOUT BRADY: “I thought she was alive. I mean, I thought she was engaged. And she ran the floor really well. She’s good with the ball in her hands. Again, she’s been around for a year, but this was her first college game. I think you’re going to see that she stretches the floor a lot. When we have Ice and Aaliyah in the game at the same time, we’re going to look like a real college team.”
— David Kull
Can the Huskies Play Spoiler?
The Story: The football team (1-8) doesn’t have much to play for the rest of this season, but it can disrupt No. 21 James Madison’s attempt at a perfect season tomorrow afternoon when the teams square off in Harrisonburg, Va. (2 p.m., ESPN+).
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW: The Dukes are in just their second season in the FBS and are the talk of the town thanks to their improbable undefeated run. But as we’ve noted a few times, they’re ineligible to participate in a bowl game as part of their two-year transition to college football’s top tier, which is a shame because they’d be one Tulane loss away from being in line for New Year’s Six bowl game.
• JMU’s marquee win this season came all the way back on Sept, 9, when it won 36-35 at Virginia on a touchdown pass from Jordan McCloud to Kaelon Black with 55 seconds left.
• The Huskies will get a bit of mercy as defensive end Jalen Green, who leads the FBS with 15.5 sacks and 21 tackles for loss, is out for the season with a knee injury.
WITHOUT FURTHER ADO: Here’s Three Question Friday, which is a bit abbreviated today because you’ve already been reading quite a bit to get this far.
1. What’s one area that will be pivotal to UConn’s ability to knock off JMU?
• Zac Boyer (zac@uconndaily.com): I was going to say pass blocking, because Green has been tremendous this season. But JMU’s pass rush is still to be feared with defensive tackle Jamree Kromah, who has eight sacks, and defensive end Mikail Kamara, who has 6.5, still in line to play. UConn might have to play catch-up from the start, which means it will have to throw the ball, which means Ta’Quan Roberson will need to stay upright. Is the embattled offensive line up for the challenge?
• John Silver (john@uconndaily.com): How about not allowing big plays? The Huskies are huge underdogs and gave up 59 points to Tennessee last week in dubious fashion. There were long scoring plays, one-play touchdowns, and points scored by the defense. It’s OK to have a better team beat you. It’s another thing to make it easy for a team to beat you.
• David Kull (david@uconndaily.com): Force McCloud to make mistakes. For the most part, he’s taken care of the football. He’s only been sacked 11 times and has turned the ball over eight times — seven on interceptions and once on a fumble. To have any hope of winning, the Huskies need to induce at least one McCloud turnover and return it for a touchdown. Otherwise, the game will be a blowout.
2. McCloud is accounting for 293 yards per game this season, including 411 in a win last week at Georgia State. Will UConn keep him under 300 all-purpose yards?
• Boyer: It’s going to be close. McCloud, a sixth-year senior who spent three years at USF before transferring to Arizona for the last two, has thrown for more than 250 yards in five of his last six games. He’s not a big running threat — at least, he’s not really asked to run — so the question comes down to whether UConn’s secondary will prevent him from going off. I’m going to say he goes over.
• Silver: No. JMU has to not only win games, but it also has to do so with flair. Collee football is a beauty pageant, and if the Dukes are going to continue to make a case for a bowl game waiver and perhaps the Group of Five auto bid into a New Year’s Six game, they have to win impressively. JMU has too much to lose to not come out like Saturday is a playoff game.
• Kull: Yes, but not because the Huskies will contain him. I expect the Dukes to take such a commanding early lead that McCloud won’t need to be on the field for all four quarters. He can play three, accumulate 250 yards or so, either throw or run for three or four touchdowns, and then wear a baseball cap on the sidelines as his backup does the rest.
3. What’s your score prediction?
• Boyer: James Madison 45, UConn 17. The Dukes have put up 30 or more points all but twice this season and will be playing in front of a juiced-up crowd who wants to see if they can do the impossible. It would be a feather in the Huskies’ cap if they could ruin one of the season’s best stories, but it’s not going to happen.
• Silver: James Madison 48, UConn 10. JMU is one of the great stories in college football the last two years and we look at its success in moving from the FCS with jealously. Can UConn ever match the success the Dukes have had? Perhaps not, unless the recruiting territory moves to Virginia.
• Kull: James Madison 49, UConn 6. The Huskies’ strength is running the football, and they are facing the nation’s top rushing defense (59.7 yards per game) at home. Meanwhile, the Dukes are motivated to make a statement every week, and the Huskies have nothing to play for. Unfortunately, the game won’t be close much longer after the opening kickoff.
Morning Reads
• It’s the end of the road for the No. 5-seeded men’s soccer team, which lost 2-0 at top-seeded Georgetown last night in the Big East semifinal.
• The men’s hockey team (4-5-1, 2-2-0 Hockey East) hosts Merrimack at the Toscano Ice Forum tonight before completing the home-and-home series in North Andover, Mass. tomorrow night. Meanwhile, the women’s hockey team (5-3-1, 4-3-0 Hockey East) will play two games at Maine, with the first this afternoon and the second tomorrow afternoon.
• The final road trip of the season is on deck for the women’s volleyball team (7-19, 2-12 Big East), which plays at Butler today at noon and then heads to Xavier for a match Sunday afternoon.
Top photo: Dan Hurley yells from the sidelines during the Huskies’ season-opening win over Norther Arizona. (Ian Bethune for The UConn Daily)
