Dan Hurley started his post-match press conference last Tuesday by placing a printout of the box score on the table in front of him and staring at it with disdain.
For the next ten minutes, the UConn men’s basketball coach acted as if he had nothing positive to say about a performance he considered “comically bad.”
Returning? “Below our standard so far,” Hurley groaned.
Ball security? “It’s been a long time since we’ve been this bad,” Hurley roared.
Defense? “The number of times we drove!” Hurley complained.
“No one played well tonight,” Hurley insisted. “You can have bad shooting nights, but you can’t play like that. That is not acceptable.”
If viewers didn’t know any better, they certainly would have assumed UConn lost to East Texas A&M. In reality, the Huskies won 35. They opened a double-digit lead in the first nine minutes of the game, extended it to 22 at halftime and fell to an 81-46 defeat.
Hurley’s scathing assessment of his team’s performance wasn’t just a product of UConn’s season-high 19 turnovers against East Texas A&M’s inconsistent defense or the 17 offensive rebounds the Huskies surrendered. The notoriously hard-to-please coach clearly wanted to refocus the undefeated Huskies just before their schedule gets a lot tougher.
The next three weeks will serve as the ultimate litmus test for whether two-time reigning national champion UConn is capable of a historic three-peat, a feat no men’s basketball program has accomplished since John Wooden’s UCLA dynasty. The second-ranked Huskies (4-0) will likely play six games during that span against teams receiving votes in the current AP Top 25.
It starts Monday when UConn opens the Maui Invitational against an undefeated Memphis team that has already toppled the likes of Missouri and UNLV. Next up is undefeated Colorado or a Michigan State team that recently pushed No. 1 Kansas deep in the second half. Lurking on the other side of the Maui range are Auburn, North Carolina and Iowa State, all top-10 teams in the AP poll and many computer stats.
The gauntlet continues after a one-game postponement against Maryland Eastern Shore. On December 4, Baylor comes to Storrs in 13th place. Four days later, UConn visits Texas. Then on December 14, in their final game before Big East play, the Huskies travel to New York for a showdown against third-place Gonzaga at Madison Square Garden.
That piece will reveal where UConn stands in the early season pecking order. Has Hurley assembled another title contender despite retaining just one starter from last season’s 37 wins? Or did the loss of NBA lottery picks Donovan Clingan and Stephon Castle and fellow draft picks Tristen Newton and Cam Spencer leave too many holes for Hurley to fill?
Last season versus this season
The way Sacred Heart coach Anthony Latina sees it, comparing this year’s UConn team to the last one is “probably not fair.” That team completed the best two-year run in modern men’s basketball history by capturing the Big East regular season and conference tournament titles with surprising ease and demolishing six straight NCAA tournament opponents by at least 14 points apiece.
“That was probably one of the best teams of the last 20 years and maybe in the history of college basketball,” Latina told reporters after UConn defeated his team 92-56 earlier this month.
According to Latina, this year’s Huskies are not as sublimely talented, but they are still “an elite team” and “will be there.”
“Are they going to win every NCAA Tournament game by double digits?” Latina said. “I think that’s too much to ask, but this is a legitimate top-five team, a legitimate Final Four contender, there’s no question about that.”
Le Moyne assistant coach Ben Swank was also impressed after UConn destroyed the Dolphins 90-49 earlier this month. When his teams face a tough schedule, Swank is used to marveling at the size, strength and athleticism of opponents. UConn had all that, Swank said, and the Huskies were very skilled to boot.
“That was a big eye-opener for me,” Swank told Yahoo Sports. So you could see: OK, this is a program of the highest level in the country. This just isn’t just any high major out there.
The return of Hurley and versatile forward Alex Karaban are the two biggest reasons UConn can dream of a three-peat.
Hurley turned down the opportunity to become Kentucky’s next men’s basketball coach, passing on the job with the Los Angeles Lakers after a whirlwind courtship. Karaban might have gone off the board as early as the late first round and almost certainly would have been the fifth UConn player selected had he stayed in last June’s NBA Draft.
In attack, Karaban has gone from a complementary piece to a focal point without sacrificing any of his trademark efficiency. The 6-foot-1 junior scores a team-high 16.3 points per game by knocking down spot-up jumpers, attacking closeouts and staying active on the offensive glass. If anything, UConn needs Karaban to get more aggressive chasing shots, because 8.3 field goal attempts per game aren’t enough.
On defense, Karaban is UConn’s vocal leader and most reliable on-ball and help defender. He has already blocked 13 shots this season, a product of his positional size, anticipation, motor and ability to slide with his feet to stay in front of his man.
“He’s a very high IQ, very high level player,” said Swank, who laid out his program’s defensive game plan against UConn. “He’s going to find ways to score the ball. You’re trying to guard some screens somehow, and he can read it really well and put himself in a great position.
For this UConn team to accomplish what the previous two did, Hurley will need his returning role players to take on more responsibility and some of his prized newcomers to make an immediate impact. Sophomore guard Solomon Ball has already validated preseason predictions that he would produce a breakout season, freshman Liam McNeeley has lived up to his reputation as an accomplished 6-foot-1 shot maker and sophomore Jayden Ross has shown tremendous potential.
However, questions remain at fifth and point guard. Can the combination of transfer Tarris Reed Jr. and career role player Samson Johnson come close to duplicating the inside scoring and rim protection that Clingan provided last season? And can fifth-year Hassan Diarra or Saint Mary’s transfer Aidan Mahaney evolve into a Newton-like point guard capable of initiating the offense and making smart decisions with the ball in their hands?
The lack of a point guard who can consistently get into the paint and make plays for others is widely considered UConn’s most glaring weakness, but Swank argued that leaves Diarra and Mahaney short. Diarra, Swank said, is “incredibly solid and composed” and “did a little bit of everything well” against LeMoyne. Mahaney has been slow to get out of the blocks, Swank admitted, but LeMoyne’s assistant suspects he simply needs more time to adjust to his new teammates.
“One that Mahaney lacked is a scoring threat that goes all the way,” Swank said. “I know he missed one or two easier ones against us. I think that will happen once he gets a feel for his team, but that’s something he could definitely do better.”
On the hunt for history
Until last year, only two men’s basketball programs had won consecutive national titles since Wooden’s heyday at UCLA, which lasted into the early 1970s: Florida in 2006 and 2007 and Duke in 1991 and 1992. All five Florida starters bypassed the NBA. Draft to return to chase a second championship. Christian Laettner, Bobby Hurley and Grant Hill were among four Duke starters to do the same.
What UConn accomplished last season was an even more daring feat. Hurley didn’t have the luxury of bringing his team back intact in a quest for a repeat performance. Five of the top eight players from his first title team moved on after the Huskies advanced to the 2023 NCAA Tournament.
Now Hurley is once again trying to reload on the fly – and once again his biggest enemies are bad habits and complacency. He will tie himself in knots looking for ways to motivate his team even after a 35-point home win in the fourth game of the season.
“When we were at 37 with 12 minutes to go, it just became a debacle,” Hurley growled.
Message delivered. Loud and clear.
