UConn men are finding joy and passion again at the right time

NEW YORK – The UConn men’s basketball team needed a hard reset after the regular season concluded.

Still the sixth-ranked team in the country, the Huskies lost three of their last eight games and saw their first goal of the year, the Big East regular-season championship, slip out of reach at the last possible second. The team needed to return to the version of itself that built up so much equity throughout its brutal nonconference slate, which included wins over some of the best teams in the country even before it got to full strength.

Before making the trip to New York for the Big East Tournament, senior center Tarris Reed Jr. said the team needed to find the joy and the confidence it had before doubt starting building on the outside.

The coaching staff echoed the same message as the Huskies put themselves in position to compete for their second goal of the year in the Big East Tournament championship game n Saturday night against rival St. John’s.

UConn men’s basketball beats Georgetown, advances to Big East final where No. 1 St. John’s awaits

“Coach has just been telling us to play with a lot of joy and passion and just being in the moment and enjoying being where our feet are. I think at times we kind of looked ahead during the season instead of just enjoying being around each other and enjoying that practice, enjoying that team meal together. I think sometimes we overlooked it and got lost,” said Silas Demary Jr., who, like Reed, had never played in any college championship game before transferring to UConn.

The point guard-center combo led the Huskies on “opposite day” in Friday’s semifinal win over Georgetown as Demary grabbed nine rebounds and Reed dished seven assists. It was a complete game that saw all nine rotation players contribute like they had when the team started rolling in the nonconference.

“Over the past couple days, we’re just telling each other to have fun and have joy and have each other’s back,” Demary continued Friday. “And, like Tarris said, we came here to be a part of winning. I haven’t won in college. I won in high school, but I want to be able to win here and I feel like we have the opportunity to do that, and I feel really good about us preparing and doing it.”

The team has had to build a degree of separation from the expectations that come with playing at UConn, led by a coaching staff and a captain in Alex Karaban that is looking for its third national title in four years. The team had been a bit far-sighted for most of the year.

But this week at Madison Square Garden, the focus has been clear on what is right in front of it.

“For me, the joy of the Lord is my strength. That’s my foundation. That’s everything. That’s my motivation, that’s the way I move,” Reed said. “So us finding that joy as a team together, just finding it — like (Demary) said, being present. It’s so easy to get caught up in your everyday life and not really just focus on the process. And just enjoy the journey, man. It’s really a blessing. So being able to stay present, stay where your feet are, enjoy the journey and have fun with it, not so worried about the end result.”

Hurley makes Seton Hall’s tournament case

A win over St. John’s and a trip to the Big East Tournament championship game would’ve gone a long way for Seton Hall, which finds itself on the wrong side of the NCAA Tournament bubble yet again. Latest bracketology projections have only three Big East teams in the dance: UConn, St. John’s and Villanova.

Naturally, Dan Hurley was asked about his alma mater on Friday night.

“I mean, listen, we’re talking about teams making the tournament that are one game over .500. That’s crazy,” he said, referencing what has become a national debate over whether Auburn, at 17-16, has enough of a resumé to receive an at-large bid. The Tigers came into Saturday at No. 39 in the NET rankings with four Quad One wins and 13 such losses. Seton Hall, 21-12 on the year, is No. 54 in the NET with only one Quad One win over NC State at a neutral site.

“Listen, every team in our league is basically a top-100 team efficiency-wise. There’s a lot of manipulation that goes on with – and (Seton Hall has) so many games that are so close to being a Quad 1, Quad 2, where we had programs just miss that NET threshold of top 75 where they easily could have three or four Quad 1 wins if we didn’t have some under-performances in the nonconference that became land mines for them. I mean, their nonconference was absolutely NCAA caliber. Then they got to the semifinals of the Big East tournament and have 20-plus wins. If they’re in the NCAA tournament, they will win a game. So, hell, yeah, Seton Hall has the quality of an NCAA tournament team.”