Dan Hurley’s UConn men have the ability to demoralize, but it’s a work in progress

HARTFORD —Things had gotten off to a sluggish start at People’s Bank Arena, Butler off to a seven-point lead at the first timeout, four minutes in.

The huddle was heated, even by Dan Hurley standards, apparently.

“That was just total BS, I mean, a total joke,” Hurley said, after UConn’s 79-60 victory Tuesday night, “to start a game, Big East opener at home, where we score on a lob and then they dump the ball on a lob dunk to start the game. Championship teams don’t do that, so obviously we’re not there yet. We were on our heels, credit them, they got downhill and attacked us, but that was an unacceptable way to start a game for UConn and they heard about it in the huddle.

“That’s not being a killer, you’ve got to be a killer in sports and in basketball and you can’t start a game like that.”

This quality, an ability to demoralize opponents, put them away, no letup, has been the recent theme for the fifth-ranked Huskies, despite their 11-1 record. Their only loss was a close one at home to No.1 Arizona, with two starters out with injuries, and otherwise UConn thrived in a six-game stretch against top-level, out-of-conference opponents. But now it’s Big East season, and terms like “physicality” or “killer instinct” or “stepping on necks” are big-time back in play.

Solo Ball’s career-high 26 points leads UConn men to 79-60 win over Butler in Big East opener

“Really going into the game and the past couple of days (Hurley’s) really been talking about the killer instinct and we didn’t have that going into this game,” said Solo Ball, who scored a career-high 26. “It was bad. We were able to turn it around, focus on the defense, focus on rebounding. We’ve got to be able to keep our foot on these people’s necks when we are up with leads and keep extending the lead and not have it cut short.”

Like all else around UConn this time of year, these things are relative and fall into the Vince Lombardi/Geno Auriemma concept of “chasing perfection” in order to “catch excellence.” The perfection Hurley’s Huskies chase is represented by the 2023-24 men’s team, that steamrolled through the season, through the Big East and NCAA Tournaments to finish 37-3, repeat as champs and win all the March Madness games by double digits. The ultimate in put-away will always be the 30-0 run against Illinois in the Elite Eight, so ruthless even Larry David couldn’t stand to watch at TD Garden.

“They were just incredible, that second (championship) team,” said Texas coach Sean Miller, after UConn defeated the Longhorns last week. “I don’t know if you can built that second team again.”

History suggests, you can’t. That team, with three players, Donovan Clingan, Stephon Castle and Cam Spencer now lighting things up in the NBA, had so much of everything, so proficient in executing a complicated offense and relentless and disruptive on defense. It’s unfair to hold its successors, like last year’s team that finished 24-11, to that standard.

But Dan Hurley will, because in striving to reach that 2024 level, all his future teams, including the current one, can get the maximum results out of their abilities. This year’s group, with its deep bench, and ability to pressure the ball with rim-protection to back it up, is more like the 2022-23 team, which survived a midseason slump, bounced back from a loss in the conference tournament, then put it together and won it all. That’s what Hurley is driving, pedal to the floor, through the floor if it were possible, and that’s why even victories that will look quite impressive on a tournament resume in March are not leaving him jubilant in November and December.

“This team, this year, is supposed to be a basketball gang that gives absolutely everything they have in pursuit of a championship,” Hurley said.

UConn jumped off to a 20-plus point lead against BYU in a top-10 matchup in Boston in November, in its first high-profile game. But the Cougars came back and the Huskies needed to make some big plays down the stretch. UConn was basically in control of the game against Illinois on Black Friday in New York, but it got a little too close for comfort in the second half. The Florida game nearly got away, but for a five-second call on the Gators in the final minute. Texas hung around a little too long for Hurley’s taste, before UConn prevailed 71-63.

“That’s the next step,” Alex Karaban said. “The ’23-24 teams I’ve been a part of, we’re up 10, we’re up 12, we’re not giving Texas a hope to come back. Those teams would have put the hammer down and made a 12-point game to 16, to 20 and just keep going.”

The caliber of the opponents does have a place in this equation. All six of the nonconference, high-major opponents were ranked at the start of the season, and Butler came into Hartford at 8-2, with recent wins over Virginia and Providence and clearly much improved. After the timeout, UConn, trailing 11-4, regained control of the game, quickly caught the Bulldogs and built a 16-point lead before the half ended.

There was heck of a lot more good than bad for UConn in this one: 13 blocks, plus-18 in rebounding, a 13-point, eight-rebound effort off the bench from Jayden Ross, including a crowd-igniting put-back dunk. But there were 15 turnovers, and the Huskies were up as much as 23 in the second half, but Butler made a couple of spurts. That’s enough to refill the thirsty tank of Hurley’s motivational muscle car.

“I wish there was more killer instinct,” he said, “to put a team down, bury a team. We had chances to do it. This team’s got to get a killer instinct.”