STORRS – There wasn’t much celebrating within the UConn men’s basketball program after opening the season with a 79-55 win over New Haven on Monday night.
The Huskies were haunted by several of the same issues that hurt them last season, consistently giving up straight-line drives to the rim, turning the ball over 12 times to just 11 assists and missing a barrage of high-percentage shots.
“It was a painful game to coach,” Dan Hurley said. “Because we played better in the two exhibitions versus teams that are significantly better than New Haven is.”
Hurley didn’t mean any disrespect. The Chargers were playing their first game as a Division I program, but looked comfortable and under control in an environment that could’ve been intimidating for a roster with 17 new players, several of whom were recruited to play at the Division II level.
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It was more of an indictment on the Huskies not playing to a level they’ve shown, even without two significant starters in center Tarris Reed Jr. (hamstring) and five-star freshman Braylon Mullins (ankle), who were both out when the team held a double-figure lead for almost the entire wire-to-wire exhibition win over Michigan State last week.
“Some of the things that plagued us last year reared its ugly head,” Hurley said. “Some of it was a lack of physicality, especially with all the resources that we have at UConn that we couldn’t play with greater physicality (Monday). Maybe it was too much of the messaging of not fouling, which we dealt with the last two games, but you walk away with it.
“Obviously you missed many opportunities to score, wide open 3s, finishes at the rim, 11 assists is disappointing – we’re a 20-assist team, so to get 11 means we didn’t pass the ball very well or finish plays.
“But for me, it really comes down to just bad one-on-one defense and from guys that were brought in here to help us in that area, or players on the wing that, as juniors we need to be able to guard better.”
Those players who were brought in to help, point guards Silas Demary Jr. and Malachi Smith, got exposed on a number of occasions by New Haven guards Maison Adeleye, Jabri Fitzpatrick and Najimi George.
“I wouldn’t overreact. I mean, (Demary) had some really bad individual defensive possessions out there, and I think Fitzpatrick is a good player, but it should not have been as easy as it was for their guards,” Hurley said. “I would let this team develop, if I was the fan base I would not overreact to not a great performance from the group. He’s going to be a lot better defensively. He’ll improve from this performance, he’s got the requisite physical traits to be the on-ball defender that we need him to be.
“I was encouraged with the way he drove it, again, T-New’s (Tristen Newton’s) junior year, it wasn’t a joy ride from day one and the guy ended up in the Huskies of Honor.”
The so-called ‘buy games’ against lower mid-majors – of which the Huskies will play three before their first high-major test against BYU – present a unique set of challenges because of the way teams are made up. New Haven’s frontcourt players were no bigger than 6 feet 9 and they played out on the perimeter, eliminating the safety net of having a shot-blocking presence to help inside.
No. 4 UConn men’s basketball opens season with ‘excruciating’ 79-55 win over New Haven
Andre Pasha, who played 36 minutes at center for the Chargers, rarely went to the rim. He was giving UConn’s Eric Reibe and Dwayne Koroma fits with tough midrange shots that fell consistently all night, and opened the lanes for his guards to beat their defender and get straight to the rim.
“We’ve just got to be better defensively,” senior captain Alex Karaban said, shouldering the blame. “The big, he had a great game, but we’ve just got to play team defense, we’ve got to help each other out there on the court and I didn’t do that enough either, too.”
“The good news for Eric is he’s never gonna have to play against a center that’s taking those types of shots. It felt like Woody Harrelson in (the movie) “White Men Can’t Jump” where he’s shooting these fadeaway 2s,” Hurley said. “I just think it was a very uncomfortable game. … That wasn’t like a center matchup, Eric played better against the Michigan State frontcourt, Eric played better against Boston College’s frontcourt. These games are different when you’re playing low-majors and buy games where they invert you.
“He’ll play better against high-majors than he will against probably these low majors.”
So hold off on sounding the alarms.
As for Reed, he was a live participant in four straight days of practice and went through a regular warmup before changing into street clothes before tip-off. Hurley wouldn’t risk reinjuring his hamstring in a game the Huskies could get through without him.
The Huskies will likely want Reed to get some game experience before the Nov. 15 top-10 matchup against BYU, which features a strong, more traditional center in Keba Keita. Could that come against Columbia on Friday?
“I just keep myself out of that,” Hurley said. “We can’t bring him back prematurely and have the hamstring linger, because we can’t do this without him. He’s a focal point, he’s going to improve our defense, he’s going to improve our offense, he’s going to improve our rebounding, our energy because he plays with a lot of energy. I thought out there we didn’t have guys with a lot of spirit tonight, partially because they weren’t making shots.
“That decision (to sit Reed) was made by our medical people, I’m not getting myself involved with medical things with the players, their job is to make sure that this guy comes back on the court and stays on the court.”
