HARTFORD – Silas Demary Jr. got his first introduction to the Dan Hurley in-season experience this week.
Hurley likes to use visual aids to hammer his point across. So, in addition to a film session that took multiple days “because there was so much footage of bad from New Haven,” he says, he ordered posters to be hung throughout UConn’s practice facility depicting instances where players didn’t help each other on defense in the season opener.
Everybody was at fault, including Demary, the junior point guard who transferred from Georgia to save the Huskies from some of the issues that came back to haunt them from last season. Hurley analyzed him honestly in the postgame, calling him out for some “really bad individual defensive possessions.”
“The coaching staff coached me last year the way they coach him this year,” said senior center Tarris Reed Jr., who made his season debut coming back from a hamstring injury on Friday night and put together a forceful 20-point, 12-rebound double-double in the 110-47 rout of UMass Lowell. Reed, expected to be a captain for the team alongside Alex Karaban, had a faithful conversation with Demary the night before the game.
“It’s been pretty tough, I think the last couple of days have been rough on everybody. Especially for me, because I’m just trying to hold myself to a certain standard,” Demary said after his 16 points, seven assists and four steals on Friday. “Just talking to T-Reed; we had a good conversation last night. It’s been rough, man. But I think we needed that. We needed to see that we didn’t do enough on Monday, and just to pick it up, come out there tonight and perform the way we perform the way we’re supposed to.
“I think it’s a standard we have to hold ourselves to, and coaches are pushing us every day to just be better.”
Everything came together Friday night. Reed was unstoppable in his return and his immediate energy kicked off the most dominant first half in the history of UConn men’s basketball. It was a smooth, complimentary operation as the Huskies scored 48 points before UMass Lowell’s first made field goal and went into halftime with a 47-point lead, the program’s largest ever.
UConn made defensive stops, dominated the glass and ran a blend of transition and half-court offense, assisting on 27 of its 42 made field goals, shooting an efficient 60.9% from the field and scoring 35 points in transition. Demary had a lot to do with it.
“Obviously his on-ball defense was improved,” Hurley said. “There was a little bit of leakage there. But he’s fast, and when you’ve got shooting, and now these finishers at center and these guys on the perimeter, there’s opportunities for him to get to the rim and he’s got real speed and size, and he can finish. And he can ball-hawk, he’s a guy that steals the ball and can disrupt, and that was impressive.
“I just think that probably the last stage for him is gonna be just being able to make the reads in the offense, but that’s gonna take a little time. But, an impressive performance, I thought, from him.”
Having Reed’s game-changing strength, footwork and rebounding ability back made everything easier.
“It helped everybody,” Hurley said. “It helped Eric (Reibe’s) performance, it allowed Eric to kind of slide into the Donovan (Clingan) freshman situation where he had Adama (Sanogo) out there, who paved the way for him to be in a more comfortable position, but you could see the impact on the defense, the impact on the offense. … He makes a big difference on both ends, on the backboard. He’s one of the best big guys in the country.”
Reed says he learned a lot from playing behind Samson Johnson last season, and is focused on “being able to have that fire, dominant first four minutes so when Eric comes in the game, he has to match that energy.”
Hurley’s main message with the posters and the “crushing” film session was that players had to have each other’s backs on defense. There were too many times where New Haven’s guards were able to drive in straight lines to the basket with no big there to deny the shot. Reed changes that. And Reibe, who had 11 points, five rebounds and two blocks on Friday, will continue to reap the benefits.
“I just thought it was an appropriate level of playing mad, playing angry, being embarrassed with the first game performance and taking it out on an opponent at the defensive end of the court, which is where it all begins and ends,” Hurley said.
Karaban continues to grow as a leader
Alex Karaban is used to Hurley’s strategies; he’s been there, done that. And he took Monday’s performance even harder than his coach did, beating himself up after the game for not holding himself and his teammates accountable enough in practice.
He had a strong first half on Friday and finished with 13 points on 5 of 10 shooting, two rebounds, two assists and a steal in 22 minutes.
“The room for growth with Alex this year is from a leadership standpoint. His skills are way better, he’s physically stronger, he’s a better player – I mean, he can play at a high level in his sleep – but he’s gotta have a loud voice,” Hurley said. “We want him and Tarris to be the captains of the team, and I don’t want to put a C on either one’s chests unless they actually carry themselves like a captain. He had 18 (points in the opener), he played a good game but he didn’t lead. He’s got to lead these guys, he’s got to set a standard, he’s got to raise his voice sometimes.”
The UConn coach wasn’t finished.
“Young people, they just like telling each other, ‘You’re good, you’re good,’ that’s like the No. 1 thing I hear them say to each other. That’s really a good thing to say about 80% of the time, but 20% of the time you need to be able to get on each other and hold each other accountable and hold each other to a standard. The best thing a friend can do for a friend is tell them the truth and be honest with them.
“When they’re not playing the right way or they’re not playing hard enough, not playing up to the UConn standard, the best thing a friend can do for a friend is tell them the truth about themselves, and young people don’t do that with each other enough because they’re afraid they’re going to offend each other’s soft ass.”
