Huskies face tall task with Duke’s Cameron Boozer

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The spotlight has been on Duke’s superstar freshman, Cameron Boozer, for years.

The son of former Duke and NBA player Carlos Boozer, Cameron – 6 feet 9, 250 pounds – looks like he was built in a basketball factory. He won his first Gatorade National Player of the Year award as a 15-year-old, and his second as a five-star senior, a top-three prospect in his class, at 17. Climbing up through the ranks, he’s collected countless championships at the high school, AAU and national team levels, always playing alongside his 6-4 twin brother, Cayden, who joined him at Duke and has been a critical backup point guard for the Blue Devils.

Cameron will likely be a shoo-in for the Naismith Player of the Year Award before going off to the NBA Draft, where he’ll likely be a top-three pick. UConn is hoping there isn’t a national championship appearance that comes between those moments.

“During the whole season there was a lot of hype on Cam Boozer, he’s a really good player. He’s really poised for a freshman, he’s gonna win player of the year, so it shows you how good and how much talent and ability he has,” said UConn center Tarris Reed Jr., prepared to do his part to limit the versatile big man as much as possible in Sunday’s Elite Eight matchup. But it will have to be a collective effort.

Boozer is an elite post player, but he can dribble, play-make and shoot, too.

He comes into the matchup averaging 22.4 points, 10.3 rebounds and 4.1 assists per game, while shooting 39.6% on 134 attempts from beyond the arc on the season.

“Boozer is a unique challenge, just because of he’s a threat pretty much from everywhere. He scores at the 3-point line at a pretty efficient clip. Obviously he’s devastating in and around the paint, on the offensive glass. But what makes him unique is how much he plays on-ball and the way they kind of ball screen him,” said UConn coach Dan Hurley. “Probably the only thing we’ve seen similar to that was (Oso) Ighodaro at Marquette a little bit. They used use him as a handler, and they would ball screen him as opposed to him being the roller or popper as a big…

“You’ve just got to figure out the things you want to take away from him, the things that you’re not going to allow him to do in the game. You can’t take everything away, so we’ve got to pick and choose,” Hurley continued. “Are we going to let him play one-on-one in the post versus Tarris? Will we allow him to play one-on-one in the post versus (Alex) Karaban, or are we trapping that? Are we going to make him beat us from the 3-point line? Are we going to blitz him or go under those ball screens? We’ve got to make decisions on a quick turnaround on what we’re going to do.”

‘Like cramming for an exam’

Hurley said he got about three and a half hours of sleep Friday night (Saturday morning) after the Sweet 16 game against Michigan State wrapped up after midnight. He left the arena after 1 a.m. and watched two of Duke’s games, staying up until around 4 a.m. He was up by 7:30 a.m. to begin his morning routine and sat at the dais for his 2:50 p.m. press conference with an iPad out, “like the child of a bad parent,” trying to cram in as much film study as possible.

Luke Murray has taken the lead on the scout of the Blue Devils, who will soon be one of his regular opponents in the ACC after he accepted the head coaching job at Boston College this week. Murray will remain with the Huskies throughout their run.

“A lot of that prep has been done, so you’re adding whatever we saw in last night’s game to that. It’s like cramming for an exam,” Hurley said. “There’s really not a lot you’re going to be able to do on the court. You’re going to walk through some things, do some light shooting. I imagine both of us will skip shootaround here tomorrow and do a walk-through at the hotel. I’ll try to get to sleep tonight. I’m banking that I’m going to be able to get to bed around 10:00 tonight, 10:30, and hopefully get a good 8 1/2, 9 hours. Hopefully my Oura Ring gives me something in the high 80s.”

On the other side, the complexity of UConn’s offense and its unique use of off-ball screens and so many different actions and counters makes it a significant advantage in the tournament setting.

“It’s very impressive what they do,” Duke coach Jon Scheyer said. “To think that we can go over every action or every play, it’s impossible in a one-day prep. So for us it’s been about concepts, it’s been about personnel, and then still doing what we feel we do best, and that’s the activity we have on the defensive end and the ability to protect our paint. They have as good of shooting that there is in the country, and obviously Reed down low is a handful. I credit their staff, what they do offensively is terrific, it’s unique. It’s not really a different team that you play against. So you have to have a different mentality going against them.”

Stewart grateful to be back

The last five weeks have been challenging for Jaylin Stewart, who had to sit out in street clothes with a knee injury that no one seemed to understand the severity of. He finally returned in Friday night, checking into the Sweet 16 game against Michigan State around the 12-minute mark with the Huskies leading, 15-5.

After less than a minute on the court, the junior forward hoisted and hit a 3-pointer to push the lead to 15.

“A lot of excitement, more gratitude, just grateful to be out there with the guys,” he told The Courant from his locker after the game. “I know a lot of people wish to be in my position, so just going out there and not taking anything for granted, that’s kind of what that was.”