Silas Demary plays through pain, sparks UConn to Sweet 16

PHILADELPHIA — Silas Demary Jr. allowed himself a smile, instead of grimace. He gave himself a moment to sway and wave his arms with the UConn Pep Band, heeding their call to get up on his feet.

A March Madness victory and the rush of adrenaline it brings is a powerful cocktail for pain and injury. The final moments of UConn’s 73-57 victory over UCLA on Sunday night were the culmination of a triumph in the NCAA Tournament, over a formidable opponent, and those two often insurmountable foes, injury and pain.

“I knew after Friday I was going to play,” Demary said. “I was going to do whatever I had to do to get on the floor to be part of this. Around the clock trying to rehab, being in the pool, being with Tavares, and with Gavin, we was doing everything we could do to get back in. I just knew I had to be in there with the guys.”

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Demary has a Grade 2 high ankle sprain, a calf/Achilles injury that normally sidelines a basketball player for several weeks, an injury that’s not going to heal without rest. But for Demary, athletic trainer Tavarus Ferguson and sports performance director, or strength and conditioning coach Gavin Roberts, there was no rest this week. The Huskies point guard transferred from Georgia for this purpose, to play deep in the NCAA Tournament, and he was not going to watch his team fight to reach the Round of 16, he was going to be in fight with them. And defying conventional wisdom, he told his body to shut up.

“There was no ifs, ands or butts about it,” Demary said. “There was no chance I wasn’t going to play today.”

UConn was trailing 14-11 when Demary checked in for the first time in this NCAA Tournament, 5:45 into the game. They soon gained the lead for the first time. UCLA was ahead again in the second half just before Demary came back in, and he helped ignite a 14-0 run. His explosiveness in driving with the ball impaired, Demary scored only two points, both from the free throw line, but the Huskies outscored UCLA by 22 points during the 22 minutes he was in the game, the difference in a 16-point win.

“This man took the court eight days after taking a high ankle sprain,” coach Dan Hurley said. “That’s a pretty remarkable warrior. It was a roller-coaster ride this week as to what his availability was going to be, but this guy’s ability to recover and battle through it was just remarkable.”

Demary, as point guard and dogged defender, changed the nature of the UConn team from last year, when they were a No. 8 seed in the NCAA Tournament and lost in  the second round. He’s a difference-maker,” Hurley said.

This year, Huskies (31-5) earned a No. 2 seed and  are now two rounds in, and head to Washington D.C. next week to play Michigan State, with St. John’s and Duke also in the epic bracket.

“For him to go out there and set the tone on defense and give us what he got,” senior Tarris Reed Jr. said, “he told us before the game, ‘I’m going to give you everything I have today,’ and that’s what he did.”

It was against St. John’s in the Big East final on March 14 that Demary’s season, and the Huskies’ hopes, were thrown into limbo. He fell awkwardly after getting tangled up with Zuby Ejiofor, 6 feet 9 and 245 pounds, and he was eventually carried off the court. Every effort was made to get Demary, 6-4 and 195,  ready for the first-round game against Furman, and he came to Philly saying he expected to be good to go. But at game time, it was decided he just wasn’t moving well enough. The heavily favored Huskies beat the No. 15 seed by 11 points, but it was clear they’d need all hands on deck to beat a major basketball power like UCLA in the second round. Demary’s mere appearance in uniform provided a spark, a lightening of the burden for his teammates, who’d been mired in a shooting slump and plagued by turnovers.

Alex Karaban leads UConn men to Sweet 16 with career-best effort in 73-57 win over UCLA

“He’s a warrior,” freshman Braylon Mullins said. “That kind of just represents this program and represents  himself. I mean, he’s an unbelievable player. He could have taken two more weeks off with that kind injury, but he wants to win as badly as we all do, and he did his thing tonight. Even if the stats don’t say it, he did  his thing.”

For much of Demary’s 22 minutes, he was joined on the court by his backup, Malachi Smith, giving the Huskies two ballhandlers and facilitators, and two pesky defenders. Hurley also used energetic Jayden Ross off the bench, and he scored nine points in a row by himself during a first-half rally.

But as was so often the case this year, UConn would not have won without Demary, and all the things he does with or without the ball,  in or out of  the box score. This time, they might be staring at the offseason without him and this courageous effort.

“His presence just makes everything so much easier for us out there,” said captain Alex Karaban, who dialed up a career-best 27 points. “How much more elite we are defensively with him in there, how unselfish he was. The pass he made to J-Ross for a dunk was unbelievable. He had a plus-22, and that’s the most important stat when you look at a score sheet.”

In the athlete’s code, it’s sometimes said one must know the “difference between injury and pain.” The latter can be managed, depending on the individual’s threshold for it. Injuries usually can’t be overcome. But Silas Demary Jr. came to UConn for a reason, and that never left his mind.

“Today was a day where I just wanted to impact the game in different ways other than scoring,” Demary said. “Knowing I’m not 100 percent, finding ways to defend, finding ways to get guys open. I was just doing what I could do to be out there and get the win. I feel like  that’s what I came here, to be able to be on this stage. I’m going to continue working to get to 100 percent, but knowing if I’m not I’m still going to give it my all. I’m going to keep playing through whatever I’m going through.”