Dan Hurley was on the go again. Instead of his usual relentless pacing on the sidelines during a game, the UConn head coach was in his car heading to see a prospective recruit for his Huskies. He was going to watch a player he said he had never seen play before so he didn’t know what to expect. But he knew one thing for sure before heading into the local gym.
“When your young players are playing well and you’re winning, it’s much easier to recruit,” Hurley said.
Winning. The Huskies are doing a lot of that these days. In fact, that’s all they’re doing as UConn recently concluded the non-conference portion of its schedule by cruising to an unblemished 11-0 record. And they’re doing it with both older and younger players playing major roles. In fact, so many new faces that perhaps team chemistry might have been an early-season problem.
Spoiler alert: it has not.
“The biggest concern early on for me was, my teams have always prided themselves on being really tough and together and super competitive,” Hurley said. “So that was my biggest concern, that mentality. We needed to know if we could get this group there. We knew it was a really great group of guys and guys who are very skilled offensive players.”
Yeah, they gelled just fine, thank you. Holdovers like BIG EAST Preseason Player of the Year Adama Sanogo and Jordan Hawkins have led the Huskies so far this season, while a trio of newcomers, East Carolina transfer Tristen Newton along with freshmen Donovan Clingan and Alex Karaban have provided their own jolt on both ends of the floor.
And with a non-conference schedule that featured such brand names as Oregon, Alabama, Iowa State, Oklahoma State and Florida, that 11-0 record takes on even more significance.
“Even at such an historic place, our non-conference (schedule) was a major success for us,” Hurley said. “It’s something that we’re proud of. It hasn’t been done many times here at a place that’s won four national championships. So we have a high level of appreciation for what we did.”
Hurley said he got an inkling of just how good this Huskies team could be very early on.
“I felt like in the preseason in closed scrimmages against Harvard and Virginia we found out a lot about ourselves that we could be pretty good,” Hurley said.
And one of the main reasons for lofty expectations in Storrs this season begins with Sanogo, the 6-9 junior who led the BIG EAST in rebounding last season and was an All-BIG EAST First Team selection.
“I think he’s a Montrezl Harrell type of player with more of a jump shot and better perimeter skills,” Hurley said. Harrell is the former Louisville star now playing with the Philadelphia 76ers. “We’ve built (this team) around him and Andre (Jackson) and Jordan Hawkins this year. But Adama is special. He has a special type of will and is a special type of a winner.”
Sanogo, the BIG EAST Preseason Player of the Year, leads the Huskies in scoring at 18.3 points per outing followed by the sophomore Hawkins (14.4). Hawkins was a BIG EAST All-Rookie team pick last season. But one new face that really excites Hurley is Newton, who averaged over 17 points a game for East Carolina last season and has been playing a pivotal part in the Huskies’ success this season.
“He doesn’t get enough credit for where we are,” Hurley said. “He was great down the stretch in the semis (vs. Alabama) and the final (vs. Iowa State) in Portland (for the Phil Knight Invitational). And Against Oregon (in the tourney opener) he made five threes in the first half. Him being able to replace the quality we lost with R.J. Cole and to take this thing to an even better level, he doesn’t get enough credit.”
But if you think the Huskies’ upperclassmen are special, get a look at their freshman. The 7-2, 265-pound Clingan is second in the conference in field goal percentage (75.4%), is coming off a game in which he went 10-for-10 from the floor in a victory over LIU and has been named conference Freshman of the Week twice. He is averaging 10.5 points and 6.9 rebounds on the season.
For his part, Karaban, a 6-8 forward, is averaging 9.9 points and is shooting a robust 40 percent from 3-point range. Like Clingan, Karaban has also been selected conference Freshman of the Week twice this season which means a UConn player has garnered four of the five weekly freshman honors so far this season.
Not surprisingly, Hurley spoke glowingly of both his newbies.
“(Clingan) is in the perfect situation (because) he’s got the perfect person to get him ready on a daily basis in Adama,” Hurley said. “His teammates really know how to weaponize him at the offensive end of the court in the ball screen game and in paint opportunities. He gives us something at the center position with Adama that is hard to match.”
Karaban earned equal praise.
“There are not many freshmen who are playing that amount of minutes (27.2 minutes a game), especially in the frontcourt on a top-level team like him,” Hurley said. “We wouldn’t be where we are without his offensive feel and his IQ and being so solid defensively. I think over the course of his career he has a chance to have one of the great careers at UConn.”
It all adds up to what Hurley calls his most talented team from a depth perspective and one that is capable of earning itself a BIG EAST championship.
“We’re contenders like we’ve been since we’ve gotten in the league. We’ve played well in the non-conference coming into the league (schedule), so I think we enter as contenders again,” Hurley said. “I think the toughest thing to do in college basketball is win the regular season championship in a league. To be excellent over the course of months is the greatest challenge. So we look at ourselves like contenders like everyone else I’m sure looks at themselves.”
So is this a team built for an extended stay come tournament time in March?
“Yeah if we continue to get better,” Hurley said “Obviously you really like your team and to perform with the quality we’ve put forth through our 11 games, you’re certainly confident. But you also know how quickly things can unravel if you get away from your identity and culture. So that’s all we're thinking about right now.”
The Huskies are currently ranked No. 3 in the nation, their highest since March of 2009, after opening the season unranked. That snub did not go unnoticed by Hurley and the Huskies.
“We have talked about that, about having a chip on our shoulder about not being ranked,” Hurley said. “We felt with Jordan and Andre (Jackson) and Adama coming back, two NBA wings and a preseason Player of the Year in the league, that alone would get you ranked. And with two top-50 freshmen like Clingan and Karaban coming in. But now we feel UConn is back at a place where it used to be.”
UConn opens up BIG EAST play with a visit to Hinkle Fieldhouse to face Butler Saturday night. The next test to see where this talented Huskies’ roster will take it this year.
“The league games are brutal. The coaches are so great and the teams are so good, it’s BIG EAST basketball,” Hurley said. “But you love it because it’s one of the best leagues in the country and we’ve got unbelievable fan bases and passion.”