By Connor Wilson (@Conman_815)
STORRS, Conn. — Led by the star trio of Alex Karaban, Tarris Reed, Jr. and Solo Ball, UConn was able to take down Columbia, 89-62, at Gampel Pavilion on Monday night to move to 3-0 on the season. With that, it means that the Huskies — now ranked third in the country — are now officially in the non-conference gauntlet portion of their schedule that has been talked about for months.
After watching the first official 120 minutes of UConn basketball over the past eight days, I’ve compiled a list of notable areas of strength that have been fueling the team early on, and ones that are going to be crucial to continue being strengths over this challenging month. So, without further ado, here are five key takeaways from the first three games of UConn’s season:
Depth is legit.
All offseason, we heard Dan Hurley rave about how deep this year’s team at UConn is. After needing to rely on some players to play in the high thirties each night in minutes to stay competitive, Hurley assured this year would be different, adding three freshmen in Braylon Mullins, Jacob Furphy and Eric Reibe that all can contribute right away in addition to transfers like Silas Demary, Jr. and Malachi Smith from the portal.
“I know we have the talent and the depth to compete at the highest level,” Karaban said.
“You can go to the bench and there’s no dropoff,” Ball added. “That’s the beauty of this team.”
All we’ve seen through the first three games is that Hurley was correct, and that’s without seeing Mullins or Furphy in game action yet this year. Reibe looks to be someone who will provide good minutes behind Tarris Reed, Jr. in the post. Both Demary and Smith have been as advertised handling the basketball, not to mention third-year leaps from both Jaylin Stewart and Jayden Ross and some big surprise minutes from players like Alec Millender and Dwayne Koroma. The Huskies will play at least 10-deep in most games once they are fully healthy.
They're running again!
Last season, one of the biggest issues with the Huskies was their struggle to get things going in transition, an area where they feasted the previous years with Tristen Newton, Andre Jackson, Jr. and Stephon Castle. Their inability to run lingered their ability on that end of the floor, and Hurley knew that was a major point of emphasis in the offseason.
“We were getting out in transition and getting baskets and open threes,” Ball said. “It’s fun out there to run.”
This year, the team has been dominant in that regard. Demary has shown off his quickness on numerous occasions, going coast-to-coast for layups, while both Ross and Karaban have had breakaway highlight-reel slams to erupt the crowd. The speed and athleticism that a lot of the players possess can be such an advantage and equally a nightmare for opponents, and so far, that's been the case.
The two-headed monster at center is in full effect.
In 2022-23, we saw Adama Sanogo and Donovan Clingan. The next year? Clingan and Samson Johnson. After that? Johnson and Reed. Now?
Reed and Reibe.
All of the success that Hurley’s teams have had the past few years have been anchored by a dominant duo in the post, usually a duo that provides different skill sets than one another, forcing UConn’s opponents to prepare for both styles. That is certainly the case with this team.
In Reed's two games since missing the opener against New Haven recovering from his hamstring injury, he has averaged 19.5 points, 10 rebounds and three blocks. Reibe hasn’t blown the doors off by any means, but still has put up seven points a night in just 16 minutes. It’s safe to say that the stretch of the double-impact bigs will continue at least through this season in Storrs.
The distribution is becoming top notch.
Good Dan Hurley teams always have high assist-to-basket ratios. It’s easy to make comparisons in this industry, so I’ll do it again to the teams led by Newton and Jackson, which had numerous threats to have at least five or six dimes on any given night. On opening night, the distribution was subpar and Hurley realized that.
“You get better as the season gets on and you have a wake up call like that (11 assists against New Haven),” he said. “The guys bought in.”
Since that mark, they’ve had a breakout in that department. Demary had games with seven and nine assists. Karaban had four in the Columbia game. Stewart had six in the UMass Lowell game on Friday. Overall, the team is averaging nearly 25 assists per game since last Monday, and looks more like the teams of the recent past.
“That’s what we do at UConn, share the ball and be unselfish,” Karaban added. “We have to continue doing that going forward.”
Things are just getting started.
As mentioned, for as deep a team UConn is and projects to be this season, they’re still missing key pieces. Both Braylon Mullins and Jacob Furphy have been battling ankle injuries and have yet to suit up. Of the two, Furphy looks closer to action after he warmed up a bit with the team ahead of the Columbia game. Once they get fully healthy, it feels like the sky may be the limit.
“When we get Braylon back, add him in with Jayden Ross and Jaylin Stewart, " Hurley said. “We need J-Ross and J-Stew to play well together on the same night, and then we’ll reach our full potential.”
The Huskies will want to reach their full potential as soon as possible, looking at their upcoming schedule. Their next two games are perhaps their two most challenging on paper all year, traveling up to Boston to take on seventh-ranked BYU at TD Garden before returning home to Storrs to take on a Top 5 Arizona team.
“When you see that quality on film (of BYU), you get scared straight,” Hurley said. “The things that worked the first three games won’t work, but it’s fun and we’re excited to get the chance to go play in Boston this weekend against one of the best teams in the country.”
No. 3 UConn faces No. 7 BYU at 7 p.m. on Saturday in Boston.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.