UConn is treating Monday night like any other night, even if the calendar says Opening Night and the opponent, on paper, is a long way from the heavyweight tests the Huskies have already survived.
After exhibition wins over Syracuse, Michigan State and Purdue, and with a rematch of last season’s national championship game against Michigan waiting Friday in Boston, the Huskies still aren’t easing up for Gardner-Webb’s visit to Hartford. Dan Hurley said the approach stays the same no matter who’s across the floor.
“You really treat every opponent, the preparation is absolutely the same,” he said. “Obviously you’re dealing with human nature with young people - college players are developmental players, these guys are not professional in necessarily their skill level, their approach to preparation, to competition, the way professional and world-class athletes carry themselves.
So you are dealing with human nature with college-age kids, but we treat every opponent the same. We treat every opponent with the utmost respect, and preparation for Gardner-Webb, or Michigan, or Wagner, or whoever we’re playing, they have our full attention.
“The scout is absolutely the same,” Hurley continued. “We spend as many days preparing for Gardner-Webb and the things that they do, whether it’s gonna be the three-quarter court defense, back to the 2-3 zone, which we saw in high-majors last year, or possessions of 1-3-1 zone, or the things they’re doing offensively, we’re gonna prepare the same way for everybody.”
That message has carried into the locker room. Senior point guard Silas Demary Jr. said the Huskies have kept the focus squarely on the Runnin’ Bulldogs, even with Friday’s matchup looming.
“That’s kind of been our biggest thing is, don’t overlook the opponent. Obviously we have a big game (Friday), but Gardner-Webb is still a team that we have to prepare for the right way,” said senior point guard Silas Demary Jr.
“We’ve got to go out there and handle business, and not play to the level of competition, play the UConn way and the UConn standard. That’s getting out there, getting after it on the defensive end and try to cause havoc the whole game.”
Demary said the staff and players have watched as much film as they could find, and he wants the same defensive edge the Huskies showed in the exhibitions. Hurley, meanwhile, said he wants to see the offseason priorities show up in a real game: fewer fouls, more trips to the line and a steadier push in transition.
“The things you’d like to see is just the things that we’ve emphasized in the offseason,” Hurley said. “Some of the things we’ve talked about: fouling less, getting to the free throw line more, getting a better push in transition more consistently.
I would say you’re hoping to see more of those things. But the way that we play offense, the way that we play defense, is just the way that we’re gonna play.”
Gardner-Webb, under Jeremy Luther in Year Three, arrives with a roster that looks very different from last season’s 4-29 team that finished last in the Big South. This is the first year Luther has had an NIL budget to help build the roster, and the group includes several transfers from Division II and low-major Division I programs. The Runnin’ Bulldogs brought back only three players from last year’s team.
Among the returnees are 6-foot-6 sophomore Jamias Ferere, who averaged 6.3 points and 2.9 rebounds, 6-2 Jacob Hudson, who put up 10.7 points and 4.0 rebounds, and 6-foot senior Ace Talbert, who averaged 6.9 points and 1.9 rebounds. The newcomers include DJ Daniel, a 6-6 redshirt sophomore who averaged more than 16 points, five rebounds and three assists per game at Division II Frostburg State, and 6-5 senior Seth Brown, who scored more than 13 points per game at D-II Fresno Pacific.
Even without public exhibitions to study, UConn’s staff pieced together enough to build a scouting report. Hurley said Gardner-Webb mixes on-ball and ball-screen action with off-ball movement, has strong perimeter players and plays hard. He also noted the Bulldogs rotate three centers, giving opponents different looks.
“They’ve got some pretty good offensive concepts, they mix some on-ball, ball screen with some good off-ball actions that we’re gonna have to guard,” Hurley said. “But they’ve got really good perimeter players and play really hard, really well coached.
Rotate three centers in that kind of give you a different look. They’ve got just a couple guys returning from last year’s team, so you’ve got to watch the personnel clips of some of these guys from Frostburg State or the different places that they played at… You’re able to get a pretty good sense of their personnel and the shell of how they’re going to try to play this year.”
UConn and Gardner-Webb have met twice before, with the Huskies leading the series 2-0. The last meeting came on Nov. 20, 2007, when UConn beat Gardner-Webb 89-72 in Hartford. Sunday morning’s line had the Huskies favored by 38.5 points.
Tipoff is set for 9 p.m.
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