Despite lock-down defense, ‘national championship contender’ UConn still not satisfied
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
After the UConn men’s basketball team laid a 75-54 whomping on Florida on its homecourt Wednesday night, a Florida reporter posed the question to Gators leading scorer Colin Castleton.
“Does UConn have any weaknesses?” he was asked.
Castleton, who was held to just 12 points (4 of 14) and eight rebounds, sat quiet for a second, then ran his hand through his hair. “Um,” he said, pausing. “To be honest with you, they’re a great team.”
The Huskies, ranked No. 5 in the nation, downed the Gators (who came into the game a Top 50 team in the KenPom rankings) by 21 – UConn’s seventh win by 20 points or more this season. Dan Hurley’s team has won all 10 of its games by double digits.
The tenacious UConn defense held Florida to a mere 30.2% shooting from the field – and it still wasn’t good enough for Jordan Hawkins.
“You think we played good defense today? I think we played bad defense,” Hawkins said after the game.
In response, Andre Jackson said, “There were a lot of times that we had defensive lapses, a lot of times that we could’ve just stopped them from getting a bucket. One time I ran back on defense and let No. 5 (Will Richard), who is 60% on the scouting report, shoot an open 3 just off not communicating on the defensive end.”
It was the only 3-pointer Richard shot Wednesday. And he missed.
“Just mental mistakes that we made, and if we don’t make those then maybe they shoot 25% instead of 30,” Jackson said. “I think that’s the biggest thing that Jordan is pointing out in that we all see that there’s always room for improvement on the defensive end.”
Florida head coach Todd Golden summed up the Huskies when he was asked a similar question.
“The thing I think UConn does at a very high level, it’s not exactly their ball pressure in terms of picking up the ball or denying passes, but they cover up for each other so well,” he answered, calling the Huskies a “legitimate national championship contender.”
It’s the covering up for each other, the extra passes, the depth coming from the bench – the overall connectedness that fused at warp speed, even surprising Hurley, that allowed UConn to break into the top five just five weeks into the season it entered unranked.
“It’s probably the most connected team I’ve ever been on,” Hawkins said. “It’s just crazy, right? We do everything together. The camaraderie we have is amazing. I can’t believe I’m part of something like this, it’s really nice.”
Jackson agreed: “We always confide in one another and we all know that we have strengths and weaknesses, and we all try to play to our strengths and minimize our weaknesses and kind of lean on our teammates to fill those voids. That’s the biggest thing with this team – there’s egos, but we know how to keep our egos in check. And everybody on the team is willing to sacrifice.”
It has all gone according to plan, though Hurley would still like to see the assist numbers go up.
Hitting a hostile environment on the road for the first time this season, it was important for the Huskies to create a bubble around themselves. One that blocks everything else out. “You block out the fans, you don’t talk to the opponents, you don’t talk to the refs,” Hurley said.
Within that bubble, a tremendous energy reverberated.
The Huskies put on a show in front of Florida’s student section in warmups. One after another, spinning, one-handed, two-handed, off a bounce, off the backboard, reverse – it was more exciting than the dunk contest at First Night.
Jackson remembered Hurley telling the team before the game: “It’s us against the world.”
“Honestly, we’ve got a chip on our shoulder because we felt like before the season nobody even projected us to do this, that says it in itself,” said Jackson. “We’re pretty confident, but when you’ve got a target on your back, everybody wants to take that from you. So we’re just gonna continue to do what we do in practice, continue to battle, continue to get better and just continue to just work to try to be the best team we can. Kind of see where we can get this season and try to really take UConn back.”
The last time the program opened10-0, in the 2010-11 season, Jim Calhoun captured his third and final national championship.
UConn has one final nonconference game against Long Island at Gampel Pavilion on Saturday before Big East play begins at Butler Dec. 17.
