ALBANY – When the UConn men’s basketball team was at its best, and it felt like a double-digit win was guaranteed in the nonconference, the Huskies were an extremely difficult scout because Dan Hurley could bring four, five players in to make an impact off the bench.
The rotation shortened up a bit after the calendar flipped and UConn lost five of eight to Big East opponents in January.
“I want to play nine players in a perfect world,” Hurley said Saturday. “I think during the mid part of the year when we were struggling, I probably got a little too tight with the rotation, and that was my mistake. Obviously I’ve learned from it, and I’m trying to trust these guys more.”
The value in a deep bench was on display Friday, when Hurley brought Donovan Clingan, Joey Calcaterra and Nahiem Alleyne into the game. That trio combined for 17 of the Huskies’ 37 points in the first half against Iona and kept them in the game.
“One of the keys of having a great basketball team is when you sub, either foul trouble or fatigue, you don’t drop off that much,” Pitino said after losing to UConn, 87-63. “That’s what Connecticut has.”
The starters who were struggling got some extra time to warm up and shake any NCAA Tournament jitters, and Hurley didn’t need much from his substitutes in the second half when the starters came out ready. Iona, already worn down, couldn’t do anything to stop Adama Sanogo with relatively fresh legs or a confident Jordan Hawkins – that duo scored 35 of UConn’s 50 second half points on 13-of-17 shooting from the field.
“Then obviously we have an ability to wear a team down. Iona played as good as they could play for a half,” Hurley said. “We were playing okay offensively and guarding just okay, but eventually we have a chance to break a team because we have a chance to be fresh in the last 10, 12 minutes of the game.”
In the early part of the season, one could count on UConn to go on a massive scoring run near the midpoint of the second half almost every game.
After the first Butler game on Dec. 17, UConn’s second road game of the season, Hurley made a comment about offensive rebounds being demoralizing to an opponent. He said, “Playing with that type of relentlessness, it’s like a body blow that eventually leads to a headshot knockout because it’s demoralizing to guard well, force a miss, and now we’ve just got guys on trampolines on the backboard.”
Hurley’s group prides itself on…
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