UConn men’s basketball head coach Dan Hurley spoke at the Middlesex County Chamber of Commerce breakfast Monday morning. The Huskies, the defending national champions, are a week away from their season opener against Northern Arizona at Gampel Pavilion. (Photo Charles Krupa/AP)
Rocky Hill — Winning a national championship hasn’t softened Dan Hurley.
In his sixth season as UConn’s head coach, Hurley applies full-court pressure to his players in practice.
“Our program is old school accountability, it’s old school with the culture, accountability and standards that we demand of our players,” Hurley said. “We coach them very hard. I coach them very hard. This is probably the most difficult time I have experienced as a team coach.
A week after the regular season opened, Hurley made his annual speech at the Middlesex County Chamber of Commerce breakfast Monday morning at the Sheraton Hotel in Rocky Hill.
It was clear that Hurley feels good about his Huskies as they begin the 2023-24 season Monday against Northern Arizona at Gampel Pavilion.
“I think we’re coming into the season where you want to be when you’re coaching at UConn,” Hurley said. “You start the season feeling like you have a team that’s in contention for championships, for the Big East, for the Final Fours, for a national championship.
“We’re just trying to put together the best season possible to go from Brooklyn to Boston to Phoenix. This is our visualization. The first two rounds of the tournament will take place in Brooklyn, the Sweet and Elite Eight in Boston and the national championship in Phoenix.
“That’s what we’re thinking about. It’s our state of mind. Obviously you focus on the process, but you have to imagine what you want to accomplish and you have to believe in it, so that’s where we think.
Those at the breakfast certainly feel good about Hurley, who received a standing ovation upon entering the hotel banquet hall for the event and again during his presentation.
Hurley touched on a variety of basketball-related topics during his roughly 30-minute State of the Huskies speech.
Here’s part of what he had to say:
• Sophomore center Donovan Clingan steps up his activity on the field this week. He is recovering from a foot injury suffered in late September.
Hurley called it an important week in terms of Clingan’s recovery.
“Right now he feels good,” Hurley said. “You start to accelerate some things in terms of next steps. But he hasn’t had any setbacks and feels good. You follow what your doctors and different doctors say.
At the time of his injury, UConn anticipated Clingan would return to action within a month. Hurley said it was difficult to say whether Clingan would play in the season opener.
“For him, it’s a question of does he get enough live basketball time and can you then gradually increase his minutes in some of these games? With the position he plays and the role he played last year, maybe a situation like Andre Jackson last year where we brought him back (from injury) gradually in terms of minutes, then finally he came back to the start.
• Junior Samson Johnson played well at Clingan’s starting position in recent close scrimmages against Virginia and Harvard.
Johnson, who missed much of last season with a foot injury, had a solid preseason.
“He has an opportunity to play this year,” Hurley said. “He may have been our most consistent player. In both closed scrimmages, he was probably our most productive player and our best player.
• Hurley said the Huskies looked good offensively in the two closed scrimmages despite playing without Clingan. They are trying to replace their top two scorers from last year, Adama Sanogo and Jordan Hawkins, who averaged 33.4 points.
“The shooting is real,” Hurley said. “The passes and ball movements are real. We’re going to be a really, really high-level offensive team.
• The rotation is starting to take shape.
“With a healthy Donovan, our front seven is really clear,” Hurley said. “As you get to eight, nine, 10 and who’s the odd one out, it’s going to be more difficult.”
Hurley mentioned that freshman Solo Ball is a candidate to be the first player off the bench.
• Hurley was asked about his preference for where home games will be played, at Gampel Pavilion or the XL Center in Hartford.
Hurley mentioned that improvements are needed at the XL Center and that scheduling conflicts make it difficult to practice there. But he said they love playing in Hartford when the house is full.
There is a notable difference between the two atmospheres on the pitch.
“It’s a competitive advantage playing at Gampel,” Hurley said. “There is life in the building. We don’t need to play well for the crowd to be there. Sometimes in XL we have to play well to attract the crowd. Also sometimes there are too many people wearing a flannel shirt or a gray sweater. We wear blue. Wear blue or white. Wear our colors.
• Forward Alex Karaban, who led the Huskies in minutes played last year, should have been named a 2023 Big East Freshman, according to Hurley. Instead, Villanova’s Cam Whitmore earned the honor.
“We don’t win a lot of popularity contests at UConn, we just win championships,” Hurley said.
The crowd applauded Hurley’s comments.
• While NCAA rules prevent Hurley from talking about Cooper Flagg, the nation’s top recruit who committed to Duke against UConn on Monday, he spoke generally about his recruiting philosophy.
Just the fact that UConn is in Flagg’s bottom two is a good sign of where the program is.
Hurley said he will continue to stick to a recruiting philosophy that has worked for him.
“UConn is unmatched by any other program in college basketball,” Hurley said. “We don’t decide who we choose. But no one should be left out of the question of whether or not they should consider making us such an offer. We do it, now, as well as anyone.
