HARTFORD –- Looking back at last year’s game tape from the season-opener against Stonehill, Dan Hurley, ever the harsh critic, never would’ve thought by the way his team played then that it was capable of winning a national championship.
In that one, Stonehill’s first game as a Division I program, Samson Johnson injured his foot, Jordan Hawkins suffered a concussion and Andre Jackson wasn’t able to play because of a broken pinky finger. Still, the 31-point win turned into what is now an 18-game nonconference winning streak for the Huskies with every win coming by at least 10 points.
The streak continued into this season when the Huskies breezed past Northern Arizona, 95-52, on banner night at Gampel Pavilion. They hope to see signs of improvement when another banner is unveiled at the XL Center on Saturday.
“I thought that there were things that were not sustainable in terms of just being successful offensively, defensively, on the backboard, just some poor individual on-ball defensive moments,” Hurley said. “There were some times where we drew two on the ball offensively and didn’t throw the ball to the appropriate player, just kind of execution issues, mistakes that take a little bit of time (to fix).”
Stonehill, which finished with 14-17 overall and ended up third in the Northeast Conference standings, presents a different five-out look on offense that the Huskies will learn and benefit from playing against later on in the season.
“I think Stonehill has some capable one-on-one players, they do a lot of motion offense, so just being really solid, at least for the guards, is something that we talked about going forward,” said Cam Spencer.
The Skyhawks don’t have a player taller than 6 feet 8 on their roster.
Their best player, Maxwell Zegarowski, twin brother of the former Creighton point guard Marcus Zegarowski, is 6-8 and shoots over 40% from beyond the arc. He made two of his three 3-point attempts against the Huskies last year and made six from deep in Stonehill’s first win of the season on Thursday, 57-44 over Army, as he contributed a team-high 21 points and eight rebounds.
Stonehill opened its season with an 89-44 loss to George Washington University and is shooting just 32.1% from the field and 25.5% from 3-point range as a team through two games.
“It puts you in some uncomfortable spots defensively, you won’t play many teams that will have their five-man running off stagger screens or have their five-man bring the ball down the court so that you can’t pressure their guards,” Hurley said. “I think you play some of the nonconference games and try to give yourself some different looks and get yourself prepared to see a lot of different things during the season.”
Minutes increase for Clingan
Donovan Clingan’s minute limit was 20 in the season-opener as he continues to work his foot back to full health, but Hurley, not wanting to rush anything, thought it should’ve been 15. So the 7-2 All-America-caliber center played 15 minutes, finishing with 12 points, eight rebounds and three blocks.
His minutes will increase in slow increments.
“I didn’t want to get near 20,” Hurley said. “I think we’ll try to get him to 18 in this next one because he’s got some big challenges coming, he’s got to make sure the cardio is there.”
Confidence building for Slamson Johnson
Samson Johnson, shaping up to be the Robin to Clingan’s Batman, fell in love with the game of basketball when he was a kid back in Togo, running around blocking shots and dunking on a concrete outdoor court.
After sitting much of last season with an injury, Johnson, with 10 pounds of muscle added in the offseason, was a bit anxious before beginning in his new role and got into some foul trouble early. But he found his home at the rim and dunked five times to finish with 11 points, five rebounds and three blocks despite the four fouls.
“I feel like (Hurley) has been pushing me a lot during practices and my confidence has been going up. It’s just great for me to have the crowd getting involved when I’m dunking, blocking shots and stuff like that,” Johnson said. “I felt like I was a little too aggressive, too anxious to play, I feel like I can fix that really quick. And I’m working on my stance defensively, so yeah, I’ll fix that.”
Hurley, especially knowing Clingan’s minutes will continue to increase and that he could turn to a smaller lineup if necessary, wants him to stay aggressive.
“You can just do it without committing the bad ones,” Hurley said. “We want him to be aggressive and he settled in I thought nicely… It’s just I think getting comfortable on the court, getting more confident out there, having more success, feeling good about himself (Saturday) into next week before we head to the Garden.”
Site: XL Center, Hartford
Time: Noon
Series: UConn leads, 1-0
Last meeting: Nov. 7, 2022 – UConn 85, Stonehill 54
TV: FS2 – Pat O’Keefe, Tarik Turner
Streaming: Fox Sports app or foxsports.com
Radio: UConn Sports Network on 97.9 ESPN – Bob Joyce, Ben Darnell
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