Christian Vital reflects on 4 interesting years in Storrs

On the morning of March 12, Christian Vital woke up in his Texas hotel ready to play against Tulane in the first round of the AAC Tournament, before the world changed forever.

“I’m thinking we’re going to play,” Vital recalled. “The first thing I look at is ESPN and I see Donovan (Mitchell) … that he contracted the virus and i was like ‘woah.’”

The Utah Jazz star guard Mitchell and Vital played grassroots hoops against each other growing up. When Vital heard the news on MItchell and the NBA stopping play, he knew “that was a wrap” for him as well.

VItal waited three years to enjoy a winning season at UConn, but once it arrived, it came to a crashing halt. The recent UConn graduate, along with everyone else in the college basketball world saw their seasons come to a premature ending in March due to the coronavirus.

“I felt, to be honest with you, we were right there,” Vital said, via teleconference Tuesday morning.

The Huskies finished 19-12 and were rolling into the American Athletic Conference Tournament on a five-game winning streak. Their name started to surface as a bubble team for the NCAA Tournament with a strong run in Texas, which their senior guard was sure they would have done.

“I know coach (Dan Hurley) has said if we made it to the weekend and stuff like that, but he has to say that as the head coach and to be politically correct,” Vital said. “As me being the leader of the team, we were winning that championship.”

Vital said the Huskies were really humming at that point in the season with freshmen James Bouknight and Jalen Gaffney emerging along with Isaiah Whaley “playing out of his mind.”

“We were all coming together and I personally don’t believe you could tell anyone in our locker room that we weren’t going for it all,” Vital added. “If you look at our last month of basketball going into March, everyone here knows how UConn stories go.

“Not to compare us because we weren’t able to finish it, so we’ll never know and that’s just something we have to live with,” he added.

“I’ve kind of already given that up, it is what it is and I can’t change it, I can’t go back in time.”

The first couple weeks after the season abruptly ended were rough.

“I was pissed off. I’m not going to lie to you guys,” he said. “I didn’t believe it.”

Vital graduated last weekend from UConn, but missed the online ceremony due to technical difficulties with the internet but his mom heard his name called.

“Me being the oldest one, she knew education was important from the beginning,” said Vital, who is the oldest of Rose Vital Williams’ six children.

Vital led the Huskies in scoring (16.4 ppg) and rebounds (6.3 pg) along with ranking in the national top-10 in steals (2.5) and free-throw percentage (.899).

The New York native finished his senior season on the AAC first team and leaves as the conference’s all-time leader in 3-pointers made (265) and third in scoring (1,735).

Vital ranks 10th on UConn's all-time scoring list with 1,735 points.

As for his future, Vital has been working out to prepare for the professional ranks. He has been working out with former Kentucky player Derrick Anderson in Kentucky since he couldn’t play in the gyms of New York.

“I’ve been away from home for about a month now,” said Vital, who has signed with an agent and started talking to some NBA teams. “I plan on playing in the NBA.”

He also plans to keep an eye on the UConn program, especially with his “brothers” still on the roster.

“Those guys are going to handle their own business, those guys are going to be the ones that take the credit for getting us back to championships,” Vital said.

After arriving at UConn to play for former head coach Kevin Ollie as the lowest-ranked recruit in a heralded freshmen class - Alterique Gilbert, Mamadou Diarra, Vance Jackson and Juwan Durham - Vital departs as the most successful one.

The arrival of Hurley and his coaching staff gave a big assist to Vital, as he was able to rewrite his story with the Huskies.

“When I came in I was the lowest ranked recruit … I was at the bottom of that list,” said Vital, who played for two years at in-state St. Thomas More for legendary coach Jere Quinn.

Vital originally committed to UNLV during his final year of prep school, but flipped to UConn after the Rebels made a coaching change. He'll miss UConn's return to the Big East by one year, but the lessons he has learned during tumultuous times will be everlasting.

“I feel like if you have the will and the determination to finish things and improve, not just in the bad moments but be able to adjust and adapt that you can make better out of a situation that’s not going your way,” Vital said. “If you’ll work hard, you’ll get in a better spot.”