It’s hard to call a program that has won four national titles a Cinderella story, but entering the NCAA Tournament as a seventh seed doesn’t make you a frontrunner to cut down the nets on April 5.
Unless of course you’re UConn, which came from the seventh slot to win it all in 2014.
Can the Huskies (15-7) do it again? Even their coach Dan Hurley admits that is a tricky question.
“Right now, there’s mystery as to who we are going into this tournament, which is kind of exciting,” Hurley said, via Zoom on Tuesday from the team’s hotel in Indianapolis. “I think we’re a hard team to predict: ‘Are we a one-and-done or can we make a run?’”
The Huskies are currently in quarantine along with 12 other teams at their hotel after arriving on Monday in Indianapolis, so the basketball activities have been limited. Hurley said the team hoped to get up some shots tonight if all their COVID tests came back negative.
UConn plays No. 10 Maryland at 7:10 p.m. Saturday inside Mackey Arena, which is about 90 minutes from the team hotel in West Lafayette, Indiana.
“We’re all still excited to be here,” UConn senior Isaiah Whaley said. “We’re talking about it all the time.”
Plenty of former Huskies are buzzing about it, too. Christian Vital, Jalen Adams, and Alterique Gilbert, who is also in the NCAAs with Wichita State, are among the former teammates to reach out.
“I’ve basically heard from almost everybody I’ve played with,” he said. “Everybody knows how important it is to all of us.”
Vital, of course, loved the limelight and would have had a chance to lead the Huskies to the Big Dance last season before COVID shutdowns wiped out the postseason.
“He said he wished he could have been here with us,” Whaley said.
One player the Huskies do have with them is sophomore guard James Bouknight, who picked up a pair of awards Tuesday: Associated Press All-American honorable mention and the USBWA District 1 Player of the Year.
Bouknight figures to face a tough challenge against the Terps with Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year Darryl Morsell expected to guard him.
“He’s kind of the heart and soul of that team,” Hurley said. “He’s a tremendous winner and a tough guy who’s a physical defender.
“James has got to play I think … he’s got to play off his jump shot a little bit more. James is a big-time shooter when he plays through it and putting your head down and just driving the ball against a guy like Morsell’s physical ability is going to be tough. James is an all-round scorer and he has to play to that on Saturday.” Hurley added.
The Huskies are keeping their fingers crossed that junior point guard R.J. Cole will be on the floor as well. Cole suffered a mild concussion during the final minutes of Friday’s Big East semifinal loss to Creighton and remains in concussion protocol.
“We'll see, I guess, where that goes,” Hurley said. “He had a minor concussion in that game, so we’ll know more later in the week.”
UConn missed Cole’s leadership in the late stages of the Creighton game. After a slow start to the season, Cole has settled into Bouknight’s perfect backcourt mate down the stretch.
“If he’s able to play, that would be huge for us,” Whaley said.
Even though it’s the first trip to the NCAAs for the program since 2016, the Huskies are not just glad to be here. Two goals going into the season were to play well in the Big East and have it lead to an opportunity like this one.
“It’s the time of year when you can actually take bigger steps,” Hurley said. “It’s an exciting time of year. The guys earned the opportunity to get out on the biggest stage in college on Saturday and play an exciting game.”
NOTES
Hurley called the quarantine “similar to at Mohegan [Sun]", where the Huskies played against USC in Bubbleville back in November. “Hopefully we’ll have pretty normal prep days starting tomorrow,” he said. … Nobody on the UConn roster has played in an NCAA Tournament game, including freshman center Adama Sanogo, who has blossomed late in the season. “His eyes are going to be wide open,” Hurley said.
The team will be allowed one 90-minute practice this week at Mackey Arena but will be practicing at various other locations as well, including Purdue University. … In addition to Bouknight’s awards, Cole was named to the 10-player all-district team on Tuesday.
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