No. 17 UConn looking for 6th straight vs. Creighton
Dan Hurley should be riding high with his Cincinnati Bengals heading to the Super Bowl, but the UConn head coach is grounded by reality.
Being a football fan is great, but Hurley’s job is to win at UConn, and there are plenty of Big East games ahead with nine in the next 28 days.
“It’s my one real sports team that I actually really follow closely, but I don’t give a (darn) about them,” Hurley said during a Monday Zoom chat with reporters. “I care about beating Creighton and then I know I have Villanova this weekend and then I really don’t know who I will play next week.
“(The Bengals’ win on Sunday) was a nice break yesterday for a couple hours, but once it was over and I was done running around my living room, I started thinking about (Creighton).”
The No. 17 Huskies (15-4, 6-2 Big East) rolled out of January on a five-game winning streak, but now comes the meat of the schedule, starting with Creighton (12-7, 4-4) at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday at the XL Center in Hartford.
“We’ve played good teams, every conference game is hard and we’re focused on the next game,” said Hurley, who lost three times to the Bluejays last season including in the Big East Tournament semifinals.
Also on the weekly slate is a test at No. 12 Villanova (16-5, 9-2) on Saturday.
“It’s hard to win four or five games in a row in league,” Hurley said. “It doesn’t get done a lot.
“Even the start we’ve had to the conference season, it’s been a while since UConn has had this good of a start.”
The Huskies enter the week third in the conference standings behind No. 15 Providence and Villanova. Xavier and Marquette are also in the top-25 at No. 21 and 24, respectively, and the Huskies play both of them next week.
UConn is coming off a tough road battle with DePaul, which the Huskies grinded out 57-50 behind 25 points from R.J. Cole on Saturday in Chicago.
It was only the third time the Huskies scored in the 50s, with the other two being losses to West Virginia (56-53) and Providence (57-53).
“You hope that you’re not going to have too many games where everyone is struggling offensively except for R.J.,” Hurley said. “The bottom line is that when you play conference games you have to find a way to win.”
The Bluejays have dropped two straight, but have two top-25 wins on their resume, beating No. 9 Villanova, 79-59, and No. 24 BYU, 83-71.
Alex O’Connell (12.8 points per game) leads a balanced CU attack with four players averaging double digits in scoring. Ryan Hawkins (12.6 ppg, 7.3 rpg), Ryan Kalkbrenner (12.1 ppg, 7.1 rpg) and Ryan Nembhard (11.8 ppg) are also in that mix.
Hurley said the team will not alter its practice routine with a hefty schedule ahead of them.
“Our practice standards are as high as anyone in the country, so that gets your team ready for any game-time situation,” he said. “The hard part of the schedule, any conference game is hard and winning games you are supposed to win I guess in conference, home or road, and not having a slip up is rare.
“It’s hard to do.”