The good news arrived early for the UConn Huskies on Friday as guard R.J. Cole received clearance from the team medical staff to return to action.
That meant the seventh-seeded Huskies (15-7) were full go at practice as they ready for their first NCAA Tournament appearance since 2016.
“It's the players’ time of the year and you have to rise and shine,” third-year UConn head coach Dan Hurley said, via a Zoom conference.
The Huskies have a few members of the program with national championship experience, but none of them will be in uniform Saturday night at Mackey Arena against No. 10 Maryland (16-13) in the first round of the East Region in West Lafayette, Ind. Tip-off is scheduled for 7:10 p.m. on CBS.
Assistant coach Kevin Freeman played on the program’s first national title team in 1999, while director of player development, Taliek Brown, played on the 2004 champs. Assistant coach Tom Moore served on then-head coach Jim Calhoun’s staff for both of those teams.
“I keep asking Kevin and Taliek and Tom Moore how to win the national championship, but they haven’t told me anything yet that I can use tangibly,” Hurley joked.
The players have appreciated the knowledge that Freeman, Brown and Moore bring to the court to compliment their leader, Hurley, and the rest of the staff.
“They are our resources and they’ve been through the fire, so they will be able to help us weather the storm,” Cole said. “Coming in here they’ve been a big help. They’ve been talking to us about what it’s been like for them when they were in the tournament and what to expect.”
“They’ve been able to just tell us to understand this is a whole different ball game,” Bouknight added. “This isn’t like a regular season game, it’s literally like win or go home, so they have been able to show us the way and keep us motivated.”
Hurley said he has "no idea" what to expect from his team in the opening game.
“We don’t have a guy in the program that’s ever played in an NCAA game and we don’t have a guy in the program that’s ever played in an NIT game, or a CBI or a CIT.
“You just don’t know.”
Regardless of the Huskies’ showing in the tournament, this team will be known as the first to return to the NCAAs in the third year of Hurley’s rebuild.
The program started to crumble under former head coach Kevin Ollie while playing in the American Athletic Conference following a 2014 championship. Now the future looks bright.
“It just feels great being the team to bring UConn back to the tournament,” Bouknight said.
NOTES
Hurley went 2-2 in tournament games at Rhode Island. … UConn’s last tournament win came in the 2016 NCAA Tournament over Colorado. … UConn leads the all-time series with the Terps, 4-3. Maryland won the last meeting 76-66 on Dec. 8, 2015, at MSG. … The teams are playing for the third time in the NCAA Tournament, with each team having won a game. UConn topped Maryland, 99-89, in the 1995 NCAA West Region semifinals in Oakland, Calif. The Terps defeated UConn, 90-82, in the 2002 Elite Eight in Syracuse, N.Y., which was Caron Butler’s final game as a Husky.
