The UConn men’s basketball schedule gets gradually more difficult with each game, and on Tuesday, the team will have to contend with the aggressive defense of the Buffalo Bulls inside the XL Center.
Buffalo, 1-1 after a one-point win over Colgate and a 97-62 loss to James Madison, has been led by its guards, Curtis Jones and Zid Powell.
“We’ve got to defend at an elite level, we’ve got to really guard the dribble because this team can really beat you off the dribble,” UConn head coach Dan Hurley said Monday. “And then they really take your ball. I mean, they really attack your ball and with the lack of depth we have at guard it’s a scary game because of how aggressive [they are].”
Hurley praised guards Zid Powell and Curtis Jones, the team’s two leading scorers, as well as forward Isaiah Adams, saying they can “really, really play.”
The Huskies will likely be without three key players in Andre Jackson Jr. (broken pinky finger), Samson Johnson (right foot) and Jordan Hawkins, who has “taken steps forward” after entering concussion protocol following the season-opener Nov. 7.
Through two games, Buffalo has 29 total steals – No. 5 in the nation with 14.5 steals per game.
“Scrappy, scrappy team,” UConn guard Nahiem Alleyne said. “They’re a team that likes to get into you defensively no matter how they’re playing, they can foul you, scratch you, but they’re a tough team. We’re gonna make sure we handle that and we got to be a tougher team on both ends of the floor, make sure we’re going to passes, being strong with the ball, attacking when they’re being overly aggressive – but we’re ready to go.”
Hurley is worried about his team’s live-ball turnovers.
“We had two pick-sixes in the second half the other day (against Boston U), and then another live ball turnover, so I think we had given up three of their field goals off of pick-sixes, and this team feasts on that,” he said. (Editor’s Note: He was talking about basketball, in case you were wondering). “We did a lot of very fundamental work to make sure that we don’t make ourselves vulnerable.”
Here is everything you need to know about UConn’s game against Buffalo on Tuesday:
Site: XL Center, Hartford.
Time: 7 p.m.
Series: UConn leads 8-1, Buffalo hasn’t beaten the Huskies since Dec. 27, 1951.
Last meeting: Nov. 21, 2019 – UConn 79, Buffalo 68.
TV: CBSSN, Chris Lewis and Steve Lappas.
Radio: UConn Sports Network on 97.9 ESPN, Mike Crispino and Wayne Norman.
Huskies sweep Big East weekly awards, break into top 25: After convincing wins over first-year Division I program Stonehill and then Boston University, the Huskies entered the first regular season AP Poll at No. 25, which was released Monday.
It was also announced Monday that UConn junior Adama Sanogo received Big East player of the week honors, while Alex Karaban earned the freshman of the week nod.
Sanogo, the Big East preseason player of the year, averaged 23 points, 10.5 rebounds and shot 77% overall and 67% from three over the Huskies’ first two games. Against Boston University, Sanogo scored 27 points, three shy of a career-high, and grabbed 15 rebounds. He also made two of three 3-point attempts in the game.
Karaban, a redshirt freshman who joined the Huskies for the spring semester last season but was unable to play, averaged 13.5 points, 4 rebounds and 3.5 assists – the only Big East freshman to average double-digit points in the season’s opening week. A forward, Karaban earned his first start in the Huskies’ second game against Boston University after Samson Johnson suffered a foot injury.
Big East foe Villanova, which lost its second game against Temple, dropped out of the AP Poll. The Wildcats are third in the “others receiving votes” category with 96 voting points, behind Michigan State (119) and Purdue (104). Creighton (2-0) dropped one spot, down to No. 10, as the only other ranked Big East team.
Tristen Newton feeding off program’s confidence in him: Tristen Newton’s season didn’t get off to a great start, and he’ll be the first one to say it. In the season-opener, starting at point guard, Newton shot 0-5 from the field, 0-3 from deep, but ended up with nine points from the free throw line.
In his second game, playing at the two-guard position, Newton got off to another slow start but started heating up in the second half to finish the game with 11 points, 2-4 from deep.
“Having a terrible first game and then a bad first half, you’ve got to come out and do something different,” he said. “So I was aggressive and played with as much energy as I could and that translated into a couple threes falling, a couple easy looks, so that’s all good energy.”
Being aggressive is something Hurley and the coaching staff have been pushing on Newton, who transferred in from East Carolina after averaging nearly 18 points per game along with 4.8 rebounds and 5 assists.
“My coaches and my teammates have the utmost confidence in me, they say ‘play hard, keep shooting, keep attacking,'” Newton said Monday.
Hurley added: “He looked like maybe he brought (that second-half energy) into practice these last two days and he’s thinking he’s gonna bring that into hopefully tomorrow night in terms of just the sharpness and how he attacks the game – and he better be sharp because again, the Buffalo guards, they get into you. And if you’re not sharp, they’ll make you look bad. And they’re very physical with the way that they guard.”
Hurley on UConn football reaching bowl eligibility for the first time since 2015: “Inspiring work, just inspiring coaching by Jim – by ‘Him Mora’ – and his staff, and in the players. I mean, I’ve been in places where I’ve taken over – just to see it the way it’s happened – but I got so much admiration for football coaches because they get to coach the way I want to coach and I don’t always get to coach that way because basketball has gotten soft.”
