This 12 months’s UConn males’s basketball workforce appears to be like strikingly totally different from the final.
Below coach Dan Hurley, who memorably turned down the Los Angeles Lakers head teaching job final fall to remain in Storrs, the Huskies have endured an anxiety-ridden rollercoaster of a 2024-25 season that has them teetering on the NCAA match bubble.
UConn suffered via some early season woes, which included an embarrassing last-place end on the 2024 Maui Invitational and an uninspiring stretch of video games within the wake of star freshman Liam McNeeley’s ankle harm.
In February, the reigning back-to-back NCAA champs hardly look dominant or constant sufficient to vie for the historic three-peat this 12 months and have needed to struggle for many of their victories—they’ve performed 15 Massive East video games up to now, and all however two video games have been determined by eight factors or much less.
Amid UConn’s agonizing up-and-down struggles, Hurley appeared to name out his personal gamers in a visitor look on Mad Canine Sports activities Radio this week.
The ordinarily impassioned coach was as fiery as ever when speaking about his workforce’s coachability, showing to recommend that this 12 months’s squad couldn’t take “laborious teaching” as a lot as his earlier squads may.
“I spotted that I couldn’t coach this workforce as laborious as I’ve coached a few of my different groups,” Hurley stated. “When you’ve gotten guys like Cam Spencer, Andre Jackson, Donovan Clingan, these guys may take laborious teaching. This 12 months, our confidence bought rattled so early in Maui, you recognize, I’ve needed to construct this workforce up. I don’t assume any of us have been ready for the extent of scrutiny all year long that’s include the success we’ve had the final two years. I believe that’s been heavy for all of us.”
Dan Hurley does not mince phrases:
“I am unable to coach this workforce as laborious as I’ve coached different groups. Cam Spencer, Andre Jackson, Donovan Clingan… they may take laborious teaching. This 12 months, our confidence bought rattled in Maui, and I’ve needed to construct this workforce up”pic.twitter.com/OwwwYazkjS
— The Area of 68 (@TheFieldOf68) February 21, 2025
The Huskies presently personal a 18-8 general file (10-5 in Massive East) and are coming off two very totally different outcomes with a deflating loss to last-place Seton Corridor and an exhilarating comeback win over Villanova. Time will inform which model of the Huskies will come to play within the NCAA match—assuming they make it in.
