Dan Hurley experimenting with rotations in ‘secret scrimmages’ as UConn men’s basketball season approaches

With two weeks until the start of the season and closed scrimmages underway, UConn men’s basketball head coach Dan Hurley has been able to “experiment” with different rotations and minutes distribution, seeing how different players work together on the court in a game scenario.

The closed scrimmages, for the most part, have been kept secret. But Hurley said the first — which happened over the weekend at Harvard — went well.

After Monday’s Connecticut Basketball Coaches Breakfast at the Golf Club of Avon that supported the Jimmy V Foundation, Hurley said Jordan Hawkins and Samson Johnson were the “winners of the weekend.”

“Generally, you can’t put too much stock into the results of the scrimmages because we’re all working on things; different rotations and not playing people the amount of minutes they may play — experimentation is a big part of it,” Hurley said. “Yeah, you walked out of there, from the week itself and where things are going into today’s practice just feeling great about those two guys in particular.”

Johnson got some extra action in the scrimmage as Alex Karaban, another who is competing for the four spot in the starting lineup, sprained an ankle Thursday. Hurley hopes Karaban can be back to get live reps before the Nov. 7 season opener against Stonehill.

UConn is set to host a second “secret” scrimmage on Saturday against Virginia.

The annual breakfast, which was hosted by Seth Greenberg and raised money for cancer research, included a panel discussion with the six Division I men’s basketball coaches in Connecticut that focused primarily on the changing landscape of college basketball.

Hurley sat in the chair to Greenberg’s right, contributing to the conversation that ranged from NIL to the idea of an NCAA Tournament expansion and the transfer portal.

Much of Hurley’s focus was on the difference in his team from last season.

“We’re a much different type of team; not as physical, not as intimidating to play against in terms of how hard we play and maybe the size and athleticism,” he said, “but I think we’re really, really skilled and we’re really, really deep. I think we could go as deep as 10 guys with quality.”

Following a disappointing first-round exit in last year’s NCAA Tournament, Hurley and his staff took a long, hard look at the Huskies’ roster. With only three rotation players (Andre Jackson, Hawkins and Adama Sanogo) returning, Hurley had to dip into the transfer portal, which he compared to “speed dating” during the event’s panel discussion.

“You have to really quickly try to see if you have the same shared values and if the relationship is going to work,” he said. “And you’ve got to figure it out quickly because it happens fast.”

Looking for veteran shooters who are ready to win now, the Huskies matched with four: Nahiem Alleyne, Tristen Newton, Hassan Diarra and Joey Calcaterra.

“What we saw was we had one of the best big guys in the country that didn’t have enough space to play in last year,” Hurley said, “which, I think, as well as not having a viable backup center option, really hurt Adama’s performance down the stretch in March.”

Now, that shooting appears to be there in enough capacity for the Huskies to employ a four-out offense with Sanogo alone around the paint. As far as a backup center option, 7-foot-2 true freshman Donovan Clingan — the two-time (2021 and 2022) Gatorade Connecticut Player of the Year from Bristol Central — will fill the void.

While UConn shot 35% from 3 last season, which Hurley thinks was better than most expected, he wants to increase the volume to where the team takes 25-plus 3-pointers each game.

“I just think that this group will be able to be a team that goes on more scoring runs, maybe doesn’t have the ability to physically intimidate and punk the other team with just pure toughness and aggression at the defensive end and on the backboard, but I think it’s a group that will be fun to watch, especially on the offensive end,” Hurley said.

“If you have a really deep team that can really shoot the 3 and go on scoring runs, you become a tougher team to beat during tournament play. So that was the design in terms of the way we put this thing together.”