With key players out, UConn men’s basketball team getting chance to develop depth
Before Friday’s UConn men’s basketball game against Boston University even began, team co-captain Adama Sanogo knew he needed to come up big for the Huskies. And he knew he needed to get going early to set the tone.
The Huskies were out three players head coach Dan Hurley expects to play major roles in co-captain Andre Jackson Jr. (broken pinky finger), Jordan Hawkins (concussion protocol) and Samson Johnson a late addition to the injury report after an undisclosed foot injury that could keep him out “weeks,” according to Hurley.
Sanogo was the only returning rotation player available – but the dominant big man put his team on his back when he needed to, leading the Huskies to an 86-57 victory and a 2-0 record.
The 6-foot-9 forward scored nine points, including his first career 3-pointer, before the Terriers made their first field goal 9:35 into the game. Sanogo finished with 27 points, three short of a career high, and 15 rebounds.
“I coached in the Big East for six years (as a Villanova assistant) – he’s as good as any post player that we faced back in my day. Now that he can make some jumpers it makes it even – you know, he’s hard to guard. What he did against us, I saw him do that against Big East players; he’s a terrific player,” Boston University head coach Joe Jones said. “It doesn’t hurt that they bring the big fella off the bench either, because he changes the game too.”
That “big fella off the bench,” former two-time Connecticut player of the year Donovan Clingan, is a main cog in the Huskies reserve corps.
In just 12 minutes, the 7-2 true freshman scored 10 points, grabbed seven rebounds (four offensive), blocked a pair of shots and dished an assist.
The Huskies had four players not named Sanogo who scored in double digits. Alex Karaban also scored an impressive 10, while Tristen Newton and Nahiem Alleyne each added 11. Hassan Diarra, though he only scored six points, provided the energy and dished six assists while grabbing four rebounds.
“Yeah, this sucks,” Hurley said, referring to the key injuries. “But that is why at the end of last year we wanted to get veteran depth, because we felt like we had a frontcourt that was ready to be pretty high level. This is why we went out and got some guys in the portal that were older and veterans that could defend for us to be solid and help us get through times like this. This is why we knew we had to do the moves we made at the end of the last season.”
Before the season Hurley said he felt he had a roster that could go nine or 10 deep. On Friday eight different players were on the court for 10 minutes or more with the three rotation players out.
It’s a chance for those players – four transfers and two freshmen – to get solid minutes right away that they likely wouldn’t have if everyone were active.
“We have to step up big time,” said Karaban, who added two offensive rebounds, a steal and four assists. “Those three players are gonna be super important for us going into the future. And we’ve got to step up faster. Especially for me and Donovan, we can’t play like freshmen when those three players are out. So we got to continue to step up, continue to play how we’re playing. And then our transfers, they have to be adjusted more quickly to how Coach Hurley wants to play. And they’ve been doing a great job of that so far. And once we’ve stepped up and they come back into the mix, we’ll be a scary team.”
With each game now UConn’s opponent gets a step better until the Huskies face preseason No. 21 Oregon to open the Phil Knight Invitational on Thanksgiving night. Before then, the Huskies’ slate includes Buffalo, UNC-Wilmington and Delaware State – all at home over the next two weeks.
“If we can figure out what to do to just win these games and grow the roles of these transfers and get them some confidence and get Alex a ton of experience and confidence, when we do get healthy that could put us in a position where we’re better for it,” Hurley said.
“We’ve gotta win these games for that to click in.”
