STORRS, Conn. (AP) — From day one of his coaching career, Dan Hurley saw himself as a teacher above all else. With that in mind, it seems fitting that he used a teaching analogy to address the question of how much of UConn's complex offense would be thrown at his new-look Huskies.
With Solo Ball sidelined, Silas Demary Jr., Braylon Mullins and Jayden Ross are the only players who averaged at least 10 minutes back for the fourth-ranked Huskies. That hasn’t changed the way Hurley and his staff have been installing the offensive sets.
“There are some math teachers that they go slow and then you have some math teachers, they just throw the whole (lesson) at you,” Hurley said. “I throw the whole (playbook) at the players and really overwhelm them with concepts to force them to really be able to think, understand the reads, understand the counters, understand basic shell formations that we are bringing in. The onus is on the players to not get behind, because if you get behind early as we add every single day layers and wrinkles to what we are doing, different reads and different concepts, they are just going to get further behind.”
UConn tested itself with exhibition games against Syracuse, No. 6 Michigan State and Purdue. Five of the eight Huskies who averaged more than 10 minutes in those games had never suited up for UConn before. The Huskies are also without assistant coach Luke Murray, who became Boston College’s head coach, and general manager Tom Moore, who retired.
Growing pains seem likely, especially during a nonconference slate that includes matchups with No. 2 Duke, No. 3 Illinois, No. 5 Arizona, No. 9 Virginia, No. 16 Michigan and No. 17 Kansas.
“It’s been a challenge, especially starting in the summer,” said Duke transfer Nik Khamenia, who led the Huskies in minutes played in the three exhibition games. “I am just adjusting to everything.
“Playing against them last year, it was like, ‘Trust whatever you can do and hope that it works out.’ Seeing it now, it makes sense. I wouldn’t know how another team would know every single thing that we are doing because for some of us, it is hard.”
It’s not unusual for opposing coaches to mention the challenges of defending the different sets that UConn runs. Some might think Hurley has a binder of plays about as thick as “War and Peace," but he says he has everything listed on one sheet of paper. He concedes UConn has gotten more sophisticated and “harder to prepare for.”
“It is extensive in terms of the amount of things that we do," he said. "I think the biggest thing is getting more shooting, getting better cutters, getting personnel who fit the way we want to play better. If you look at some of those rosters that we got, we give too much credit for changing so much. It is probably the way we have addressed recruiting smarter players, better processors, high-level skill, better shooting.”
In the last few seasons, if any of the new players had questions about what was being installed by the UConn coach, Alex Karaban proved to be the ideal translator. Karaban’s now in the NBA and that role now falls to Demary.
“What I learned about Alex last year is how professional he is, to know the playbook ins and outs, to know what coach is thinking, know what coach wants us to do and help to prepare guys for practice,” Demary said. “The approach that we have is that practice here has to be the right approach every day; otherwise, you are going to have a rough day and coach is going to let you hear about it. To have the guys look at me and come to me for every little thing, I am grateful and thankful to be in that position.”
This is Demary’s second season with the Huskies after playing at Georgia as a freshman and sophomore. He had to learn on the fly last season and he proved to be a quick study on a UConn team that advanced to the national championship game for the third time in four seasons.
“It was definitely overwhelming because coming from a system that I came from Georgia, it was different from how we play here,” Demary said. “Just to be able to know that it is going to be tough to learn the system here and you are going to make mistakes and not get down on yourself is my biggest thing.”
UConn opens the season against Gardner-Webb on Monday before heading to Boston for a national championship rematch with Michigan on Nov. 6.
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