STORRS – Friday was officially the first day of practice for the UConn men’s basketball team, only nothing had really changed in the Werth practice facility, where players spent most of their summer working out while coaches strategized.
Head coach Dan Hurley, who occasionally likes to stir the pot online, pointed out that several programs across the country have made social media posts indicating that it was their first day of practice.
“We thought about trolling other programs and putting up ‘Day One’ – and we still may, we have a graphic. I don’t know if … ” Hurley cut himself off and ordered “post it” to one of the team staffers, followed by a smirk. The post, which was made from the team account about an hour later, read “Day 1” with the one crossed out in red and the number 117 written above it. The caption said: “You thought we stopped?”
“People think this is Day One for us, but this is Day 117,” senior point guard Hassan Diarra said. “We start practicing in June, ahead of a lot of other teams.”
You thought we stopped? pic.twitter.com/tqL8ucBoHN
— UConn Men’s Basketball (@UConnMBB) September 27, 2024
Friday’s practice went for about two hours and 15 minutes, the last 15 open to media, and was as physical and intense as Hurley’s practices typically are. The Huskies’ head coach, entering his seventh year in Storrs, called on his veteran returning players for leadership when practice got tough for some of the younger ones, putting him in a position where he was “doing way too much.”
“I was banging my head on the wall, I was laying on the ground. I was doing stuff today that I didn’t want to be doing,” Hurley said.
Less than five minutes into the media viewing portion, Hurley took a ball from a team manager and chucked it against the wall. Not long after that Alex Karaban, with blood all over his jersey, was getting his hand taped up.
“It’s always a physical practice when we play here,” Karaban said. “We try to make the practices more physical than the Big East, so a little blood doesn’t matter to anybody.”
Karaban, one of three returners who was part of both the 2023 and ’24 national championship teams and the only starter from each of those games, is going to be counted on as a potential All-American and the face of the Huskies. Diarra and Samson Johnson, also two-time champs, figure to have major roles potentially as starting point guard and center, where they’ve each waited in the wings the last few seasons.
Around them, competition is heating up for minutes.
UConn lost four of its five starters from last season’s dominant team, brought in a pair of experienced transfers and three capable freshmen, at least one in Liam McNeeley who could be counted on in a significant role. That doesn’t even include the sophomore class, with Jaylin Stewart, Solo Ball and Jayden Ross each looking to make the second-year jump Hurley and the coaching staff prides itself on.
“I think there’s more competition for minutes,” Hurley said. “To get into the nine I do think – like this time last year I feel like we knew who the starting five was, or we knew who the first seven were going to be, definitely. I think that there’s a little bit more depth of competition, which is going to make practices more of a battle and intense.”
Just how Hurley likes it.
UConn’s first official practice, here’s a Liam McNeeley 3 pic.twitter.com/TyGzg3c8Sf
— Joe Arruda (@joearruda9) September 27, 2024
“We could be a really deep team this year and that’s what could really make us special,” Karaban added. “This season, you know for a fact that if you’re not on top of your game or you’re slacking a couple games, there’s someone right behind you trying to get your spot. That’s something we’re trying to establish in practice right now and that’s just a credit to the coaching staff for bringing in such a talented group. It pushes everybody every day.”
The decision-making process for who will be in the starting lineup, and who will be first and second, maybe third and fourth off the bench, begins as soon as the previous season ends. While Friday may have technically been Day One, it was certainly Day 117 for player evaluation.
“In your mind you have people that you want to win it,” Hurley said. “But they’ve got to earn it. Because if you don’t start the people that have been the best, you lose the respect of the team and everyone in that circle. So you can’t gift it, it’s got to be earned. Again, this is Day 117 so we’ve been – it’s this giant collection of plays that are running through your mind from June.”
Of course, the next five weeks or so of practice, plus the “secret scrimmages” and the October charity exhibition against Rhode Island, will hold more weight than practices in the summer come decision time. But it all plays a factor.
“It’s just months and months of reps that you’ve seen, and you’ve seen the best of people, the worst of people,” Hurley said. “See how people fit each other, you see the way that we want to play, some players have more upside than others if you go with them too in certain spots. There’s a lot, but there’s definitely people I want to win it.”
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