University of Connecticut Athletics
Hurley Sees Encouraging Signs
10/28/2018 2:08:00 PM | Men's Basketball
Scrimmage Vs. Harvard Provides Chance To Evaluate
UConn Athletic Communications
Oct. 28, 2018
STORRS, Conn. – Plenty of encouraging signs, but lots of hard work to do were the messages coming from UConn men's basketball coach Dan Hurley following the Huskies' closed scrimmage against Harvard, held Saturday at Gampel Pavilion.
"It's not easy to get good at the hard things – defense, rebounding – it's a daily battle," Hurley said. "It's hard, but if you get good at the hard things, it gives you a good chance to win. But you don't go from bad to good at those things really quickly. You've got to battle."
A closed scrimmage -- against a Division I opponent, but with no fans, media or pregame publicity allowed – is something new for UConn, but Hurley held them annually at his previous coaching positions.
"It's a great teaching tool," he said. "In my years as a head coach in college, the closed scrimmages have probably been the most valuable thing in all our preseason practice opportunities. These are not games. There are game elements to it, but there are things that aren't included – we did no game planning, guys were allowed to play with 5, 6, 7 fouls, for example."
Which is why UConn has not publicized and statistics from the scrimmage. Hurley, however, had plenty of observations.
"I really like how Al played yesterday," he said of redshirt sophomore guard Alterique Gilbert, who is recovering from shoulder surgery. "For a guy who hasn't played much live basketball the last couple of years, he was very impressive. He was confident and played with a kind of joy, kind of like grateful… He had this energy around him that was infectious. His speed and quickness was incredibly apparent and he was in attack mode throughout. The amount of plays he was able to make was impressive and he shot the ball well from three."
The first-year UConn coach also liked the play from guards Christian Vital, Tarin Smith, and Brendan Adams.
""I love the way Christian competed," he said. "He didn't shoot particularly well, but he really got after it. The way Tarin and Al and Christian got after it defensively and Brendan at times, they looked like guys who could have played for me at my other places, where we've really gotten after people on the perimeter."
Senior forward Eric Cobb drew some kudos for his work on the offensive end.
"Eric was our best frontcourt player by far, especially on the offensive end," Hurley said. "I wasn't really pleased with our defense or rebounding, but Eric gave us some hope offensively."
The coach made it clear, however, that there is plenty of work to be done before the Huskies' regular-season opener against Morehead State on Nov. 8 at Gampel Pavilion. Before that, UConn will have an exhibition game on Nov. 2 (7 p.m.) against Division II Southern Connecticut at Gampel.
"For us to be better than people think, we've got to be better about our overall defensive mindset – getting stops, three-point line defense, and overall rebounding," he said. "I thought we were soft there. Our sophomores need a higher motor, more personality, more energy."
Closed or not, the scrimmage provided the Huskies with a chance to learn against high-level competition.
"For us to be able to scrimmage against Harvard, with the job that (Harvard Coach) Tommy (Amaker) does…," Hurley said, "To compete against such a well-coached, high-level team that I think can not only play in March, but deep into March … well, that's a really good day for us."
