University of Connecticut Athletics
Tristen Newton Embracing New Role
11/12/2023 1:35:00โฏPM | Men's Basketball
By PHIL CHARDIS
Special to uconnhuskies.com
HARTFORD, Conn. โ Any way you look at it, Tristen Newton had himself an awfully good basketball season in 2022-23.
The 6-5 guard transferred to UConn after three years at East Carolina and immediately established himself as the starting point guard on the team that won the NCAA National Championship. He had 17 double-figure scoring games, four 20-plus games, set a UConn record with two triple-doubles in one season, and capped it off with a 19-point, 10-rebound double-double in the National Championship game, good enough to be named to the All-Final Four Team.
Pretty impressive, certainly, but according to Newton, there's plenty more where that came from.
"I wasn't required to do as much last year because we had Hawk (Jordan Hawkins) and Andre (Jackson) and Adama (Sanogo)," Newton said Saturday after he scored a game-high 22 points in UConn's 107-67 romp over Stonehill. "This is a different type of team. It's going to require a little bit more from me. So, I feel like I'm going to break out and step into the role I need to play."
After the first two games of UConn's season, Newton is averaging 18.0 points, 7.0 rebounds and 3.5 assists, while shooting a hot .611 from the floor, .400 from three-point range and .909 from the foul line. He missed all three of his three-point attempts in the season opener, but he canned four three-pointers (4-7) against Stonehill, as well as 4 assists and 5 steals. Besides the gaudy statistics, however, his reassuring presence on the court and his noticeable added confidence has been a big part of UConn's 2023-24 structure.
"Tristen played maybe his best game of the season last year in front of 75,000 people and won the national championship," UConn Coach Dan Hurley said. "When you take the court as a national champion, your confidence should be off the charts. I've been pushing him. I think our relationship is better than it was last year by a longshot. I have a lot more respect for the way he goes about his business. He doesn't have to have the same personality as me, but in his own way, he's got to continue to grow as a leader. I'm not worried about the production, I'm worried about who's going to lead this team."
Last year as a newcomer to UConn, Newton deferred to the Husky veterans. As one of only two starters returning this season, Hurley has made it clear that Newton is a newcomer no longer.
"I'm comfortable now," the 6-5 guard said. "I know what's expected. I know what Coach is going to bring every day. I know what it takes to win a national championship, so I'm going to try to do that every day, so we can repeat. It's not last year's team. It's a different role, so I'm embracing it and trying go out there and help the team win.
"I feel like my teammates and my coaches have the confidence in me, that if I see that there's a play to be made, to make the play. That's the confidence they give me and the confidence I have in myself. And the way they find me with the ball has been great. Without them, I wouldn't have got my threes today."
It's the type of game Hurley expects from Newton no matter the level of competition.
"Last year, with Hawk and Andre and Adama and Joey and Nahiem, if Tristen didn't have his A game, he could get by with a C-minus," Hurley said. "But with the way this team is constituted, for us to go for the big things, he's got to play at an All-Big East level on a nightly basis and he knows that."
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