HARTFORD – Jayden Ross put on a show for the UConn men’s basketball team to open the Big East season Tuesday night.
After seeing only seven minutes of action in the Huskies’ nonconference finale against Texas, Ross was first off the bench as a solution to the team’s lackluster defensive effort to start the game and with Jaylin Stewart banged up. He made an impact with his athleticism on the defensive end and effort on the boards. In the second half he came in and immediately got involved with offensive rebounds on back-to-back possessions, the second being an emphatic one-handed putback dunk that had the entire building jumping up and down as UConn’s lead over Butler grew to 21 points in an eventual 79-60 win.
“He does what he does and he does it very well,” Butler coach Thad Matta said. “He takes great pride in what his job is on the team and he had some monster plays.”
Ross continued adding to his highlight reel, blocking a shot and hitting a 3-pointer from the corner, then making a steal and running out in transition for a reverse slam. Braylon Mullins later started a 3-on-1 fastbreak, dishing ahead to Silas Demary Jr., who saw Ross sprinting ahead and simply tossed the ball up for an alley-oop slam.
“I’m throwing it up there regardless, I trust that he’s gonna go get it,” said Demary, who had a career-high 11 assists. “I saw Braylon pushing it and then I saw J-Ross running ahead. … No matter what, I’m throwing it up to J-Ross and he caught it and obviously it was another highlight play. He had an outstanding night, just want him to keep building on that, but just for that to erupt the crowd, that’s a good feeling. It helps us go on runs and being able to turn teams over and getting instant offense on the other side, it makes it a lot easier on all of us.”
Ross played a season-high 25 minutes and scored all 13 of his points in the second half. He changed the game with his effort on the glass, where he grabbed eight rebounds, four on the offensive end, and played to his strengths defensively, which has been his calling card.
“Look at the line,” Hurley said. “Eight rebounds, I don’t know how many deflections, how many wall-ups at the rim. And the thing was, I buried him the last game in coaching error. … Jayden Ross only played nine minutes (against Texas) and most men would hang their head and be a baby and maybe start preparing for the portal, the family’s raining down phone calls on your staff, which is just not the way he handled it, not the way they handled it.
“He just accepted it, got back to work, I told him he’d get his opportunity. He was the first guy off the bench today and you saw what he did with his minutes. It was great to see Solo Ball do what he did (with a career-high 26 points), that’s obviously very encouraging, but I thought Jayden Ross was our most impactful player today.”
The J’s, Ross and Stewart, learned the unselfishness it takes to win as they contributed on occasion to one of the most dominant teams the men’s game had seen in a while as part of the 2024 national championship group their freshman year.
Stewart was the X-factor in his humble return to the bench against Texas on Friday night, but Tuesday was Ross’ turn in yet another display of the team’s depth.
“I’m gonna do whatever the team needs from me, and if that given night it happens to be however many minutes it was, it is what it is. I’m not the type that’s gonna go sulk about it, it’s alright. I’m just gonna put my head down, keep working, trust the coaches, trust my guys,” Ross said. “We got the job done the other night, we got the job done tonight, so that’s all that matters.”
Stewart to have shoulder evaluated
Stewart came into Tuesday’s game with his shoulder banged up, then hit the floor hard twice in the first half as he was tripped up in transition and then bowled over on an attempt to draw a charge. He left the game and got some shoulder treatment on the bench before returning to finish out the final two minutes before halftime, but never returned after the break.
“I don’t really know what was going on in there, I do know that they just grabbed me at halftime. He took that brutal fall in transition so I think it’s his shoulder, but he did come in just a little bit banged up,” Hurley said. “We kind of wanted to see what he could do out there, but we’ll (get an) MRI in the morning and see what that looks like.”
Defense rises to No. 4 in the country
UConn came into Tuesday’s game with the seventh-best defensive efficiency rating in the nation, according to KenPom. On Wednesday morning, after blocking 13 shots and holding Butler to just 29.5% from the field and 5-for-24 from beyond the arc, the Huskies woke up at No. 4.
Butler’s leading scorers, Finley Bizjack and Michael Ajayi, were held to just eight and four points, respectively, on a combined 4-for-22 shooting from the field.
“We’ve got, I think, a group that has a chance to be a top-five defensive group,” Hurley said. “It starts with Silas Demary being able to guard Bizjack the way he guarded him and obviously with the two centers that are both big and can move in the ball screen defense and protect the rim, we had 13 blocks today. We’ve got, obviously the wing length, we’re two-deep at a lot of positions. That’s why we didn’t have opportunities to do big things last year and we’ve gotten it fixed, we’ve got to keep it fixed.”