There were shades of 2022 in Hartford on Saturday as the UConn men’s basketball team took on Villanova at PeoplesBank Arena, with James Breeding holding a whistle.
Four years ago, in the same building with a different name, Breeding was part of the officiating crew that assessed a technical foul after Dan Hurley protested a no-call and slapped the scorer’s table, then another within the same 30 seconds, ejecting him after he high-fived R.J. Cole and waved his arms to encourage the crowd.
Ranked No. 21 at the time, UConn won that game over No. 8 Villanova with associate head coach Kimani Young taking the reigns and Hurley sitting in the locker room, watching on TV and listening as students flooded the court.
“For me and James, history almost repeated itself,” Hurley said Saturday, after UConn, now No. 2, took down a Villanova team on the rise in overtime. He and Breeding exchanged words five minutes into the second half after what he felt was a missed over-the-back foul on an Alex Karaban offensive rebound attempt. The Huskies’ coach was set off when his point guard was immediately called for a foul on the other end.
Breeding gave Hurley some time this go-around. He grabbed at his whistle after about 10 seconds of badgering, warning that he would blow it, and Hurley took a few steps back toward his sideline but couldn’t help himself. It was his second technical foul of the season – first with him actually on the court, as opposed to the first at Providence that was dispensed outside the halftime locker room – and Villanova made four free throws to go up six with 15 minutes to play.
Hurley toned it down a bit, though there were certainly times where he flirted with a second technical as the Huskies came back to force overtime and then win, 75-67.
“I was proud of my impulse control as well as James, gave me a little bit of a leash there,” Hurley said. “I just felt like we weren’t getting to the free throw line, we were driving the rim, we were attacking the paint, I thought Alex got clearly fouled on the offensive rebound and then they called kind of a touch foul on the other end. Any coach is gonna – you know, I didn’t like how the game was being officiated at that point and that’s why I did what I did. But then, I mean, you should’ve saw me and James the rest of the way. I thought we worked great together after that.”
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Mullins to miss time
Hurley reported after the game that star freshman Braylon Mullins has been entered into concussion protocol.
He took a hit, an elbow to the face, as he got in front of Villanova’s star freshman, Acaden Lewis, and tried to slow him taking the ball down the court. It was a scary scene as Mullins went down, then tried to collect himself as he was slowly helped off the court. He eventually came back to the bench with a mark from the hit but didn’t reenter the game.
“We’ll see what happens there,” Hurley said. “Obviously we’ll take great care of him like we did with Alec Millender when he dealt with it in practice.”
Millender took a shoulder to the head from center Tarris Reed Jr. in practice and was listed on the injury report ahead of the game at Seton Hall and ahead of the next game, four days later, at Georgetown. It isn’t clear how much time Mullins will miss.
Huskies take a ‘step forward’ in taking care of the ball, need to rebound it
For the nitpickers, turnovers and rebounds have been the two main concerns for the now 19-1, 9-0 Huskies. They’ve averaged 11.2 giveaways per game and forced 13.1 turnovers, giving them the sixth-best margin in the Big East at plus-1.95.
The rebounding margin (plus-4.9) is second-best in the league but still far from the program’s standard.
UConn turned the ball over nine times on Saturday, four coming from Tarris Reed Jr. at center, and took it away 11 times. Villanova, the eighth-best rebounding team in the league at 35.7 boards per game, had the edge on the glass in the first half but UConn dominated in overtime and finished with a 42-39 advantage.
“We were able to take a step forward taking care of the basketball today, but the rebounding is an issue,” Hurley said. “You can’t win championships unless you’re – Villanova’s a smaller team. I mean, Duke Brennan is an ass-kicker, but like Tyler Perkins, that guy went and got 10 rebounds today. Our wings and our guards need to get on the glass. Our guys on the perimeter have got to rebound the ball like Tristen Newton used to rebound the ball. Like Steph Castle used to rebound the ball, like Cam Spencer used to rebound the ball, like Andre Jackson used to rebound the ball. We’re just not rebounding the ball. And Tarris has got to rebound the ball at a higher clip. He can’t end that game with four defensive rebounds. Tarris should’ve had 15, 16 rebounds today. We’ve got to get there.”
Clutch Karaban gets payback
Alex Karaban already got his payback from the two missed free throws late in UConn’s road loss at Villanova last season when he scored 18 points to knock the Wildcats out of the Big East Tournament. But he served them again on Saturday, scoring all 17 of his points in the final nine minutes of the second half and in overtime, where he found himself at the line again to deliver the eventual game-winning buckets.
“I learned from that game, I grew from it and I put it behind me, just saw it as a learning opportunity from last year,” Karaban said.
As for his assessment of where the Huskies are in relation to the back-to-back championship teams he was on, Karaban said a third in four years is still a work in progress.
“I think we have the talent, I think we have the depth that those two championship teams had. I think we’re not there yet, we’ve got to get better every single day, but I definitely see the vision, I definitely see the potential and how good this team can be,” he said. “Just like in ’23, that month of January was bad and we just got better from it and we were gonna continue to learn. That’s the same thing this year too. We’re winning games, and we’re just gonna continue to find ways to win. But I truly believe that this team can be a championship team and we’re just gonna continue to strive for that every single day.”