Dan Hurley Offers Encouraging Update on UConn's Silas Demary Jr.

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The UConn Huskies' push for the conference title ended with disappointment. They fell 72–52 to St. John’s in the Big East Tournament championship. UConn turned the ball over a season-high 17 times, shot 19-of-56 from the field, and went a brutal 3-of-19 from deep.
To make things worse, the Huskies’ point guard, Silas Demary Jr., had to leave twice in the second half after what looked like an ankle injury. Midway through the game, Demary landed awkwardly on a layup attempt and immediately grabbed his ankle under the basket.
Demary Jr. was taken to the locker room before returning to the bench. ̌Even though he returned momentarily late in the game, Demary clearly wasn’t moving comfortably. Shortly after checking back in, he appeared to aggravate the ankle again and signaled for a substitution.
Demary Jr. limps off the court and into the locker room, favoring a leg pic.twitter.com/HEHal4QQs8
— Storrs Central (@StorrsCentral) March 15, 2026
For the Huskies, losing Demary might prove costly in March. However, there is room for hope. Soon after the game, Dan Hurley gave updates on Demary Jr.’s situation.
“Yeah, I don’t even know if he got retaped in the back. When he came back out there, he just reappeared on the bench, and I went over to him and said, ‘Are you good?’ He said, ‘Yeah, I’m fine.’ The first thing I heard was that it was a very mild sprain with no swelling. Obviously, we’ll take precautions with an X-ray, but we’ll keep our fingers crossed. Hopefully it’s not something that lingers,” said Hurley.
The junior guard has been one of the most impactful additions to UConn’s roster this season. After transferring from Georgia, Demary has been averaging 11.0 points, 4.6 rebounds, and 6.3 assists per game while shooting nearly 47 percent from the field.

What Could Selection Sunday Could Mean for UConn?
UConn enters Selection Sunday in an unusual position, with the Huskies losing two major opportunities in the span of a week. The Huskies first fell to Marquette in the regular-season finale. Now, days later, they’ve lost against St.John’s.
Both defeats exposed issues that UConn will need to fix before the NCAA Tournament begins. Turnovers played a major role in each loss, and inconsistent perimeter shooting made it difficult for the Huskies to generate offensive rhythm. Against St. John’s in particular, the early deficit forced UConn to spend most of the night trying to recover rather than dictating the pace.
Despite the rough finish to the Big East schedule, UConn is still expected to receive a top seed when the NCAA Tournament bracket is announced. That keeps Hurley’s team in a good position entering March Madness, which officially begins with the First Four on March 17–18 before building toward the Final Four in Indianapolis on April 4 and 6.
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Shivani Menon is a sports journalist with a background in Mass Communication and a passion for storytelling. She has written for EssentiallySports, College Sports Network, and PFSN, covering Olympic sports like track and field, gymnastics, and alpine skiing, as well as college football, basketball, March Madness, and the NBL Draft. When she's not reporting, she's either on the road chasing sunsets or getting lost in the rhythms of electronic soundscapes.