UConn's Dan Hurley, Alex Karaban Discuss Importance Of Off-Ball Physicality

You can't do any damage in the Big East if you're unwilling to be physical

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The UConn Huskies proved something crucial during their 68-60 victory over Georgetown on Sunday: they’re physical enough to survive Big East road games.

That wasn’t the case when UConn visited Villanova earlier in the week and suffered a loss.

Huskies head coach Dan Hurley was adamant during Sunday’s postgame presser that his team wasn’t physical enough off the ball versus ‘Nova, particularly regarding allowing the opposing players to catch the ball in their spots.

“Coming out of the Villanova game, where we just basically allowed their best players to catch the ball wherever they wanted on the court, a huge point of emphasis for us (versus Georgetown) was to not let really good or great offensive players catch the ball,” Hurley said. 

“Because once they catch it, you got problems guarding.”

UConn Huskies junior wing Alex Karaban also talked about UConn’s off-ball physicality during the postgame.

“(Off-ball physicality) was a big point of emphasis heading into this game,” Karaban said.

“Just really trying to make their catches tough. Teams do it to us every game, so we just decided, well, why not do it to them?”

“It’s the Big East, too. It’s the most physical league in the country, and you just gotta be physical if you want to win on the road especially.”

Karaban also did his part offensively, going 4-for-6 from three and scoring a game-high 19 points in D.C.

The Huskies are now 13-4 as they look ahead to a huge matchup with Creighton on Saturday.

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