UConn's Dan Hurley Needs 'Nice Guy' Huskies To Be 'Nastier People' On Court
In this story:
The UConn Huskies men’s basketball team has a major problem — they’re too nice.
No one’s arguing that Alex Karaban and Co. should be mean people off the court, but during the 40 minutes inside the lines, UConn is being outrebounded and exposed defensively because they aren’t nasty enough, according to Huskies head coach Dan Hurley.
During a pregame media availability session leading into UConn’s matchup with Georgetown, Hurley discussed Tarris Reed Jr’.s kind manner as a launching pad to comment on a greater personality issue with his ball club.
“There’s a tenacity level that (Tarris) has got to get to (on the boards),” Hurley said.
“He’s such a talented guy, and he’s such a nice guy. But usually, the people that rebound the ball the most are people that are pretty ruthless, pretty relentless. They’re desperate in their desire to rebound the ball, to gain possession of the ball, because they understand how important possession is.”
“But this team’s got a lot of nice guys. Tarris is one of them. And I don’t think we’re as nasty competitively as we’ve been in the past, and that’s why our defense and rebounding numbers are what they’ve been.”
“We need our nice guys when the game starts to become nastier people, and then when the game’s over, they can go back to being nice.”
UConn has a chance to put Hurley’s advice into action on Saturday afternoon versus the Hoyas.
The Huskies are coming off their first Big East loss of the season at Villanova, and they sit at 12-4 overall on the season.
Georgetown is 12-3 and 3-1 in the league, with its only loss coming to an excellent Marquette squad.
Notably, the Hoyas are 10-1 at home so far this season.
Can UConn get mean enough to escape D.C. with an important road win?
More NCAA: Ranking The Top-10 Greatest UConn Huskies Men's Basketball Players
-6cddf44b9a81eadb9d1a4c19c1b3db49.jpeg "Colin Keane")
Colin Keane is a contributing journalist for "UConn Huskies On SI." Born in Illinois, Colin grew up in Massachusetts as the third of four brothers. For his high school education, Colin attended St. Mark's School (Southborough, MA), where he played basketball and soccer and served as student body president. He went on to receive a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature from Villanova University. Colin currently resides in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. For all business/marketing inquiries regarding "UConn Huskies On SI," please reach out to Scott Neville: scott@wtfsports.org