HARTFORD, Conn. — It wasn’t quite as crisp as the first game and there weren’t as many players involved for the UConn men’s basketball team. There’ll be a little work to do.
But the Huskies played to their strengths, especially getting the ball in to ever-nifty Adama Sanogo inside, and put their talented bench to use to polish off another mid-major, beating Coppin State, 89-54, before 9,690 Saturday at the XL Center.
“Most of our mentality is, when in doubt just give Adama the ball,” said Tyrese Martin said. “He’s scoring at a high clip, so we’re going to keep giving it to him.”
Sanogo, though he did get into foul trouble late, dropped in 20 points with nine rebounds in 25 minutes. He was surrounded by the veterans most of the game, with Martin (15 points, six rebounds), R.J. Cole (16, with six assists), Jalen Gaffney (11 points, eight assists) and Akok Akok (12 points, seven rebounds) enjoying productive afternoons in the Huskies’ first game in Hartford in 654 days. There were no games at XL last season, due to COVID-19.
“Happy with some things,” coach Dan Hurley said. “Thrilled at what the bench guys in particular, love the way Jalen and Akok are embracing their role right now, coming off the bench for us. I don’t think that we were strong across the board, our top eight, but when you have a deep team and you have that type of quality through your top eight, you can still do relatively well.”
Gaffney and Akok have been playing on the “gray” squad in practice, with three inexperienced players, against the starters.
“The blue team, they blow us out pretty much every day,” Gaffney said. “We try to make it hard for them, but it’s an opportunity for me and Akok to work on our games, and we get better every day doing that.”
After a slow start, Gaffney and Akok, roommates on campus, replaced Andre Jackson and Isaiah Whaley, who were having a rough go, and the Huskies took control of the game. Gaffney was very aggressive, attacking the basket and finding open teammate, and Akok stretched the floor with a couple of 3s, had a dunk and made a big impact on the game even without a blocked shot, which is his signature strength.
Gaffney, plus-38 in 22 minutes, had the highest plus/minus mark in the game, followed by Sanogo (plus-36), Martin (plus-33) and Cole (plus-29). Akok was plus-27 in his 18 minutes off the bench.
“Coach has emphasized, bringing everybody back, everybody had to get better,” Gaffney said. “Losing [James Bouknight], a great scorer, everybody has to step up and improve their game. I took it upon myself to improve my game this spring, summer, leading up to here.”
Hurley stuck with an eight-man rotation until the final 10 minutes after the Huskies opened up a 35-point lead, allowing freshmen Rahsool Diggins and Samson Johnson to get some valuable experience. Jordan Hawkins remained on the sidelines with his ankle injury.
The Huskies (2-0), trailing by six early, took control with a 14-0 run, then stretched their lead in starts and stops, shooting 46.1% from the floor, despite 10 for 30 from 3-point range. They held Coppin State (0-4) to 30.8% shooting, and prompted 23 turnovers.
The Huskies, who led wire-to-wire against Central Connecticut, were out of sorts as things began Saturday. Coppin State made four of its first five shots, taking a 16-10 lead on Jesse Zarzuela’s pull-up jumper 3:32 into the game.
What was working was Martin attacking the rim, Sanogo (10 for 13) scoring in the post and Akok getting in the flow, inside, and stepping out for a three. The Huskies opened up a 20-point lead, 45-25, when Cole drove the lane and scored with 4:06 to go in the half, and then both teams cooled off.
After a long string of misses in a row from the floor, UConn, 35-point favorites, resumed pulling away with a Cole basket. Cole hit a three off a pretty assist from Gaffney, who had a great day distributing, to give the Huskies a 64-33 lead with 12 minutes to go.
Too easy at times
Sanogo, who was 9 for 11 vs. Central, is 19 for 24 this season. So far no amount of congestion underneath the basket has stopped him.
“I’m not going to say it’s easy to score,” Sanogo said, “I am going to say ... it was not easy to score, but it was fun.”
Gaffney, sitting nearby, interrupted, “It was easy.”
Hurley, however, doesn’t want to become as dependent on one player as the Huskies were on Bouknight last season, because he expects the better teams to defend Sanogo more effectively.
“I know it literally looks like we can just throw it to Sanogo every time and score,” Hurley said. “The guy is a problem, but you have to have balance, we need to get R.J. and Tyrese, we have to run things for them to get them going in a game, because teams are going to adjust. And run things for Tyler [Polley], you’ve got to have Akok and Isaiah get into things.”
Notes, quotes, injuries
Whaley was 1 for 4 with one rebound, though he had four assists. He went down hard in the second half and came out with a sprained ankle but Hurley doesn’t think he will miss much time.
UConn had 24 assists on 35 field goals, a nice numerical place to be. “I think you’ll see that,” Hurley said. “We want to be a team that averages 16, 17, 18 assists per game. We probably could have had 30 assists today, but we took a couple of bad threes.”
After taking only 10 against Central, UConn had more emphasis on the perimeter shooting, but made only 10 of 30. ... Recruit Donovan Clingan, who signed his letter of intent this week, was at the game sitting behind the UConn bench.
