NCAA Basketball: Buy or sell Georgetown, Virginia, UConn, Kentucky and Seton Hall?
By Bryan Mauro
UConn – Buy
If you would have posed this question during the first week of the season, the answer would have been much different than it is now. After taking a terrible loss at home to a down Saint Joseph’s team the questions about UConn arose again. Then they came out and beat a ranked Florida team. In the Charleston Classic, the Huskies appeared to turn it around. The Huskies beat a good Buffalo team which set up the matchup with Xavier which has been one of the best games of the entire season up to this point. UConn ended up losing to Xavier by one point, but it was the way UConn kept fighting back and the way they played defense that boosted them into the NCAA tournament conversation.
It also doesn’t hurt the Huskies to know that super freshman James Bouknight returned in Charleston from his early three-game suspension. The freshman proved that he deserved all of the preseason accolades for his play. When he is on the floor he makes coach Dan Hurley’s squad a lot better. Bouknight is a great athlete with a good basketball IQ. When he is paired up with Christian Vital and big man Josh Carlton, UConn has a lot to throw at the opponents.
If Bouknight can stay out of trouble and the Huskies can stay injury-free they appear to be back to being a factor in the American Conference. Alterique Gilbert has been disappointing for the most part on the offensive end for the Huskies. He will pick it up as the season goes on. Gilbert is too talented a guard to not contribute anything on offense. If he never does pick it up on that end of the floor, the Huskies have more reinforcements this season.
Brendan Adams has come on strong to start the year and looks to be a guy off the bench to help lead the Huskies. Hurley is the guy to lead UConn back to the NCAA tournament, but Huskies fans want championships. It remains to be seen if Hurley has the chops to win a title.