Dan Hurley Lauds Liam McNeeley's Play Versus Le Moyne: 'His Best Approach'
The UConn Huskies improved to 3-0 on Wednesday with a 90-49 victory over Le Moyne at a sold-out XL Center.
UConn played better basketball versus Le Moyne than they did during Saturday’s messy win over New Hampshire, and freshman Liam McNeeley was notably more comfortable on offense.
McNeeley hasn’t had any trouble scoring or rebounding to start the season, but on Wednesday the five-star recruit started to play with more patience and nuance, a development that caught the eye of UConn’s head coach Dan Hurley.
“I liked Liam’s approach today,” Hurley said during Wednesday's postgame presser.
“I thought he had his best approach. I thought he let the game come to him offensively. I thought he was efficient. I didn’t think he hunted offense; I thought he let offense come to him.”
“We’re going to need his usage rate to go up a lot more. We’re going to need him to facilitate and create shots for others while continuing to score in that 14-15 a game, 16 a game average.”
“He’s been rebounding it great, too. Tonight he didn’t get on the glass in the same manner, but … I thought he played with great patience tonight and let it come to him.”
McNeeley finished with 15 points and three rebounds on 5-for-10 from the field (3-for-8 from three).
The preseason BIG EAST Freshman of the Year is averaging 14.3 points and 8.0 rebounds on 41.2 percent from downtown through the first three games.
McNeeley will take the court again on Tuesday when UConn faces off against East Texas A&M at Gampel Pavilion.
More NCAA: Former UConn Star Guard Turns Heads With Excellent G League Performance
-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