Dan Hurley Reveals UConn's 'Biggest Concern' At This Point In Season
UConn Huskies head coach Dan Hurley met with the media on Monday and, among other things, addressed his team’s greatest concern at this point in the young season.
Hurley expressed satisfaction over what the Huskies have at center and on the wing, but he’s not happy with the level of play UConn is getting at point guard to start the year.
That responsibility falls on the shoulders of junior Aidan Mahaney and senior Hassan Diarra.
“Our biggest concern right here is getting that quality out of that primary handler as a guard, whether that’s Hassan or Aidan,” Hurley said during Monday’s media availability session.
Diarra has played better than Mahaney to start the year, no doubt, but Hurley and the Huskies need both of their lead guards to play well, especially since they won’t often be on the floor at the same time.
“It’s going be tough for us at the level we’re trying to play at to play (Mahaney) and Hassan at the start of a game, or for even really long stretches.”
“We need (Mahaney) to be on the ball more. We can’t play two little guards in the backcourt and do what we’re trying to do.”
Hurley’s insistence that Mahaney improves as a point guard for UConn is a recurring theme through three games.
Mahaney hasn’t shot the ball well (25.0 percent from the floor and 22.2 percent from three), but that will come. The greater concern with Mahaney is whether or not he’ll be able to start creating shots for others at the level that UConn needs him to.
Mahaney got a lot of reps at point guard while at Saint Mary's, but his responsibility as an initiator was not as urgent as it is now.
With different personnel, Hurley might have experimented with moving Mahaney off the ball until he started to find his rhythm in these early games.
The Huskies don’t necessarily have that luxury, especially with Hurley’s insistence on playing big.
Mahaney will have to get himself going while shouldering point guard duties, and there’s no reason the talented junior transfer won’t turn things around in due time. Multiple of Mahaney’s shots versus Le Moyne were halfway down the bucket before fortune bounced them out.
It feels like Mahaney is on the verge of catching fire, and it could happen as early as Tuesday versus East Texas A&M.
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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