r/UConnBasketball

Slightly buried in the lede is that Andrew Hurley is back as assistant general manager.

Really impressive schedule, and November is brutal.

Candid Open and honest.

Incoming freshman center Olivia Vukosa averaged a tournament leading 24.9 points per game and 14.3 rebounds per game playing for Croatia. Bringing this kind of prowess to UConn, where she’ll be playing along side Sarah and Blanca (and with the chance to have twin towers Jana and Olivia on the court at the same time) should thrill all of UConn Nation.

It's impossible to know (right now) where County falls on the real-deal/hype spectrum. There's certainly a disconnect between what coaches say and what reality is^(1). And even if County is great in practice, we only need to look at Ross the Elder as a warning that practice success might not translate into immediate on-court success. We had been hearing about Ross's great practices for 2 years before he started to make an impact in his junior season.

What's unquestionable though is that UConn needs him to be playable if they want to be an elite team this season. This is especially true given that Demary's head-of-the-snake defense sometimes (but not always) gets him in foul trouble. If County can just play competitive defense and bring the ball upcourt^(2), that alone would be good enough to lock down the backup PG job.

If County is close to as good as the hype, I could see UConn using him and Demary together for stretches of the game, especially when Mullins goes to the bench. Last season Demary shot well enough to be a SG, so even if County's perimeter shooting isn't great right away, they could probably slide Demary to the 2 for some stretches^(3).

[1] I remember Hurley complaining early in the 2024-25 season when UConn wasn't ranked #1 even though after the season he acknowledged that he knew the team had fatal flaws. At this time of year, I expect his comments to be more motivational than confessional.

[2] Some of us had nightmares in 2024-25 after watching UConn try and dribble upcourt whenever Diarra was on the bench.

[3] I'm not sure that works better than teaming Demary with Machowski, though there may be instances where County's athleticism/ball-handling are more important than Machowski's shooting.

I didn't know that the natural choice for Demary was probably football.