Dan Hurley’s squad depth has been put to the test early in the season. Nearly a month into UConn’s historically challenging nonconference schedule, Dan Hurley had a full-strength Huskies squad for the first time against No.13 Illinois. Five-star freshman Braylon Mullins made his debut for UConn, and Tarris Reed Jr. returned after missing two games. However, while they are slowly ramping up, Hurley explained why they were still on a minute restriction. 

Malachi Smith and Solo Ball led the way for UConn with 14 and 15 points, respectively. Notably, Smith had 9 assists on the day, pulling the strings in UConn’s 74-61 win in the SentinelOne Showdown at Madison Square Garden. Reed played for 15 minutes while Mullins played for only 10 on his debut. A factor behind that limit was a day of practice missed on Thanksgiving. 

“It was nice to just have 15 guys in practice, at least the day before. Today’s Friday, so they practiced on Wednesday, and then we gave them off on Thanksgiving because you know they needed a little bit, just cuz you know these guys are dealing with serious things. So, they were both at around a 15-minute restriction today. So, hopefully when we get to Kansas, that’ll jump into the 20s or so,” Hurley said in an interview on The Field Of 68. 

Mullins played in the Huskies’ exhibition opener against Boston College back on October 13, starting and scoring 12 points, before suffering an ankle injury in practice. He returned to full practice participation only this week. Reed, the 6-foot-11 senior center who was the Huskies’ leading scorer and rebounder, missed time due to an ankle injury. He also missed UConn’s season-opening win over New Haven due to a hamstring issue. So, a Thanksgiving off was probably due amid the injury trouble.

Beyond those two, Hurley has had a couple more injury issues. Jacob Furphy debuted against Bryant after recovering from an ankle injury. However, he remained an unused substitute in the Illinois game. Silas Demary Jr. had a minor injury in the preseason. That might have been without a traditional Turkey, though. 

“We’re not going to eat the f—ing tryptophan on Thursday and be sluggish as s— on Friday. So we’re going to eat the tryptophan, the turkey, and everything on Wednesday so that all the tryptophan is out of our system by the time we get to MSG. Here we go,” Hurley had declared before Thanksgiving. Even with a few injuries, Hurley has the Huskies 6-1, with their only loss coming against No.4 Arizona. Once Mullins and Reed return without any restrictions and in full flow, this team could become significantly better. 

Dan Hurley Explains How Tarris Reed’s Absence Sent A Ripple Effect 

This UConn side still hasn’t found a reliable three-ball. The team came into the game shooting 35% from three and were just above their average, scoring 10-28  from behind the arc. Solo Ball, one of their premier shooters, hasn’t yet found his rhythm. In the first 6 games, he was accurate 25% of the time and went 2-9 from three against Illinois. Last year, he was UConn’s best outside shooter at 41.4%. Dan Hurley explained that once Braylon Mullins and Tarris Reed get their rhythm, we will see an improvement in Ball’s shooting as well. 

“I want to see what we can be when we get Tus and Mullins really up to speed because I think it’s going to solve a lot of our offensive issues because we become a little bit too much like a donut when we don’t have the big fella you know just a little bit and I think that affected the quality of the shots that Solo was getting as the game went on,” Hurley said. 

UConn has decent shooters on its squad. Alex Karaban, Ball, and Malachi Smith can pose a threat from the outside. Braylon Mullins was an excellent three-point shooter in high school, who averaged 32.9 points. 7.2 rebounds, 4.2 assists, and 3.7 steals per game while shooting over 47% from 3-point range in his senior year. 

However, this team was not built to overdrive on a 5-out system. Their tallest core piece is Tarris Reed, who has been a ferocious rebounder and a force in the paint. Against Arizona, the team had a season low of 4 offensive boards with Reed sitting out. In just 15 minutes against Illinois, Reed had 3 offensive rebounds as UConn had 14 offensive boards on the day.

Without Reed, Ball often has to contend with contested threes and more help-side defenders. The injured couple is coming back at just the right time. After Illinois, the Huskies will now travel to Kansas. They will then host East Texas A&M before returning to MSG for reigning national champion Florida and hosting Texas.