The UConn Fast Break - 1/5/2021

Basketball games are getting canceled, but we're eager to see the men and women to return to action soon!

January 05, 2022

Welcome to this week’s Fast Break, and thank you for being a subscriber. We hope you had a lovely holiday and a great start to the new year!

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COVID strikes the sports world again

This is not just a college sports phenomenon, it’s running through the pro ranks as well, but COVID-19 is once again canceling sports games. It ended UConn hockey’s first half prematurely and has kept UConn basketball off the court for weeks.

The last UConn men’s hoops game was their Dec. 21 win at Marquette. The last women’s hoops game was the Dec. 19 loss to Louisville. The men are potentially set to return this Saturday, Jan. 8 at Seton Hall, and the women are scheduled to host Creighton on Jan. 9 after today’s game against Villanova was canceled yesterday. So we’ll have to wait and see what happens.

No takes here, it’s just sad to see the continued impact of COVID-19 across the world. We hope you and yours are doing whatever you can to stay safe and healthy during this time.

Weekly Rewind

Geno Auriemma fires back at Muffet McGraw - Witty, sarcastic and not one to hold back, Auriemma responded to McGraw’s comments on ESPN favoring UConn over other schools.

Football lands a big transfer quarterback - Ta’Quan Robinson, a former Penn State signal-caller and New Jersey native, pledged to the Huskies last week. He was a four-star recruit in the Class of 2019 coming out of high school.

Cancellations for women’s basketball - The Huskies have now lost three games to COVID-19, two of which are due to positive tests within their own program. Dec. 29’s game against Marquette, Dec. 31’s contest vs. DePaul, Jan. 5’s date with Georgetown and a road battle with Villanova on Jan. 7 are all canceled, though the Big East will make an effort to reschedule them.

Men’s basketball dealing with COVID-19 - The men had several positive tests upon their return from Christmas, including head coach Dan Hurley, and have lost games against Xavier (Dec. 28) and Butler (Jan. 1), though the former has been rescheduled for Feb. 11.

Mir McLean transfers to Virginia - The former UConn guard announced her decision last week after going into the transfer portal earlier in December.

The Sanogo injury effect - Men’s basketball has not had Adama Sanogo for a month and has not been performing nearly as well without him on the floor.

Where are the freshmen? - Despite being highly touted, the men’s basketball freshmen have not factored into the rotation, especially Rahsool Diggins and Samson Johnson.

Let Akok cook! - Akok Akok has been one of the Huskies’ more effective players, but has not earned consistent playing time this year.

Men’s hockey still struggling with the virus - The Huskies still have some cases but were able to field a team Sunday against No. 19 Harvard.

Men’s hockey falls to Crimson - Too many penalties doomed the Huskies up in Boston.

Games against Merrimack rescheduled - Two of the men’s hockey games that were postponed due to COVID-19 have been rescheduled, as the Huskies will play Merrimack at home on Jan. 25 and head to North Andover on Feb. 8.

Men’s hockey secures ‘04 forward - Mason Kesselring, one of the better prep forwards in his class, will come to UConn for fall 2023.

Kemba Walker named Eastern Conference player of the week - The UConn legend was inserted back into the rotation and played very well through the end of December.

Women’s hockey ranked No. 10 - The Huskies appeared in the USCHO poll this week.

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Highlights

UConn men’s hockey captain Jachym Kondelik stuck with the puck and scored his fourth goal of the season on Sunday against No. 19 Harvard.

We mentioned Kemba Walker had a great Christmas, here are some of the highlights.

Memory Lane

It may seem like ancient history but it wasn’t that long ago. Despite moving up to FBS at the beginning of the decade, the 2010 UConn Huskies earned a share of the Big East title and a bid to the Fiesta Bowl. What a wild time it was.

That Husky team started 0-2 in Big East play and 3-4 overall, but ripped off five straight wins, including over West Virginia and Pittsburgh, each of which also had two losses, winning the conference championship on the tiebreaker. The game was played on January 1, 2011.

It was a meteoric rise for UConn, who was matched up with Oklahoma, which won the Big 12 on the back of an offense that featured Landry Jones and DeMarco Murray. UConn was down 10 at the half but was unable to keep up in the second half.

This is widely considered the high water mark for UConn football since making it to a BCS/New Year’s Six Bowl is something that few schools can say that they’ve done, especially only a decade after their FCS days.

Check out some highlights below and the Associated Press game story.

UConn, Great Pic

Ian Bethune was at the men’s hockey contest at Harvard on Sunday.

Parting Thoughts

UConn hockey entering a crucial stretch

Mike Cavanaugh’s squad returned to action against no. 19 Harvard, suffering a disappointing 6-3 loss. Luckily this non-conference game does not have huge implications for the Huskies’ season, and the main focus was to get back in action on the ice.

Next up, though, are a few must-win games. I am really hesitant to use that term, but UConn needs to add more marquee wins if it’s going to be a Hockey East contender. At the very least they can’t be losing big in any of these.

The Huskies are at Boston College on Saturday, Jan. 8 and host BU on Friday, Jan. 14. After that, they have a two-game series with UNH and a home game against Merrimack before the CT Ice tournament where they open with Yale and play the winner of Sacred Heart vs. Quinnipiac.

They need to win all or most of the UNH + Merrimack games and really, really could use a win over one of the Boston teams. This is going to be a huge month as the Huskies make their bid for the best Hockey East seed possible heading into the postseason.

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