STORRS – In Tristen Newton and Cam Spencer, Dan Hurley and the UConn men’s basketball program couldn’t have found any two personalities more opposite out of the transfer portal.
Newton, the cool, laid back Texan, internalizes his competitiveness. His emotion in games rarely goes further than lifting his hand to his ear like a telephone to celebrate a made 3-pointer. His calmness in games and at practice can come off as a lack of intensity, which clashed and created friction with the ever-intense Hurley before they’d really gotten to know each other – now, Hurley says, that friction is 80% less.
Spencer, the product of a competitive family full of athletes, famously mirrors Hurley’s edge in a lot of ways. His outward competitiveness is clear as he antagonizes opponents or pumps his fist to get the crowd going, moments that have made him a fan favorite in just one year as a Husky. He was so angry his Rutgers team didn’t earn an NCAA Tournament bid last season that he didn’t watch a single game live, and he wasn’t afraid to tell the UConn staff during the recruitment process.
“We balance each other out,” Spencer said as he and Newton, the two Huskies who don’t have an option to return next season, prepared for Sunday’s Senior Day game against Seton Hall, their final chance for phone calls and fist bumps before the Gampel Pavilion crowd.
“(Tristen will) have a big impact on me as a coach moving on from here,” Hurley said. “You have an appreciation for personalities that aren’t exactly like yours, and those are incredible to have on a team in a locker room. You can’t have 13 fireballs, you need some cool, calm customers in there too. I’ve learned that from him. And what he’s done here, what he’s delivered on as a player has changed all of our careers and lives, all the players around him, all the coaches, he’s given us an incredible gift with what he was able to lead us to last year and now.”
“I needed somebody to push me every day, make me be my best every day,” Newton said, aware of what he signed on for when he transferred in from East Carolina. “He’s a perfect coach for me. That’s why I came here and I think that’s why we’ve been so successful.”
Newton and Spencer, UConn’s two leading scorers, will be honored prior to the game along with seniors Hassan Diarra and Andrew Hurley – who each say they haven’t given much thought as to whether they’ll exercise their fifth year of eligibility for a graduate season.
“This is a big game but we’ve got bigger things too that we’re trying to accomplish,” Dan Hurley said. “There’s gonna be plenty of time a month from now for you to go kiss midcourt in Gampel.”
The Huskies hope to avenge what was an “embarrassing” loss to Seton Hall in Newark that began the Big East season. A win would complete an undefeated season at home and, with Marquette’s loss at Creighton Saturday, guarantee sole possession of the program’s first Big East regular-season title in 18 years.
“That’s not something we talked about this week,” Hurley said. “Players may or may not kind of think about those kinds of things, but I think we’re just so focused on (Al-Amir) Dawes, (Kadary) Richmond, (Dre) Davis, (Jaden) Bediako and our gameplan.”
When the programs met in December, Richmond, the Pirates’ do-it-all point guard, had his way with the Huskies, who weren’t prepared for the toughness of the league. UConn trailed by five at halftime and lost center Donovan Clingan to a foot injury just minutes into the second half. The 15-point loss was, at the time, UConn’s worst defeat in almost four years.
Seton Hall, trying to cement its case for an NCAA Tournament bid, sits fourth in the Big East standings after its ninth-place projection in the league’s preseason poll.
Hurley says, aside from the typical bruises and cold-like viruses that go on throughout the season, UConn is fully healthy after its week without games.
“We’re a totally different group (from that first matchup),” Newton said. “We know exactly what to do to win, go out there and guard, we’re tougher now, we rebound the ball better. Our schemes, we’ve got it down pat, so I feel like we’re a way better team than when we played them the last time.”
An emotional day for the Hurley family
Dan Hurley got emotional on Saturday, thinking back on the last four years he’s spent coaching his son, Andrew.
“It makes me so proud of him because he’s been a huge part of the locker room, his relationship with the coaches and players…” Dan said, starting to get choked up. “He’s done so much damage control for me. I’m coaching these guys hard, tough practices and he humanizes me a little bit with the players, grabbing him after a brutal practice, different things.”
Andrew had the ball in his hands when the final buzzer sounded and confetti started to fall in Houston after the Huskies won the national championship last year.
“That was just an unbelievable moment being able to do that, I was so lucky, having my father as the coach to be able to experience that, that was just an unbelievable emotion,” Andrew said. “The four years here, it was priceless. It’s something I wouldn’t trade for anything. It was definitely hard at times, but it was an unbelievable experience.”
What to know
Site: Gampel Pavilion, Storrs
Time: Noon
Records: No. 3 UConn: 25-3 (15-2 Big East), Seton Hall: 18-10 (11-6 Big East)
Series history: UConn leads, 48-23
Last meeting: Dec. 20, 2023 – Seton Hall 75, UConn 60 in Newark
TV: CBS – Ian Eagle, Bill Raftery, Tracy Wolfson
Radio: UConn Sports Network on 97.9 WUCS – Mike Crispino, Wayne Norman
Pregame reading: