The UConn men’s basketball team has answered a critical question in its recent games. How deep are the Huskies?
Long before halftime against Georgetown on Tuesday night, nine players had been in the game and eight had scored.
Coach Dan Hurley wanted a UConn team where it would be hard to get on the floor and, indeed, he has several touted players fighting just to see the light of day.
“Everybody [has] embraced their roles,” graduate forward Isaiah Whaley said after UConn’s 96-73 win over the Hoyas. “Everybody’s starting to see what they can do to help us win games. We’re just going at each other every day, it’s like a battlefield every day in practice.”
The Huskies have won four in a row, the last three by double digits. They have the look of a complete team on the verge of a long roll with a player for every situation. Five players ended up scoring in double figures on Tuesday.
But even in the best stocked tool chest, there is that one gadget you can’t do without. Whaley, “The Wrench,” is still the one. Lost for a while, he has been found and is making the difference.
“When he does what he can do, it makes us a different team,” UConn sophomore forward Adama Sanogo said.
Whaley had 15 points and seven rebounds on the heels of his double-double of 10 points, 11 rebounds at Butler last Thursday. The performances ended a string of games in which Whaley just didn’t look like himself.
“He played great at Butler,” said Hurley. “He got back to his identity. He wasn’t right physically for the Marquette game pre-Christmas. He struggled physically with some things for a while, and I think he’s getting his legs under him the last couple of games.”
The 6-foot-9 Whaley is a guy with about a half dozen nicknames: “Pork Chop,” for his favorite food and “Poppers,” for the short jumper he was working on. “The Wrench” has stuck because he always seems the right man for the the physical job. He’s a unique player who not easily substituted.
“When you have a guy who can play next to Adama, he can pass and catch and help you in the ball-screen game,” Hurley said. “He’s a beast on the offensive glass. When Adama gets in foul trouble or just needs a blow, you now have Isaiah who can play [center], just an incredibly valuable frontcourt piece.”
Unheralded, Whaley was one of Kevin Ollie’s last recruits. In his sophomore year, Hurley’s first, he barely played. He chose to not transfer out, and, by the middle of his junior year, he had bulldogged his way into the lineup and Hurley’s heart. After last season, chose to return to UConn for the fifth year granted due to COVID.
Whaley started this season slowly. In the Bahamas, though he only scored two points against Auburn, Whaley played 44 minutes and had seven rebounds, four assists and four blocks as UConn beat the No. 1 team in the nation in double overtime. Whaley fainted after the game and was held out of the Michigan State game as a precaution. The Huskies missed his presence down the stretch in what became their first loss.
Whaley returned the next day to scored 16 in the win over Virginia Commonwealth. He scored 15 points against West Virginia on Dec. 8 but didn’t approach that level of productivity for most of December and January. He had 29 points and 21 rebounds across six games with zero points and zero rebounds in 10 minutes in the first game against Butler on Jan. 18.
“It’s been a big challenge with injuries and COVID,” Whaley said. “Right now, I feel like I’m the healthiest I’ve been all season, and I’m really happy about that. I feel like I can do a lot more things on the court. It’s been a tough season, but my teammates helped get me through it.”
Whaley was characteristically active against Georgetown. He was back to picking up the loose change — six offensive rebounds — and helped UConn score 14 second-chance points vs. Georgetown.
Is The Wrench back to being The Wrench? “Yeah, yeah,” he said flashing his big smile. “Yup.”
With rescheduled games crowding the schedule, the 20th-ranked Huskies have a grueling stretch coming up with 14 games in 36 days. The most important stretch of games is still in front of themstarting Friday at DePaul. They haven’t played Villanova yet or Creighton. They face rematches with Marquette and Seton Hall and possibly a game at Providence if a date can be found.
In the Big East there are five ranked teams, and everybody has players with experience with that extra year, but those teams don’t have Isaiah Whaley, whose identity has become UConn’s identity.
“I don’t think there’s a team in the country that doesn’t wish they had a guy like that,” Hurley said.,
