STORRS, Connecticut — The UConn men’s basketball team is finally back after the coronavirus halted its schedule back in December.
It will be exactly 18 days between games when the Huskies visit Seton Hall on Saturday. The team has had very little practice time as a group but took advantage of the opportunity on Thursday afternoon to hit the court and prepare for the weekend.
“We’ve kind of got our numbers up each day,” said Head Coach Dan Hurley. “We got to double figures (Thursday), but a couple of those guys were limited to certain segments of practice.”
While UConn has had to cancel games over the last couple of weeks, Hurley says he’s confident the Huskies will play on the rest of the season without the worry of players missing extended time.
RJ Cole and Tyrese Martin talked to the media Thursday. Cole revealed he was one of the players with COVID-19 while Martin did not have the virus. Both Huskies are ready to go the rest of the season.
“I feel like we are in a good spot,” said Martin. “We had to pause for people to get a break, mentally and physically that needed it, but we just got to come out ready to play and just hit the ground running on Saturday.”
Cole, the Huskies leading scorer, admitted it took him some time to get back to full speed, echoed his teammate about getting back on the court.
RELATED: Proof of vaccination or negative COVID test required for fans at all future UConn home games
“We are excited to play basketball again,” said Cole. “We are just going back into that mindset to prepare for all different games that we have coming up, but we are all excited because it’s basketball.”
Also Thursday, UConn Athletics announced all fans must show proof of COVID-19 vaccination or a negative test within 72 hours to attend home games in the future.
UConn plays at Seton Hall on Saturday, which will air on FOX61 at 11 a.m., and returns home to Gampel Pavilion on Wednesday, Jan. 12 to face St. John’s.
Sean Pragano is a sports reporter at FOX61 News. He can be reached a spragano@fox61.com. Follow him on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
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