Dan Hurley called on Jaylin Stewart to make more of an impact prior to UConn’s season-opener against New Haven , and the junior responded.

Stewart looked, for better or worse, like the Huskies’ best player for most of the game, particularly on the offensive end and on the backboard, where he played with a level of assertiveness the team has been looking for. But Hurley couldn’t get through more than 20 seconds of his post-game evaluation of “J-Stew” before his mind went back to the team’s disappointing defensive effort.

“There were definitely some encouraging things there, I think there’s a lot for him to build on. Jaylin is a guy we need,” Hurley said. “Just thought he could’ve guarded better, we just needed to guard better.”

It was a team issue, but it was also opening night. And

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