It’s possible that you’ve never heard Michael Rehfeldt’s name. It’s guaranteed that if you’re a UConn fan, you love him anyway.
A couple weeks after our friends at No Escalators blessed our timelines with pictures of our newly burly Husky boys, James Bouknight and Isaiah Whaley both praised Rehfeldt, the team’s new strength coach, at Big East media day.
A look back at the photos that Uppercase used to make us clap like seals:
Need a minute to collect yourself? I’ll wait.
The days of UConn getting bullied by a bigger, stronger, better conditioned team are gone. The Huskies might lose some games this year because the other team is better (I said MIGHT) but they will not be out-toughed. That’s what head coach Dan Hurley wanted the day he took the job in 2018. In that first season, there were moments where you could see his influence start to seep in, but there was just no talent there to actually produce results.
Now, after two seasons and the longest offseason ever, UConn has arrived. Hurley took care of the talent part, bringing in a solid recruiting class last year, an elite class this year, and a couple of high-impact transfers. “Coach Mike,” as Rehfeldt is known, appears to have taken that and built a group of national-flag-blue-and-white-clad monsters.
Bouknight was eager to share the numbers behind his progress on Wednesday. He weighed 172 pounds at the end of last season and says he is up to 195 with just 5% body fat.
Bouknight also credited Coach Mike with helping Josh Carlton and freshman Adama Sanogo lose weight.
“Everyone is much stronger, much faster, and you can see it on the court with people’s movements,” Bouknight said. “Coach Mike is helping us in a big way. He’s helping us take our games to the next level.”
It couldn’t have come at a better time. Whaley noted several times on the media day Zoom that the Big East is traditionally one of the most physical leagues in the country. If the Huskies have any catching up to do, it’ll have to be fast.
“I wanted to add a couple pounds because guys are bigger and stronger in the Big East,” he said.
A more athletic and conditioned team, along with one buoyed by strong recruiting classes and a couple eligible transfers, will give Hurley more lineup options. Whaley says he has been working on his perimeter game this season in anticipation of seeing more time at the 4.
“We’re going to have to make hard decisions on who to start as opposed to the last couple years where we just had to find five guys to throw out there,” Hurley said.
No matter what combination Hurley ultimately goes with to start that first game, it is going to include Bouknight. The preseason all-Big East Second Team member is coming off a freshman season where he averaged 13 points and four rebounds per game and exploded down the stretch. Over UConn’s last 11 games, he averaged 17.7 points per contest as the Huskies went 8-3 with wins over Cincinnati and Houston.
How’s Bouknight looking going into this year? Well…
“My confidence is at an all-time high,” he said. “I feel like I have different abilities. I’ve been working on my game all summer getting stronger, faster, more explosive.”
Take your time collecting yourself again. Big East play starts Dec. 11 against St. John’s.
