Storrs - After entering Guyer Gymnasium Saturday morning, senior Ryan Boatright noticed something missing.

There were no basketballs in sight for UConn's first basketball practice.

"You should have seen my face," Boatright said of his reaction. "I was like, 'What's going on? Where the balls? Oh, man, we're in trouble.' "

For almost three and a half hours, the Huskies were put through a punishing pace. Following tradition, they finished their workout at Gampel Pavilion.

Kevin Ollie, UConn's demanding coach who barked when detecting any letdown, came away pleased with the overall effort.

"The energy was high," he said. "They competed and they played hard. We didn't have a lot of balls in Guyer but everybody made it through. That's what we want."

A tireless work ethic helped the Huskies win a national championship last season. They plan on making another run at the title despite losing several key players, including All-America Shabazz Napier, DeAndre Daniels and Niels Giffey.

With an influx of highly-regarded newcomers, the Huskies are still blessed with talent. But they know from experience it takes more than that to reach college basketball's mountain top.

"We have a lot of talent," Boatright said. "But talent doesn't win championships. We showed that last year. Kentucky had probably more talent than us last year but we outworked them. We played together as a team and we came out on top.

"So talent is always good, but it's about playing together."

UConn's newcomers already are buying into the brotherhood mentality. Freshman Daniel Hamilton, who arrived with some impressive credentials, is embracing the team-first message.

"At the end of the day, we're all brothers and we all love one another, that's the main thing," Hamilton said.

The Huskies exhibited their close bond during the painfully exhausting box-out drill, which is basically a one-on-one anything goes battle for a rebound. Most veterans survived but other players got stuck in the spin cycle.

They cheered for their tired teammates and mobbed Hamilton, a 6-foot-7 swingman, for giving extra effort.

Ollie kept encouraging his players to go even harder.

"Going through my first practice, it was intense," Hamilton said. "There were a couple of times that I felt I didn't have anything in the tank. But he pushed me to the level that I didn't even know that I've got. He just pushed me and got me better. That's what makes him a great coach."

Practice ended with more running, as the Huskies had to do sprints up and down the court while trying to beat the clock. They all made it in their first attempt, a sign that they've reached a good fitness level.

"Never run like that before in my life," said 6-8, 265-pound freshman Rakim Lubin, who's built for power not speed. "It was tough in the beginning. … but it got a little fun at the end."

Ollie is emphasizing running and rebounding. The Huskies fell short in both areas last season. Napier, a point guard, led the team in rebounding until Daniels took over the lead during Final Four weekend.

After losing their three best perimeter shooters, they'll search out ways to score.

"We want to be a better fast-breaking team than we were last year," Ollie said. "We want to get more easy buckets. We (won't) have Shabazz bailing us out with 35-footers at the end of the shot clock.

"We definitely want to run a little bit more and get our athletes out in space where they can create for themselves and for others."

News and notes

Junior Omar Calhoun noticed an improvement in the team's overall conditioning from last season at this time. "All the vets are in real good shape," Calhoun said. "Last year a lot of people were throwing up and bent over like crazy. I feel like a lot of people were able to stay strong and fight through the practice, which is a great thing to see." … At one point during practice, Ollie reminded Lubin that his playing time depends on rebounding. "He knew I was taking it easy on the guards as far as pushing them around and getting rebounds, so he made me go a lot harder," Lubin said.

g.keefe@theday.com

Twitter: @GavinKeefe