Storrs – Tarris Reed Jr. remembers his first conversation with UConn coach Dan Hurley.

“I was like, ‘Man, this dude is crazy. I’ve got to play for him,’” Reed recalled on Friday. “I feel I knew it was the right fit when I came here.”

The Huskies have been crazy good under Hurley, winning two straight national championships.

The program’s incredible success has attracted some talented recruits, including Reed, a transfer from Michigan, with a hard-working, team-first mindset.

UConn’s five newcomers, a group that also includes Saint Mary’s transfer Aidan Mahaney and freshmen Liam McNeeley, Isaiah Abraham and Ahmad Nowell, went through their first workouts with Hurley during the two summer sessions.

Before heading home for a break prior to the fall semester, they talked about their experience surviving Hurley’s version of boot camp.

Reed, a 6-foot-10 center from St. Louis, admits that he struggled at times but stuck with it. He says he’s grown drastically in the last two months.

“It was really sink or swim,” said Reed, who took his recruiting visit to UConn in April on the day of the national championship parade in Hartford. “You’re going to do what you have to do or you’re just going to leave. … Coach set the tone from day one.

“As soon as day one happened, I knew what it was going to be like the rest of the summer.”

Hurley considers summer workouts vital to his team’s success. He firmly believes no college basketball team works harder than his Huskies during this time.

Those grueling workouts build a sturdy foundation and introduce newcomers to the demands and intensity of UConn basketball.

“With Aidan and Tarris, they just got used to our pace and how hard we practice and the tempo and the fact there’s basically no fouls called and it’s so physical,” Hurley said. “That’s like great preparation for the Big East. The conditions are so stressful, the games feel a little bit easier for our guys overall.

“Liam, Ahmad and Isaiah, it’s the same thing. That’s all we’re really trying to get across, how we practice, how we compete, how relentless we play, offensively how we want to move the ball and share the ball and our transition game. Then to focus on the things that are important to us. We led the country last year in 3s and dunks. We want to keep dunking and hitting 3s.”

A skilled, versatile forward brimming with confidence, McNeeley embraced the challenge from the first practice. He comes from a basketball family.

McNeeley says he’s going to miss the workouts with his teammates during the upcoming break. He plans to head home to Richardson, Texas.

“This is like my favorite thing in the world, just getting to go through hard practices,” McNeeley said. “I’m really looking forward to getting to actually practice for two or three hours every day and just grinding it out with the guys.

“Being pushed, that’s really why I came here, to come to a place where I’m going to get pushed to the max and then some and to continue to get better and help a great program.”

Abraham, a 6-6 forward from Fairfax, Virginia, has impressed Hurley with his athleticism and toughness. Hurley called him “our type of guy.”

Abraham welcomed the fiercely competitive atmosphere.

“I have a lot of teammates that surround me with good energy,” Abraham said. “Practice has been intense but we’ve been competitive. Everybody is doing a really good job communicating to me about everything.”

Nowell, a Philadelphia-tough guard, attended a practice during his recruiting visit. But nothing could really prepare him for his first Hurley workouts.

“It was probably eight times harder just being able to embrace everything that’s going on, the coaching and the pressure that your teammates are putting on you and being able to settle in and be the player that your coach recruited you to be,” Nowell said.

Mahaney, a combination guard, also had a productive summer. He missed the last practice with a stomach bug. He’s expected to fill an important role on the perimeter.

Overall, Hurley saw a lot of progress in the past few months.

“We got after it this summer,” Hurley said. “We’re just proud of our summer. We had a great summer. We worked so hard. We got so many live reps we feel like we could probably play tomorrow if we had to play a game.”

UConn’s sophomore class of Solo Ball, Jayden Ross, Youssouf Singare and Jaylin Stewart had growth spurts.

Throw in returning veterans Hassan Diarra, Samson Johnson and Alex Karaban, and the Huskies have a talented enough roster to make a run at a third straight national championship.

“We feel like we brought in all the right people to stay where we are,” Hurley said. “We think it’s a talented group.”

g.keefe@theday.com