East Hartford — Alterique Gilbert greeted fans and signed autographs with his UConn basketball teammates on Saturday morning outside of Rentschler Field.

The good news is Gilbert feels great and looks great.

"I'm blessed to still be able to play this game, each and every day," Gilbert said.

Shoulder problems limited Gilbert to only nine games in his first two seasons in Storrs. Since his high school days, he's had three surgeries, including the latest one in January.

It's been yet another long and grueling comeback for the redshirt sophomore guard. He's gradually worked his way back and only participated in non-contact drills during summer workouts.

Gilbert is expected to be fully healthy for the start of the 2018-19 season.

"He's done a great job with it," coach Dan Hurley said about Gilbert's rehab work. "You can see so much progress from day one to four or five workouts in where he's dancing around gingerly with the ball and now he's getting downhill and attacking the rim.

"He's got a lot more confidence in (his shoulder). We've got to get him enough reps that he can knock the rust off from the last couple of years, but not giving him too many reps where we're exposing him too much."

Gilbert is in a good place mentally, too.

Hurley has noticed the joy returning to Gilbert's game.

"Sometimes when you're a junior or senior, you become old and stale some days, been there and done that," Hurley said. "But not Al. Al is young and hungry. A lot of energy and talking. Just real grateful to be out there playing. It's just given us a lift. It's like a breath of fresh air."

Gilbert has faith that his shoulder will be ready. He could be the difference between UConn having a good season and great season.

A McDonald's All-American in high school, Gilbert has yet been able to show off his talent during his injury-plagued UConn career. American Athletic Conference coaches have thought enough of him to vote Gilbert the conference's preseason freshmen of the year twice — before last season and the season before.

He averaged 9.0 points, 4.0 rebounds and 2.8 assists in six games last season before suffering a season-ending shoulder injury.

He's looking forward to the start of this season. The first official practice is Sept. 29.

"I really can't wait," Gilbert said. "It's year number three now. I'm really excited. I feel like we have a great group of guys. And we love each other off the court, more than anything. That's important."

Optimism is running high with Hurley, who led Rhode Island to consecutive NCAA trips before taking the UConn job, injecting some much-needed life into the program.

Hurley is fine with UConn fans setting high expectations.

"I kind of like it unrealistic," he said. "I like stretch goals. I like to reach for things that are pretty high in terms of goals. I think we should have really high expectations going into the season. We want to be a postseason team. I've coached in the postseason the last couple of years and I liked it. We've got some older players that want to experience playing in March. That's the goal. That's the goal for everyone when you're starting out.

"If these guys are as good as they think are and as we think they are, particularly the guards, then we should have a chance to be."

News and notes

• No dilemma for Hurley when it came to rooting for a team in Saturday's football game against Rhode Island. "I'd love to see the Huskies roll today as much as I love (URI) coach Jim Fleming and the Rhode Rams." ... Recruiting season is heating up. James Bouknight, a 6-4 shooting guard from Brooklyn, took an official visit this weekend. He attends MacDuffie School in Granby, Mass. He's also visited Miami and Virginia Tech. "We have needs that we need to address and we think we're involved with the right type of kids who could move the needle here," Hurley said. ... Two long-running UConn basketball traditions are ending. There's is no plan to hold the annual Husky Run this year. And the Huskies aren't running cemetery hill on campus as part of their conditioning program. ...  First Night festivities will take place on Friday, Oct. 12. ... UConn will play Harvard in a closed door scrimmage in October. The Huskies play Southern Connecticut State University in an exhibition game on Nov. 2.

g.keefe@theday.com