By David BorgesRegister Staff

STORRS — It’s always been about confidence with Gavin Edwards.

Not from the UConn men’s basketball team staff, mind you. It has plenty of confidence in Edwards’ abilities.

It’s Edwards’ own self-confidence that has held the athletic, 6-foot-9 forward back.

“When your confidence catches up to my confidence in you,” associate head coach George Blaney likes to tell Edwards, “that’s when you’re going to become a player.”

The Huskies have been waiting for that to happen for the past three seasons. Edwards has shown flashes of brilliance — 14 points, 12 rebounds in place of fouled-out Hasheem Thabeet last December against Gonzaga, for example. But there have been too many other near-invisible nights from the Gilbert, Ariz., native.

That will change next season for Edwards, who is promising his senior season will be a “breakout” one.

“I think I’ve kind of come into my own now,” Edwards said after a weight-lifting session at Gampel Pavilion. “I’m ready to kind of believe in myself the way that everybody else on the coaching staff does.”

Edwards, who has yet to start any of the 84 games he’s played thus far at UConn, is penciled in as a starting forward next season. Now, plenty of things could happen between now and then. He will likely get a challenge for playing time from incoming, 6-9 freshman Alex Oriakhi and, if he decides to stay at UConn, 6-10 sophomore Ater Majok.

But as things stand right now, it’s Edwards’ job to lose.

“(The coaching staff has) been telling me ... there’s no reason why I shouldn’t have confidence to be able to start and play as well as I have in my best games here,” Edwards said. Continued...

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Edwards scored just 3.7 points in 11.3 minutes per game last season, both career highs. But there’s no doubt he can do some things — pass, catch and shoot the ball, run the floor and jump out of the building. At 234 pounds, Edwards is strong, too — he’s won the Huskies’ strength and conditioning award the past two years.

In fact, he reminds Blaney of a former Husky now playing in the NBA.

“I think he’s a little bit like Hilton (Armstrong),” Blaney said. “He’s kind of grown into his body, made himself a lot stronger. He works hard. I just think he needs minutes, and he needs to do well when he gets those minutes.”

Perhaps the best compliment Edwards gets is that his teammates like to play with him.

“He’s very easy to play with,” Blaney said. “Guards, in particular, like that, when bigger players — wings or inside players — know how to play. It makes it much easier for guards, whether it’s screening, pick-and-roll, running the court. He’s very, very smart about that.”

Added Edwards: “That kind of makes it easier for everybody. If I’m not playing at my best, I can still do other stuff to help out other people so that, if they’re having a good game, I can enhance them that much more.”

That Edwards appears slotted for the power forward position means, at this point, that the Huskies are planning to continue their tradition of having a 7-foot presence in the middle. Charles Okwandu, the 7-1 sophomore who had to sit out the last two months of the season due to academic issues, should get the first shot as UConn’s starting center next season.

“Charles is strong, he can really rebound, he can defend,” Blaney said. “He’s a baby offensively, but when you have Kemba (Walker), Jerome (Dyson) and Stanley (Robinson), you’re not looking for a ton of scoring from that position. And then Gavin gives you that, almost a 3-man at the 4 position, who can handle, screen, pick, run and pass and do a lot of things, (the team) becomes very versatile.”

David Borges can be reached

at dborges@nhregister.com.

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