Dick Weiss on College Basketball
BOSTION–Ever since Selection Sunday, UConn has been the talk of this NCAA tournament.
The Huskies — who are the No. 1 seed overall– have played the best of any team in the field entering into region play and look like the first
team since Florida in 2006 and 2007 with a legitimate chance to repeat as national champions.
They seem to have everything you need– a 7-2 sophomore Donovan Clingan, who is playing like a lottery pick, arguably the best backcourt
in the country with senior Tristen Newton, a first team All-America; and Cam Spencer, who joined Newton on first team All- Big East; the Big East Rookie of the
Year and a possible lottery pick in 6-6 Stephon Castle; and a dependable long range shooting sophomore forward Alex Karaban.
It is a dream team that could be better than last year, even though they had to replace three starters–6-9 Final Four MOP Adama Sanogo, shooter Jordan Hawkins and athletic Andre Jackson– who were all drafted in the 2023 draft.
And a fiery, but highly intelligent coach Danny Hurley, who is rapidly becoming one of the best technical minds in college basketball.
The pieces just fit together so well.
It has made them what Hurley said is bullet proof to date, headed into tonight’s East Region Sweet 16 game against fifth seed San Diego State, the same team the Huskies beat, 76-59, in the national championship game at Houston.
“When I talk about bulletproof, we’re vulnerable,” he said. “This is not a best-of-five or best-of-seven. You have one off night, where everything falls apart, you could
be the best team in the country and not win the tournament.
“When I talk about bulletproof, for me the formula is top-10 offense, top-10 defense, be a tremendous team, be a team that plays with utter desperation in terms of how
hard we play and then having depth to survive a 2-for-22 three- point effort. We had one of those games (against Northwestern in the second round in Brooklyn) the other night and one of those was from a walk on not named Andrew Hurley at the end of the game. We shot the ball horribly, but we were bulletproof because of our defense and our passing, our ability to score rim twos. We can win a lot of different types of games.
“You want to make yourself as bulletproof as possible in this tournament by just being well rounded and deep.”
UConn steam rolled Northwestern from the Big Ten, 75-58, to get here, taking a 30- point lead at one point with 13:27 to play. Newton scored 20 but Clingan had the biggest impact. He was a force at both ends with 14 points, 14 rebounds and eight blocks, dominating the Wildcats at both ends. More importantly, he only had one personal, allowing him to play 28 minutes.
The Huskies won their eighth consecutive NCAA tournament game by double digits despite their uncharacteristic poor three- point shooting. “I was very impressed in person by their defense,” Northwestern coach Chris Collins said. “They have all the ingredient to win another championship, there’s no question
about it.”
Clingan is a local talent from Bristol, Conn. who opted for UConn to stay close to his family after his mother died six years ago. Wednesday was the anniversary of her death. “I mean, it means a lot,” he said. “That changed my life forever. I wasn’t the biggest fan of basketball. I enjoyed playing it but when she passed, it
made me realize how much I love basketball and gave me a reason to be great. She was a big basketball player at Maine and had a great career. Instead of going WNBA, she wanted to have kids and be a mom. She had me and my sister, and I just try to live her name though the game.”
Clingan will play a big role against San Diego State, whose star 6-9 Jaedon LeDee is a third team All-America who is averaging 21.5 points per game and excels at getting to the rim and scoring with his physical frame. Castle and Karban will have to keep him from going nuclear as LeDee will likely be the first option to try
to get Clingan in early foul trouble.
The Huskies will have to shoot better from the three against the Aztecs.if they want to advance. UConn is shooting 36.7 percent while UNLV shoots just 313. However San Diego State shot lights out against Yale in the second round, shooting 48.1 percent from the three on 27 attempts and UConn shot a season low against Northwestern.
UConn seems ready for the challenge.
“For me it gives me a lot of confidence just knowing that he has that kind of thought process for us going into these games, knowing how good, how talented, we are, knowing if we just stay connected, that we feel like we can win with any kind of game. I feel like I fight with the best team in the country and I think if we stick together, we can beat any team in the country.” .
