Dick Weiss on College Basketball
PARADISE ISLAND, the Bahamas– Danny Hurley’s Connecticut men’s surging basketball team has been climbing a mountain for the past past three years, trying to make themselves relevant on the national stage again
The Huskies, who have won three national championships under Jim Calhoun and another under Kevin Ollie, had slipped off the radar after leaving the Big East, where they had been one of the Beasts of the East, to join the American Athletic Conference, an all sports conference with football.
Hurley was brought in 2018 resurrect a program that had gone through two uncharacteristic losing seasons. He had been the architect of two college basketball rebuilding projects at Wagner and URI. Hurley worked fast in Storrs. By the end of his second year, UConn started to turn the corner, winning nine of his last 11 games in 2019 in the American before the Huskies returns to its roots, rejoining the Big East and making football an independent.
The Huskies returned to the NCAA tournament last season after a four year absence. Now, they look like they are knocking on the door of a top 15 finish in the AP poll after the 23nd ranked Huskies defeated 19th ranked Auburn 115-109 in double overtime in the first round of the Battle for Atlantis here. This was an ESPN instant classic, one of the great games ever played in a pre-season tournament.
‘We’ve come too far,” Hurley said. “We’re going to fight. If you are going to knock us off the mountain, you are going to have to kill us.”
In a game that was so exhausting Connecticut fifth year senior forward Isiah Whaley actually fainted from exhaustion and dehydration at the end of the game after after Auburn’s star freshman Jabari Smith and 7-0 Walker Kessler for 43 minutes, these two hard charging teams put in a show of clutch shooting responses, frenetic sequences and players diving on the floor for loose balls in the final seconds of a two point game with the outcome decided.
“Pretty good tip for November” Auburn coach Bruce Pearl.
That was an understatement.
“When we watched film of them in pre-game, we knew what we were in for,” Hurley said. “They jumped out on Morehead State something like 33-4. If I can bother a wrestling term, It was like a steel cage match. They put two monsters into a cage.
“Now you have a chance to sit back and think about how many different ways it could have gone the other way in regulation, or really from the five minute mark all the way through the second overtime. Just a multitude of things that went on that were mind boggling and mind numbing. the amount of shot making, playmaking, athleticism skill and will. These are two teams that could see each other again in the NCAA tournament.”
UConn’s fifth year senor forward Tyler Polly scored a career high 24 points and made the go ahead three pointer with 2:58 of the second overtime that started a 9-0 run that pushed the 6-0 Huskies to a 109-100 lead. He also hit a three pointer for the lead with 12.5 seconds left in regulation and finished six for nine from the three.
Adama Sanogo, UConn’s 6-9, 245-pound bull from Mali and the Patrick School in New Jersey, had a career high 30 points and stayed on the floor playing critical minutes with four personals. when the Huskies let a 15-point lead disappear in regulation and blew a lead late in the first overtime. But the two combined for UConn’s first 14 points in the second overtime as the Huskies, who made 12 of 12 free throws in the overtimes, finally got over the hump, withstanding three players Zach Martin, Whaley and Jackson fouling out and two others Cole and Sanogo finish with four. “I definitely thought numerous times we had the game won,” said senior point guard R.C. Cole, who had 24 points for UConn. “They weren’t going to go without a fight. and we knew we were going to have to fight to get the win.’
Point guard K.D. Johnson and likely one and done freshman forward Jabari Smith had huge performances of their own for the SEC Tigers. Johnson scored 23 of his 27 points after halftime, including driving baskets in the final seconds of regulation and the first overtime to extend the game. Smith scored 19 of his 22 points after half, making a deep three with 239 left in regulation to give Auburn a 78-76 lead.
‘I was just trying to get the W,” he said.
This was the first trip here for the Tigers, who showed enough character to claw back into the game but ultimately faded when they shot just 5 for 17 in the second overtime.
UConn will play Michigan State today with a possible matchup against defending national champion Baylor in the championship round. “This is why I came back for my fifth year, to play in games like this, to restore the UConn brand.” he said.
Polly, Whaley and Cole were there at the beginning of this mountain climbing exhibition. They looked like they will play big roles as they challenge Villanova for the Big East title.
This was the first trip here for the 3-1 Tigers, who showed enough character to claw back into the game but ultimately faded when they shot just 5 for 17 in the second overtime Smith scored 19 of his 22 points.
Auburn will draw Loyola in the loser’s bracket. “This one is gone,” Pearl said. “Missed opportunity. Let’s win two games.”
