MISSION IN ACTION
With second straight title the goal, UConn shows what its capable of
HIDE the women and children. Dan Hurley and the UConn Huskies are on another mission. It took them 20 minutes to remember that as they begin their March to a repeat national championship that the mission includes winning the school’s first Big East Tour- nament since 2011. When they remember, when they play the way they played over the last 20 minutes for an 87-60 rout of Xavier, with a ferocious to- getherness unknown to mankind, there isn’t anyone in the land that can beat them. Good luck to St. John’s, conquerors of Seton Hall on Thursday to likely punch their ticket to the Dance, on Friday night. Good luck to Rick Pitino on Friday night. A great coaching matchup in a conference that was known for them in the 1980s. Only one of the coaches — Hurley — has a great team. A monster waits for Pitino and St. John’s. “I personally think they’re better this year than last year,” Xavier coach Sean Miller said. “That doesn’t mean they will win the national championship, but their offensive efficiency and their scoring punch and their balance is just at another level this year than it was last year.”
Hurley isn’t prepared to go that far just yet. But he isn’t afraid to trumpet that he has great players, and when you have great players playing as one and there is a great coach coaching them, anything is possible. And everything.
“There’s not many teams in the country with this level of talent,” Hurley said. “I mean, starting five of all guys that are NBA players that are willing for it to be other people’s nights on a given night.”
Asked to compare this UConn team (29.3) to last year’s UConn team, Hurley, the Big East Coach of the Year, said, “Last year’s team was physically more intimidating, in terms of the athleticism. But this team has had a more consistent season.”
Hurley confidante Billy Donovan was the last coach to repeat as national champion in 2006-07 at Florida. Hurley was asked what Donovan had told him.
“Don’t chase a repeat,” Hurley said. “Don’t pursue the achievement, just do a great job, improve as a coach and serve your players well and let the chips fall where they may. But don’t obsess over that accomplishment or else it’s going to make you crazy.”
Hurley’s winning obsession is a daily one anyway, so the advice doesn’t apply to him. He has recruited an army of special forces you can call Zeal Team 5. The UConn culture demands that they show up every single day as an extension of him.
“When you coach and play at a place with incredibly high expectations and history, I think you handle pressure situations better, ’cause you’re always playing under pressure,” Hurley said. “Every night you play at UConn or coach at UConn, the bar’s been set high. We don’t have the luxury of coming in under the radar, which I think pays off in big spots, it pays off in postseason.”
Asked he if minds the bull’s-eye on UConn’s back, he said, “No, we like it. I like the fact that we got the big target. I think that’s why this team has had such a special season. To do what they’ve done in terms of dominance with the hugest target you could have. UConn, with the history, plus the natty, people were gunning for us the whole year.”
You ask the players what one intangible trait they like best, and they tell you unselfishness. They had 29 assists on 35 made field goals.
“We don’t care whose night it is, and we don’t care who gets the looks or any of that,” Alex Karaban told The Post. “We know we have so much trust in one another. We’re really just going out there with no mindset about ourselves, but just really the mindset to win.”
UConn shot 22-for-28 (78.6 percent) in the second half. Their maniacal defense had the Musketeers frazzled and straining to avoid shot-clock violations. They owned the boards and the paint. Big man Donovan Clingan awakened from his slumber with 11 consecutive points to break it open.
Asked if his team plays the way it played in the second half, can any team beat the Huskies, Hurley said, “I’ve seen a couple that’ll be right there with us. I don’t want to mention them by name, but everyone’s vulnerable, and that’s the beauty of March is if you have an off night, things could go bad.”
Hurley won’t think about cutting down the nets in Houston, especially when there are nets to cut down at the Garden on Saturday night. He has not survived and advanced past the Big East semifinal for three consecutive years.
“The one thing that we have thought about a lot during the course of the season, when you have some other programs like what Purdue has done and what Houston’s done this year,” Hurley said, “we’ve kinda talked about that internally . ... Try to keep up with those elite teams in terms of how impressive they’re playing, their record.”
Karaban recalled the feeling after last year’s Big East tourney loss to Marquette.
“It sucked,” he said, “and we never want to experience that again.”
Of course, Pitino has never been an easy out, and UConn knows it.
Hurley: “Listen, [Pitino] is one of the best to ever do it. But it’s not like we’re guarding each other on the court. We’ve had success against them this year. But we know it’ll be a heckuva game.”