Huskies’ try for a repeat may be the last for a while
BOSTON — UConn is trying to be the first team to win back-toback NCAA men’s basketball titles in 17 years — and that’s not all.
With three more March Madness wins, the Huskies could wind up as the last team ever to repeat as champions.
“It’s tough. It’s not easy,” UConn coach Dan Hurley said Friday as his top-seeded Huskies prepared to play No. 3 Illinois for a spot in their second straight Final Four. “It’s going to get tougher.”
Repeating has never been easy, though John Wooden figured it out pretty well at UCLA, winning seven in a row from 1967-73 behind future Hall of Famers like Kareem Abdul-Jabbar — then known as Lew Alcindor — and Bill Walton.
But that was an era when players would stay at one school, unable to leave early for the NBA or easily transfer. Even when Duke repeated in 1991 and ’92 and Florida did it in ’06 and ’07, it was a much different era. With the advent of the transfer portal and the one-and-done pro prospect — along with name, image and likeness deals that can lure players elsewhere — longterm team-building has largely gone the way of the two-handed set shot.
“Oh, it’s harder. It’s way harder,” Hurley said. “Obviously, you’re managing your roster with the portal, with NIL. You’d better be a more skilled coach these days because you’re dealing with a lot more stuff.”
UConn beat San Diego State 82-52 in the Sweet 16 on Thursday night in a rematch of last year’s title game, becoming the first defending champions since the 2007 Gators to make it back to the Elite Eight. Even so, this year’s Huskies are much different than last year’s NCAA champions.
Adama Sanogo (Bulls), Jordan Hawkins (Pelicans) and Andre Jackson (Bucks) left for the NBA. Guard Stephon Castle arrived as a freshman through old-fashioned recruiting, and guard Cam Spencer transferred from Rutgers.
“They fit,” Illinois coach Brad Underwood said. “Their staff has done an incredible job of evaluating the guys that fit them.”
The Illini have supplemented a team that lost in the first round of the NCAA Tournament last year and hasn’t been to a regional final since making it to the 2005 championship game. Forward Marcus Domask transferred from Southern Illinois. Forward Quincy Guerrier spent two seasons apiece at Syracuse and Oregon. Guard Terrence Shannon Jr. spent three at Texas Tech. Center Dain Dainja came over after a year at Baylor.
At UConn, the new players complemented guard Tristen Newton, who joined the Huskies for their title run last year after three years at East Carolina. Forward Alex Karaban was a freshman for the national championship team, and so was center Donovan Clingan, who at 7-foot-2 could have been a first-round NBA draft pick but decided to come back for more seasoning.
Hurley said NIL money that wouldn’t have been available to Clingan even five years ago can ease the loss of an NBA paycheck. But mostly it was the 20-year-old Connecticut native’s maturity in understanding that he still had to improve to play in the NBA.
“There’s no rush to get to professional sports, the NBA, the NFL with what you can earn as a college athlete (now),” Hurley said.