UConn wins in romp over Providence

PROVIDENCE — Ray Allen never did it. Rip Hamilton, Emeka Okafor, Kemba Walker, Shabazz Napier — national champions all — never did it, either.

No UConn men’s basketball team had ever won 18 Big East games in one season. For that matter, neither had any other team in league history. Not Georgetown in the mid-80s or any of Syracuse’s Final Four teams or Villanova at the onset of the “new Big East,” or anyone else.

Until now. Tristen Newton has now done it, along with Alex Karaban, Cam Spencer, Donovan Clingan, Stephon Castle and the rest of this truly remarkable Husky squad.

After falling behind by 13 points in the first four minutes on Saturday night, the Huskies dominated the rest of the way and rolled to a 74-60 victory over Providence at Amica Mutual Pavlilon that wasn’t nearly that close.

Second-ranked UConn finishes its regular season at 28-3 and, more importantly, 18-2 in the Big East.

Three other teams had won 17 Big East games in a season: UConn in 199596, Syracuse in 2011-12 and Marquette last season. These Huskies, the defending national champs, now stand alone.

“It means a lot, just knowing what this group has done and knowing we have the record,” said Castle, the precocious freshman. “It’s super special. I think we’re the best team in the country, and we’re showing it night-in, night-out.”

Karaban, a true student of college hoops history, concurred.

“It’s crazy, because it feels like we’re adding more and more history and it doesn’t even seem real. I didn’t even know about the 18 wins until Coach started bringing it up. To be a part of that is special, because of how hard the Big East is and just adding to UConn history and Big East history in general is special to everybody.”

Karaban led UConn’s well-balanced attack with 16 points, while Castle added 14 points, six rebounds and four steals. Newton had 12 points, eight boards and five assists, Clingan, the 7foot-2 center, had 11 points (including his second career 3-pointer), and Spencer chipped in with 10.

Samson Johnson was positively pterodactyllike, slamming and swatting his way to eight points, six boards and a pair of blocks.

But the only stat that really mattered on Saturday night was 18.

“We were thinking history and legacy today,” coach Dan Hurley said. “We were thinking exclamation point on the regular season.”

And there was also this bit of history: Hurley notched his first win in five tries inside the AMP, covering his tenure at Rhode Island and UConn.

“I’m not gonna lie, it felt pretty good,” he confessed.

Providence (19-12, 10-10 got off to a head-spinning, 15-2 start, keyed by 12 points from Devin Carter and a technical foul on Hurley. Carter was everywhere: knocking down 3’s, poking away passes, and by the time he hit a jumper four minutes into the contest, PC had that 13-point lead.

Slowly but surely, however, the Huskies climbed back. When Spencer hit a free throw after PC coach Kim English had earned a “T” of his own, the score was tied at 21. When Castle followed with a 3-pointer, UConn had its first lead of the night with just under seven minutes left in the half.And when Hassan Diarra canned a tough 3pointer at the halftime buzzer, UConn sprinted into the locker room with a 42-24 lead.

From the time of Hurley’s technical to Diarra’s trey, the Huskies outscored Providence 40-15.

“I don’t know if they’re ever good techs,” Hurley said. “I think that stuff is luck. Because we’re winning a lot these days, now those are good techs. But when I couldn’t get out of the first round of the tournament I was a madman getting bad techs?”

This time, Karaban ... disagreed.

“Just seeing him with his emotion, you can tell he was pissed-off,” the sophomore forward said. “The technical obviously got us going. When you see him being so intense, it really gets us going.”

When Castle drained a trey early in the latter half to put UConn ahead 53-29, the remainder of the game was little more than a dry run for next week’s Big East Tournament, which begins on Thursday for the Huskies. Even with a still commanding lead, Hurley kept his starting five in the game until the final two minutes and didn’t truly empty his bench until the final minute of play.

“This is a seven-bid league, or it should be,” Hurley concluded. “Three teams, with Marquette fully healthy, who are potential Final Four teams, or even national championship contenders. So, to go 18-2 in a league like that ... 1 through 9 in this league has been a brutal gauntlet to get through.”

But the Huskies did so as well as any team in league history. And as they look to become the first repeat national champion in 17 years over the next month, there could still be much more to come.

Rim rattlings

Hurley has had mixed emotions on Clingan’s trio of 3-point attempts this season (he’s made two of them). Asked about Clingan’s trey on Saturday night, which gave UConn a 32-point lead with about nine minutes to play, Hurley took a long pause.

“It was appropriate for that point of the game, the score, the way things were going,” he finally said. “But I don’t love it. The NBA people get to see it in the pregame warm-ups … People know this kid’s going to get to the NBA sooner than later. When he gets to the individual workouts, I know they’ve got him high right now. He’ll go a lot higher.”