Unrelenting run remarkable
Sorry Larry David, there is just no curbing these Final Four-bound Huskies
BOSTON — Minute by minute, the onslaught continued, kept getting worse. The Uconn men were pounding the Big Ten champions remorselessly, scoring 30 points in a row. Pounding Illinois into submission.
And the aging comic sitting seated behind the scorer's table had seen enough. Enough, I tell you. Enough.
“You can stop coaching, the game's over,” Larry David hollered at Dan Hurley from his seat behind the scorers table. “Stop coaching!”
Later, the septuagenarian star of “Curb Your Enthusiasm, screamed, “Shame on you, Hurley. Take the starters out.”
If ever there was a moment to encapsulate the historic excellence, as well as the sheer absurdity of what we are watching, this was it. Dan Hurley heckled by Larry David. The irascible David, 76, in Boston for a live performance this week, got up and left with a few minutes to go, before Hurley did empty his bench.
Too bad he didn't stay and heckle Hurley after the game. What could've gone wrong?
“Wow. I'm like the Larry
David of college coaching with my antics and idiosyncrasies,” Hurley said, laughing. “So I'm disappointed. … No, Curb Your Enthusiasm, that's a good show.”
So is Uconn at the Final
Four, and it has been renewed for another season. The semifinals Saturday and championship game Sunday will avoid going head-to-head with the final episode of Curb, scheduled for Sunday. The Huskies, after the 77-52 victory Saturday in the East Regional final at TD Garden, are headed for Phoenix, two wins to go for a repeat as national champions.
But what is happening on the court right now is no comedy show, as much as this NCAA Tournament has become one Globetrotters-vs.-washington Generals matchup after another.
“It's a special level of basketball we were playing,” Hurley said.
Try to get your mind around this. A 30-0 run. Illinois, second in the Big 10, winner of the conference tournament, in possession of a win over Purdue during the season, had clawed back from a 9-0 deficit to tie the game at 23 with 1:49 left in the half.
“We play every possession like it's our last,” Alex Karaban said. “We don't care what the score is, what we're doing, we want to continue to go, go, go. We thought we could break them, we thought we could demoralize them. It really affects a team when we go on a run like that.”
Very few teams, players, ever
go on a run like that.
Uconn was 0-for-10 on 3-pointers before Hassan Diarra hit one to put the Huskies back in the lead, and start the avalanche.
Tristen Newton made a couple of free throws to make it 28-23 at the half.
While the Huskies were missing shots they usually make, Illinois was stifled by Uconn's defense.
Then Brad Underwood, an experienced, respected coach, made his own stab at comedy. “We're going to keep going at (Donovan Clingan),” he told sideline reporter Andy Katz. “If he blocks 100, he blocks 100.”
Illinois went 0 for 19 on shots contested by Clingan and for a while, it looked like they'd go 0 for the second half. They stayed at 23, Uconn started hitting shots and before long the lead was 10, 20, 30.
“It's like a train going down the track as fast as it can and it's unstoppable,” Diarra said. “It's happening pretty fast, and you're just like in the moment. Let's keep our foot on the throttle and after the fact, we're just like, ‘man, this team is really special and we have to enjoy it like we can.”
With the score 53-23, Illinois ended its 9-minute scoring drought, and Larry David was right. The game was over, but if he thought Hurley would stop coaching, well, just what was he thinking? Hurley was still reminding his team about various comments he'd heard from Illinois and pundits the day before, that they'd seen everything in the Big 10, yada, yada, yada.
“I think we were up 30 and Coach said, ‘remember what these guys were saying yesterday? We've got to go put them away,'” said Clingan, who finished with 22 points, 10 rebounds and five blocks, dominating a game in which Newton and Stephon Castle were a combined 1 for 12 and the team was 3 for 17 on threes.
“Everybody's super connected,” Castle said, “Everybody's having fun, everybody's throwing down dunks. I mean, it's just super fun. We work to get to this point and to have that kind of fun on the court, it means our work is paying off.”
No team has emerged in this tournament that can stop all of Uconn's weapons on any given night. The Huskies have dispensed with No. 3 seed Illinois, No. 5 San Diego State, No. 9 Northwestern as easily as they did No. 16 Stetson in the first round. They've trailed a total of 28 seconds in the four games.
They've achieved at a level that must seem amazing even to them, whether they admit it or not.
They've achieved a level a fan of sports must admire, even if a certain curmudgeonly comic would rather they call off the dogs a little sooner than they do.
“When we walk out of here, we look at each other and say, ‘how have we done this in this tournament?'” Hurley said. “Nine straight relatively non-competitive games. But we're relentless, as coaches, we coach every possession, we have incredibly competitive players and we have incredible respect for our opponents. We know that when you have somebody down, you better beat them down, you better break 'em. We just don't want to let a team hang around in a game.”