What makes UConn so dominant in tourney: ‘We do it all’

NEW YORK — It’s getting increasingly difficult to put into words how dominant this UConn men’s basketball team has been the past two seasons.

By now, you surely know about the 2023 national championship, this year’s Big East regular-season and tournament titles, the No. 1 ranking and No. 1 overall NCAA tourney seed, the 33-3 (and counting) record.

You probably know the Huskies

are 45-4 dating back to Feb. 11, 2023. You may also know that they’re an impossible 29-1 in nonconference games over the past two seasons, with every victory by double digits.

You may not have known that, after Sunday night’s second-round win over Northwestern, UConn has now won a record eight straight NCAA Tournament games by 13 points or more. But yeah, that too.

Those are just the cold, hard facts, however. What really makes the Huskies so great is how unique and versatile they are.

Or consider this: When you think about Houston, the No. 2 overall seed, you think about defense. When you think of No. 3 overall seed Purdue, you think about Zach Edey. Both teams have other strengths, but those are what jump out at you the most.

When you think about UConn? There are so many things — too many things — that come to mind. Beautifullyrun, efficient offense. Dead-eye 3-point shooters. A 7-foot-2, dominant center and his pogostick backup. Savvy veterans and precocious freshmen. A swarming defense topped by on-the-ball brilliance from a pair of guards, and that 7-foot-2 shot-swatter in the middle. Rebounding, rim-protection, the whole lot.

Have we forgotten anything? Oh yes ... Dan Hurley, and all that comes with him. Not to mention as good a coaching staff as you’ll find in college basketball.

“When you think about UConn, you think of every

thing: Defense, offense, inside, outside, grind-itout, up-and-down,” Hassan Diarra noted. “We do it all.”

Indeed, this is a multidimensional team that has been historically dominant and almost defies definition.

“I think that’s what makes us so special,” Alex Karaban said. “Offensively, we have so many guys that can beat you. You worry about taking one guy away, it opens things up everything else for other guys. I think that really makes us unique. Of course, the coaches draw up crazy actions for us to get open, so many wrinkles.”

And that’s just one side of the floor.

“How intensely we play defense, how badly we want to play defense,” Donovan Clingan, the aforementioned 7-2 center, added. “There’s a lot of teams out there that don’t want to play defense. We want to play defense, because we know that’s what it’s going to take to win games.”

In Sunday night’s 75-58 rout of Northwestern, the Huskies were ice-cold from distance, finishing just 3-for-23 from 3 (one of them a meaningful yet meaningless trey in the final minute by walk-on Andre Johnson Jr.). No worries: the Huskies pounded it inside to Clingan, lobbed it up high to Samson Johnson, and clamped down defensively, holding the Wildcats to 37-percent shooting and 4for-15 from 3. Boo Buie, the all-time leading scorer in Northwestern history, was 2-for-15.

“This team can win any type of game,” Diarra said. “We have great inside presence, we’re able to drive the ball and finish it, get to the free throw line, offensive rebounding ... Just because our 3’s aren’t hitting doesn’t mean we’re not able to score or we’re going to be deflated. We’re going to keep playing on the defensive end, and that’s going to lead to great things on offense.”

“I think it feels like we play two different types of defenses, with Donovan and Samson,” Karaban added. “You’ve got to spend double the time prepping for us offensively when Donovan’s in vs. when Samson’s in. It’s really makes us so special and gives us the edge.”

Of course, UConn’s work is hardly finished. Up next is a rematch of last season’s national championship game (a 17point Husky victory) against San Diego State on Thursday at 7:39 p.m. at Boston’s TD Garden. Win that and it’s a date on Saturday with either the East’s No. 2 seed, Iowa State, or No. 3 seed Illinois.

San Diego State and Iowa State are grind-it-out, defensive-oriented teams. Illinois is one of the higher-scoring teams in the nation with a star in Terrence Shannon Jr.

Does it really matter who the Huskies play?

“I feel like we can win any kind of game,” freshman Stephon Castle said. “I’ve said it many times before, I feel that we’re the best team in the country. So, what better chance to show it than in March?”