New Haven Register (Sunday) (New Haven, CT)
In a New York groove
Huskies roll to victory over St. John’s at MSG
NEW YORK — up, March.
The UConn men’s basketball team may have been the best team in the country in November and December. Conversely, the Huskies struggled so much in January, going 3-5 (3-6 if you count a New Year’s Eve loss at Xavier), that Dan Hurley would just as soon etch that month from the 2023 calendar.
“January,” the UConn coach said, “was a pretty forgettable month for us.”
February has been much better. The 18th-ranked Huskies finished off the shortest month on Saturday with an impressive, 95-86 whipping of St. John’s. Jordan Hawkins led four Huskies in double figures, Andre Jackson Jr. matched his career scoring high (15), Joey Calcaterra stepped up with his season scoring high (15), and UConn got 32 points from its bench as it improved to 22-7 overall, 11-7 in the Big East.
UConn finished 6-1 in February and has looked, at least for three of its last five games, like that wagon that won its first 14 games of the season before the New Year kicked in.
“February resembles more like November, December,” Hurley noted. “Every day, we’re further away from January.”
The Huskies trailed for just over two minutes in this one, taking control with a 15-6 run late in the first half capped by a highlight-reel, alley-oop Jackson Jr. dunk off a pass from Hawkins, then a Hawkins trey.
“It was a terrible pass, but it’s Andre Jackson, so ...,” Hawkins said of his assist. “I just threw it up in the air. When you’ve got a guy you can just throw the ball in the air and he’ll go get it, it brings you momentum.”
UConn owned a 50-41 lead at the break behind 11 points apiece from Hawkins and Cal
caterra, a whopping 26 points from the bench and 17 points in transition — the most UConn has had ina game since scoring 21 fast-break points against Georgetown just before Christmas.
In UConn’s puzzling, 85-74 loss to the Johnnies on Jan. 15 in Hartford, the Huskies had zero fast break points. The Huskies finished with 19 on Saturday.
“It’s been a point of emphasis, to play off-script more,” Hurley said. “It created some really good 3’s and opportunities to make plays.”
And it could have been more. Late in the first half, the Huskies missed a lob opportunity to Jackson Jr., and Tristen Newton blew a wide-open layup.
“We smoked a couple of layups,” Hurley rued. “I felt like at halftime, we should have been up 15.”
UConn scored the first six points of the latter half and pushed its lead up to 17 (62-45) after a Donovan Clingan tip-in with 13:35 to play. St. John’s would get to within single digits a couple of times, including within eight with 28 seconds left after an 8-0 run covering 36 seconds. But the Huskies were able to close it out, sending at least half (maybe more) of the 12,241 fans home happy.
“It basically felt like a home game for us,” Hawkins noted.
“And the Big East tournament’s gonna be even better,” Newton added. “It seemed like a home game with all the fans we had here.”
Indeed, the Huskies will return to their “home” arena in about 10 days for the conference tourney.
“Now, when we come back into this building, we’re certainly going to have a lot of offensive confidence,” Hurley said. “Guys made shots here today, had some good offensive games. You get a little taste of what the environment is going to be like.”
An incredible November and December was followed by a “pretty forgettable” January for UConn. February has seemed to get the Huskies back into gear. The Huskies’ last three wins, over Seton Hall, Providence and now St. John’s, avenged losses back in ... you guessed it ...
January.
“This set up perfectly,” said Hurley, “to get Seton Hall and Providence and St. John’s, all in the same week, and to be thinking revenge week and ‘let’s make a statement with our February,’ and really finish February.”
Added Hawkins: “We had to get revenge. These teams got us when we were at our lowest. We had to beat these teams and finish out the season strong.”
Next up, March. DePaul in Hartford on Wednesday, at red-hot Villanova on Saturday, then the Big East tournament followed by the Big Dance. And guess where the East Regionals will be held this year?
Yup, UConn’s home away from home, Madison Square Garden.
RIM RATTLINGS
• Adama Sanogo added 18 points and nine rebounds for the Huskies, despite enduring chants of “G-League” by St. John’s student section.
“That’s cool,” Sanogo said with a smile. “I’m cool with that.”
Sanogo’s backup, 7foot-2 Donovan Clingan, contributed nine points, six boards (five of them offensive) and five blocks in just 13 minutes off the bench.
“I thought he made a huge impact,” Hurley said.
• Jackson Jr. was a gametime decision after experiencing flu-like symptoms the past few days.
“He was kind of iffy this morning,” Hurley reported.
Jackson Jr.’s 15 points tied his career-best, set two games earlier against Seton Hall, but he wasn’t feeling well enough to meet with the media after the game.
New York product Hassan Diarra suffered an abdominal strain in Wednesday’s win over Providence and was not available to play on Saturday.
• Four technical fouls were assessed on Saturday, three of them on St. John’s: Esahia Nyiwe, Dylan Addae-Wusu and coach Mike Anderson. UConn’s Newton was also hit with one. At first, he was hit with a second, which would have meant his ejection from the game. But after a replay review, the tech was assessed to Addae-Wusu instead.
“I picked up the ball, I guess he was trying to get the steal,” Newton recalled. “I looked over and he double-teched us. I’m glad they changed that, because that would have been not good, obviously.”
• Nahiem Alleyne scored the 1,000th point of his career. He spent his first three seasons at Virginia Tech.
• It was the first game in Madison Square Garden for many UConn players, including Calcaterra, a grad transfer from San Diego, and Newton, a transfer from ECU.
“I’ve seen it from the outside, first time inside,” said Calcaterra, who also finished with 15 points. “It was a great atmosphere here. I was just happy to give my team a lift. “This is the Mecca of basketball. Just a great environment, and I’m just happy that we’re getting out of here with a win.”
Said Newton, an El Paso, Texas native: “New York is a different type of city. I stay down South. It’s alright, it’s cool. The Garden’s great. I like the Garden. This is a great place to be, great atmosphere.” Long way from El Paso? “Long way,” he concurred.