The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
‘We’re not done’
Huskies shift focus to postseason after clinching Big East title
STORRS — Gathered at midcourt again, raising a trophy again, beyond ropes again, under confetti again, up on ladders again.
The Big East regular season championship isn’t the national championship, but that could be coming. So as the UConn men’s basketball team, a group with a ceiling barely in range of the Hubble Telescope, gathered at Gampel Pavilion Sunday afternoon to celebrate an elusive accomplishment, players and coaches looked ahead and started drawing lines on the postseason map.
To Manhattan, to Brooklyn, to Boston, to Phoenix. That’s how this journey could look, probably should look.
Two regular season games remain, Wednesday at Marquette and Saturday at Providence, and they are not meaningless. But while taking in all that made Sunday’s 91-61 victory over Seton Hall a storybook experience, it only made sense to emphasize that UConn expects to slingshot through March and toward April with the thrust of the unmatched confidence its earned.
“We’ve got many plans for the rest of the year,” center Donovan Clingan, the first to grab the microphone, told what remained from a sellout crowd of 10,299. “This is just the first of three.”
“We’re not done,” guard Tristen Newton said, words echoed moments later by Cam Spencer, one then went around signing autographs and telling fans repeatedly, “Just one of three.” Hassan Diarra led a UConn-Huskies chant, Andrew Hurley thanked everyone for the best four years of his life and the little celebration rolled on.
The Huskies (26-3, 15-2) didn’t just win their first Big East regular season title since 2006 and finish undefeated at home, they demolished so many 2023-24 guests, good teams like Seton Hall, which was sucked into a Storrs vortex and spit back out toward the George Washington Bridge.
This 30-point victory looked like UConn’s 28-point victory over Marquette, its 43-point victory over Xavier, its 22-point victory over Villanova, its 29-point victory over DePaul, some more sprinkled into the most dominant stretch in college basketball over the past 14 months. UConn, at its best, is a machine. The Huskies look like
Patrick Ewing’s Georgetown, Larry Johnson’s UNLV.
Since January 31, 2022, UConn has won 41 of 45 games, a stretch that included 24 consecutive double-digit victories over nonconference opponents, with every NCAA Tournament game last season on the way to the program’s fifth national championship tied into that.
In the mix for six, UConn’s mantra has gone since last season’s championship parade. In the lead, really.
Yet in the meantime came pursuit of two unrealized goals, finishing in first place and winning the conference tournament for the first time since a 2020 Big East return. One down, Garden to go.
“Last year, not getting either one, it was a great as a national championship,” said coach Dan Hurley, who made the final snip on one net Sunday, draped it over his neck, grabbed the rim and shook the backboard — much like he did last season in Las Vegas and again in Houston. “This was a thorn in our side, especially the regular season. Next to getting to a Final Four or winning a national championship, I think winning the regular season of a conference like this is like the hardest thing to do, harder than the Big East Tournament. Because you’ve got to earn it in a true round robin in some incredibly tough places to play, the most physical games and against the best coaches in the country.”
Done. Over. Worth celebrating. And, of course, Marquette and Providence should be hyper focused upon in the days ahead. But next week, the Huskies should walk into Madison Square Garden with the bravado of Ric Flair. And if all goes there, if they win the Big East Tournament for the first time since 2011, they should head over to Brooklyn staring down anything in their bracket like Mike Tyson did another beaten-before-it-begins opponent.
“The last two years have been special,” Hurley said. “I think, this year and last year, whether we’re ranked 3 or whatever we’re ranked, whatever our overall seed is in the tournament, we’ve been, I think, the best program in college basketball from last year to this point this year.
“The Garden this year, the Big Apple, is going to be sick. And then the NCAA Tournament where, if the field makes the mistake of letting us out of the first round, watch out. We’ve got a lot of confidence. I think last year, winning it, has just given us the freedom to go out coach, play. We don’t have a lot on our shoulders. We’re attacking games as opposed to carrying a lot of March pressure.”
UConn is in line to be the No. 1 seed in the East and the realistic, expected path — one talked about in the UConn locker rooms and meeting rooms for months — has been that Brooklyn-Boston-Phoenix rout in trying to become the first team since Florida in 2007 to repeat as national champions.
And why wouldn’t anyone paying attention have the utmost confidence that can be accomplished? Spencer, who entered tied with Newton for the team lead in scoring average, was basically eliminated by the focus of the Seton Hall defense Sunday. But Steph Castle, looking very much like the one-and-done lottery pick he’s projected to be, took over.
UConn’s lockdown perimeter defender, Castle kept Kadary Richmond in check. He also threw down two one-handed dunks, one that could lead his UConn career highlight package heading into the NBA draft. He dribbled behind his back to send Dre Davis in another direction, then blew by Elijah Hutchins-Everett in the lane and threw it down for a 74-51 UConn lead. He smiled wide.
Castle had dunked on the previous possession, too. And in the first half, he dunked two-handed in transition and flexed, still like a statue for a moment, before retreating. He had 21 points on 9-for-12 shooting.
Clingan had 19 points, 11 rebounds and five blocks. Newton had 17 points and made 4 of 8 3-pointers. Samson Johnson was electric, helping Clingan give this a slam-after-slam feel. Good luck to local newscasters cutting up Sunday’s highlights. It was a complete performance in a building that, once again, maxed out its potential.
Seniors were honored pregame. The Huskies put emphatic check marks in two boxes, winning the Big East regular season and finishing 16-0 at home. A new mascot was even coronated — Jonathan XV replacing Jonathan XIV in a halftime ceremony, with university president Radenka Maric performing the official changing of the collar.
It was a perfect day. A time to look back on what’s been accomplished and, as important, what can be.
“That starting five is obviously excellent,” Hurley said. “Steph is our fifth-leading scorer, and against a really good defensive team he had 21 on 12 shots. I think that’s what makes us unique. Cam was obviously a huge part of their game plan. He’s our second-leading scorer. Most teams, when the second leading scorer goes for five points, they’re either trying to win a close game or they’re definitely going to lose some. That makes us unique. Our efficiency with Donovan fully healthy, our efficiency at both ends of the court and on the backboard, fully healthy, tells the story of the quality that we bring. There’s not a lot of holes.
“You know, we’ve had a couple of outlier performances — the Creighton game, a total breakdown of who we are [19point road loss]. But when we stick to the script and stick to our formula and we’re about our identity, there’s not a lot of holes in our attack.”