The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
How UConn executed its plan against Edey with Clingan: ‘Worth it’
GLENDALE, Ariz. — Some time in mid-season, assistant coach Luke Murray pulled Donovan Clingan aside and told him to watch Zach Edey play.
“We’re going to play him in the national championship,” Murray told the 7-foot-2 sophomore. “You’re going to guard him 1-on-1, and we’re going to take away their guards.”
That’s exactly the game plan Murray and Dan Hurley concocted for the UConn men’s basketball team’s national championship bout with Purdue on Monday night. And it worked just as planned. Well, almost.
“We didn’t necessarily want to let him get 37,” Murray noted.
Indeed, Edey, the 7-4, two-time National Player of the Year, poured in 37 points on a variety of dunks, low-post moves and hook shots. He got Clingan to commit four fouls and Samson Johnson to foul out, forcing 6-8 Alex Karaban to guard him in the post late in the game.
But that was fine, for the most part. UConn’s athletic perimeter players like Stephon Castle, Hassan Diarra and Tristen Newton held Purdue, the second-leading 3-point shooting team in the country, to a mere 1-for-7 from 3. Both marked the Boilermakers’ lowest outputs of the season.
“For the most part, the game plan was very much to try to force (Edey’s) catches out, try to not let him turn over his left shoulder and get to his right hand easily, which he did sometimes,” Murray noted. “But really take away the 3-point line. Those guys — (Lance) Jones, (Fletcher) Loyer, (Braden) Smith — are all big-time shooters. Their offensive efficiency goes off the charts when they have Edey’s success inside, and they can combined with with shooting. When it’s just Edey having a great game, it’s pretty neutral. So, we just felt like, if he was able to get 27, 28 points and we do a great job on those other guys, we’d be in a good spot.”
“He’s the best player in the country, arguably the last two years,” associate head coach Kimani Young added of Edey. “We wanted to make it hard on him, and take everything else away.”
Clingan said he watched “a lot” of film on Edey since that mid-season conversation with Murray, particularly the last couple of days.
“He’s a great player,” Clingan noted. “I really like how he got position. Tonight, he elbowed me in the head about 15 times. I might need some Advil after this. I really like how he gets position, I used to watch it, tried to learn some things from him. In past few days, I probably watched five, six games.”
“It’s worth it,” he said of his headache. “National champion.”
Clingan finished with 11
points, five rebounds and a block in his much-ballyhooed battle with Edey. It paled in comparison to Edey’s 37 points (on 15-for-25 shooting), 10 rebounds, two blocks and 10 fouls drawn. But it was good enough ... maybe.
“It wasn’t me, he scored 39 points on me,” Clingan said with a smile. “It’s the four guys on the perimeter that held them to one 3. It just goes to show you how special this team is. Everyone’s willing to do something to help us win.”
Special, indeed. Clingan lost his mother, Stacey, six years ago to cancer. His father, Bill, and many relatives were in the crowd, and he ran over to them shortly after the game.
“To have my family here supporting me, every single day, every single game, it means a lot to me,” Clingan said. “My dad’s always in my ear to help me out with things. I’m lucky to be his son. My grandma, my sister, my aunt, my uncle ... they’re all like parents to me, like siblings to me.”
And yet, Clingan seemed to get choked up the most when reminded that this was the last game this group of players will have together.
“This team’s special,” he said, after a long pause. “I’ll miss walking in the locker room every day and seeing Cam (Spencer) raging at someone, maybe Youssouf (Singare) or Samson or someone. Just the locker room vibe. Tristen (Newton) and Cam (Spencer) leaving, it’s gonna be hard.”
Clingan, a likely NBA lottery pick, has a decision to make. It will almost certainly be the NBA, though he wasn’t going there on Monday night.
Instead, he was basking in the glow of victory. Perhaps a loss in the battle with Edey, but a second straight national title.
And when it was over, he managed to upstage Edey, to a degree. Last weekend, when Purdue punched its ticket to the Final Four, Edey cut down the nets without using a ladder. Asked about that on Sunday, Clingan said he thought it was funny, but noted, “You’ve got to use the ladder.”
On Monday night, Clingan eschewed the ladder.
“Everyone was telling me, ‘Don’t use the ladder. Don’t use the ladder.’ So, I just did it. The scissors weren’t good, though. It was hard to cut today.”
He’s had plenty of practice at it over the past couple of seasons.