UConn called a contender following latest win
STORRS — Jordan Hawkins took his mulligan and stroked one beautiful shot after another straight down the fairway.
Adama Sanogo reminded everyone why he’s still among the very best big men in the country.
Dan Hurley had called the UConn men’s basketball team’s Phil Knight Invitational championship game victory on Sunday “fool’s gold,” because the Huskies won with almost no contributions from Hawkins and Sanogo.
On Thursday night, Hawkins and Sanogo were pure gold.
Hawkins sprung for a career-high 26 points and Sanogo added 20 to lead No. 8 UConn to a 74-64 victory over Oklahoma State in a Big East/Big 12 Challenge game before a Gampel Pavilion sellout.
The Huskies improved to 9-0, with every victory coming by double-digit
margins. They have yet to trail in the second half of a game this season.
“I don’t know if (No.) 8 is high enough for this team,” Oklahoma State coach Mike Boynton said of the Huskies’ ranking. “I’ve watched them play every one of their games, and I saw a team that, from my view, for whatever it’s worth, can win a national championship.”
Hawkins had played just six minutes in the Huskies’ win over Iowa State on Sunday night. He picked up his fourth foul, on a technical, in the early seconds of the latter half and never returned, finishing with just two points.
Hurley said after practice on Wednesday that he was giving the 6-foot-5 sophomore a “mulligan” after the poor performance. Hawkins confessed to having “no clue” what the golf term meant, but knew he had to make amends on Thursday.
“Definitely a learning experience from the previous game I played, personally,” said Hawkins, who hit 5 of 9 3-pointers.
Sanogo, meanwhile, was held to a mere four points against Iowa State. Donovan Clingan, the 7-foot-2 freshman, more than picked up the slack and was named tournament Most Valuable Player.
“My last game, I didn’t play well,” Sanogo admitted. “So, coming into this game, I knew for us to win, I needed to bounce back. I knew I had to step up a little bit (Thursday).”
On Thursday, Sanogo scored 10 of the Huskies’ first 17 points, then passed the baton to Hawkins, who went 4-for-6 on 3-pointers in the first half and had 18 points by the break.
Hawkins kicked off the latter half with a trey that put him over his prior career-high total, and UConn was off and running to another convincing victory. Oklahoma State (5-3) got to within 11 (56-45) just over eight minutes into the second half, but the Huskies immediately countered with an 8-0 run, punctuated by consecutive, shot clockbeating treys by Andre Jackson and Joey Calcaterra (the latter on a tough fallaway).
Winning with Hawkins and Sanogo combining for six points on Sunday, then 46 points four days later is further testament to how many weapons the Huskies boast. Hurley compared it to his 2017-18 team at Rhode Island that won 18 games in a row at one point.
“That team celebrated each other’s success,” Hurley recalled. “They knew that scoring a couple more baskets a game isn’t really going to impact career opportunities down the line. Winning big does more for your career than scoring empty points and hunting numbers on a losing team. So, we talk about keeping that mentality and celebrating when it’s other people’s night to have the good offensive game.”
Indeed, the Hawkins/ Sanogo tandem didn’t work alone on Thursday. Jackson returned to the starting lineup and immediately announced his presence with authority, slamming home a lob dunk from Tristen Newton 46 seconds into the game.
“It was all Coach Hurley, man,” Jackson said of the designed play. “We ran through that play before the game started. That was the biggest thing.”
He added a breakaway dunk off a steal early in the second half and finished with a 11 points, a team-high seven rebounds and a game-high six assists and zero turnovers while providing his usual smothering defense on OSU leading scorer Avery Anderson.
“He’s a stunt man out there,” Hurley said. “He’s obviously a tremendous impact player. Unbelievable.”
Jackson returned to the starting lineup for the first time since last season’s NCAA tournament firstround loss to New Mexico State. The 6-6 junior broke his right pinkie finger in practice in October and missed the Huskies’ first three games. He had been coming off the bench and infusing energy over the prior five games.
“It felt good,” Jackson noted. “I really just want to play. As long as I get out there and impact the game, that’s the most important thing. We have so many players on this team, the starting lineup could vary from game to game. So, I’m not too concerned with that.”
Unselfishness. Talent. Depth. That’s a recipe for nine straight wins (maybe even 18 at some point) and a No. 8 ranking that may not be high enough.
RIM RATTLINGS
The Huskies get a seasonlong six-day respite before heading down to play Florida in their first true road game on Dec. 7. They’ll have a day off Friday, practice Saturday, have another day off Sunday before gearing up for Florida in practice on Monday.
“We need (the rest),” Hurley said. “That West Coast swing ... I don’t even know how Carolina played that game (Wednesday night). We need that time. I thought Adama ran out of gas in the second half. We missed some clean 3’s that could have kept that game 18, 20 longer.”