Huskies roll to title
UConn tops Iowa State to win Phil Knight Invitational
PORTLAND, Ore. — The UConn men’s basketball team entered this season aiming to win four championships: the Phil Knight Invitational, the Big East regular season, the Big East tournament and the NCAA tournament.
One down, three to go. After winning their first two games of the Phil Knight Invitational via beautiful shooting and ball movement, the Huskies got down in the mud and outuglied Iowa State on Sunday night. UConn dominated the boards and the freethrow line and once again rode their impressive depth en route to a convincing 71-53 win at Moda Center.
“This was the first of four chances (to win a title), so I’m happy we got one,” coach Dan Hurley said. “So far.”
It was another doubledigit win for the Huskies, the only 8-0 team — in fact, the only eight-win team — in the nation. UConn beat Oregon and No. 18 Alabama over the first two nights. Iowa State had knocked off No. 1-ranked North Carolina on Friday.
“It felt great,” junior wing Andre Jackson said. “We played three really good teams. We were really connected out there on the court.”
Maybe all you need to know about UConn’s depth-laden team is that it was almost impossible to decide who deserved to win tournament Most Valuable Player honors.
It went to Donovan Clingan, the 7-foot-2 freshman from Bristol who had 15 points and nine rebounds off the bench on Sunday.
“It feels great,” Clingan said. “It just shows that all the hard work I put in over the summer and the start of this year, battling with Adama (Sanogo) every day, it feels good that it’s paying off. I’ve just got to keep going, because it’s a long season ahead.”
It could have gone to another freshman, Alex Karaban who was named to the all-tournament team. Or senior point guard Tristen Newton, who scored 23 points in Thursday’s opener and had 13 points (and eight turnovers) on Sunday. Or Joey Calcaterra, instant offense off the bench for all three games. Or Jackson, who had another of his unique stat lines — 10 points, 13 rebounds, five assists, plays you almost
never see. Or ...
“We have so much depth to where anyone can step up,” Karaban said. “We have too many players for them to worry about. For me to make a big shot, Tristen to make a big shot, everyone else stepping up, Donovan stepping up bigtime for us, it just speaks to how good and how deep a team we are.”
The win completes a clean sweep for UConn’s programs in Rip City. Earlier on Sunday, the UConn women topped Iowa in the Phil Knight Legacy championship game, also at Moda Center.
It’s UConn’s first championship in an early-season, multi-team event since defeating Boston College and Indiana to win the 2K Sports Classic at Madison Square Garden in November, 2013. It’s the program’s best start since beginning that 2013-14 season 9-0. The Huskies would go on to win their fourth national championship that season.
The 20th-ranked Huskies are sure to make a big jump up the AP Top 25 rankings when they are revealed Monday at noon.
“I know we had a lot of doubters coming into this season,” Karaban noted. “To win three games against three big-time teams was super-impressive for us. We had belief in ourselves, we just had to prove to everyone else that we can do what we’ve done.”
UConn outrebounded Iowa State (5-1) by a whopping 46-19 margin, including 20 on the offensive end, while hitting 20 of 25 free throws. With leading scorer Sanogo saddled by foul
trouble, Clingan more than picked up the slack. After NBA prospect Jordan Hawkins picked up his fourth foul on a technical barely 30 seconds into the second half, Karaban (10 points) and Calcaterra (eight) picked up the shooting slack.
“The preseason Player of the Year (Sanogo) had not one of his best nights,” Hurley noted, “and to have Jordan basically play six minutes in the game and to beat a quality team by 18 in a championship game just speaks to a level that this group’s playing at.”
Hassan Diarra’s 3-pointer at the first-half buzzer gave UConn a 38-28 lead at the break. The Huskies dominated the boards over the first 20 minutes, 27-11, with 14 of them on the offensive end. They scored 10 second-chance points off those boards, and also hit 15 of 20 free throws as the Cyclones doubled up UConn (14-7) in fouls.
“We knew the game was going to be like that,” Hurley said. “Obviously, Alabama, Oregon, those games are not as grimy, not as physical. I mean, those guys get after you. We had an uncharacteristic 19 turnovers. They do that to a lot of teams, but they really got into us. Credit T.J. (Otzelberger, ISU’s coach) and how hard he gets his guys to play. Most toughness battles, we’re going to win.”
It allowed the Huskies to own a 10-point halftime lead despite shooting just 34 percent from the floor and 3-for-15 from 3. Iowa State outshot UConn in the first half (43 percent), but attempted just 3-pointers, hitting one.
Hawkins picked up his third foul barely 30 seconds into the second half and was hit with a technical, as well, sending him to the bench with four fouls for the remainder of the game.
“It’s amazing, he hasn’t fed off my new-found restraint,” Hurley quipped. “Teaching moment, learning moment for him. Frustrated with his first half. He’ll learn and he’ll be better.”
The Huskies committed five team fouls within the first 92 seconds of the latter half, including Sanogo’s third. But UConn suffered no letdown when Clingan checked in.
“Adama got in foul trouble,” Clingan said, “so it was important for me to come in there and just execute and do what I had to do on the defensive and offensive glass, score when
I had to score, and just help my team out as much as I could.”
Boy, did he ever.
RIM RATTLINGS
⏩ Jackson, who broke his right pinkie finger in practice six weeks ago and wasn’t able to return to practice until a little over a week ago, still has his pinkie taped up. He asked trainer James Doran if he could take it off on Sunday, but Doran said no.
“Maybe in a month or so I’ll be able to take the tape off. It doesn’t really make that much of a difference. But I think once I get my finger back, it’ll give me a little more ball-control or something. But it’s just my pinkie, so it’s good.”
⏩ UConn is now 2-1 against Iowa State. The prior two meetings were both in the NCAA tournament: Iowa State’s 77-64 win in the 2012 NCAA tournament’s second round (Jim Calhoun’s final game as the Huskies’ head coach), and UConn’s Sweet 16 win over the Cyclones in 2014 at Madison Square Garden.
⏩ Longtime UConn men’s basketball radio man Wayne Norman pulled off a day/night doubleheader on Sunday, calling the UConn women’s Phil Knight Legacy championship win over Iowa early in the day alongside Bob Joyce, then calling the men’s game Sunday night alongside Mike Crispino.
⏩ The men’s team greeted the women’s team at the team hotel after the latter beat Iowa in the Phil Knight Legacy women’s championship game, cheering them on as they entered the lobby off the team bus.