UConn Hoops: Huskies overwhelm Villanova amid festivities
As the years have gone on, UConn men’s basketball garnered recognition as one of the top programs in the country. It was built by a number of players and the otherworldly program-building talent held by former coach Jim Calhoun. Saturday’s game against Villanova—and the entire day—felt like a culmination and a celebration of Husky success past and present.
It started off bright and early with ESPN’s College Gameday, with the top commentators and analysts in the sport spending two hours discussing various topics around college basketball, among them UConn’s current and historical greatness. As Jim Calhoun, Dan Hurley and Rip Hamilton, the man of the hour, spoke with the Gameday talent, the day was already feeling special—and there was still a game to be played.
“It’s the residual of what we’ve done the past two years,” UConn coach Dan Hurley mentioned of the numerous festivities Saturday. “When you play in those types of moments, it was fun, it was exciting. Obviously, we didn’t want to blow it for Rip and tarnish his night.”
On the second $2 Beer Night of the season, the Huskies pulled away at the end of the first half in their 78-54 victory. Once they escaped a slow start on offense, grabbing the win wasn’t easy, but the outcome didn’t feel in danger. UConn outplayed Villanova in a number of metrics, but perhaps the most relieving was their three-point percentage. After giving up 14/28 threes against No. 15 Creighton on Tuesday, they held the Wildcats to just 3/24, or 14%.
“Championship response from us today,” Hurley noted after the game.
Villanova coach Kyle Neptune was impressed with the Huskies’ efforts in several facets of the game.
“They’re a tough team, they’re constantly making adjustments,” Neptune said. “They overall guarded us in the half court really well. In the first and second half, the fastbreak points really killed us.”
The Huskies’ 31% mark from deep wasn’t pretty, but it got the job done. It also helped that Connecticut put through 20 of 22 free throws, compared to 9/13 for Cats. The rebounding differential was another major differentiator, with the home side plus 14 in the department.
The man behind over a third of the boards? That would be point guard Tristen Newton; and he didn’t just hit the glass. The graduate guard put together his fourth career triple double, with a 10 point, 16 board and 10 assist night. His shooting wasn’t great, but he took the right shots when he needed to and made a ton of winning plays. On a national stage, a performance like this only adds to his All-American case. Given the numbers he’s putting up for the top team in the land, he’s going to be hard to deny him.
“It’s pretty cool,” Newton noted of his triple double. “The most important thing is getting the win. Our GA told me that I need to get another [triple double] before I leave, so I’m glad it was tonight. The bigs were on the perimeter a lot, so the rebounds were pretty easy.”
Hurley is continually impressed by his point guard’s nose for getting rebounds and discussed his general talent.
“He’s got great size, great instincts for basketball,” Hurley said. “It’s a gift, it’s a feel, he understands sports. There’s a lot more buzz about him as a prospect in NBA front offices than in a lot of these b.s. mock drafts.”
Alex Karaban nailed one from downtown to get Newton his 10th assist but didn’t do much else on the night. He’s on a few-game shooting slump, but Hurley and co. feel confident that the forward will turn it around. And whether or not Karaban was hitting shots, his plus/minus of 20 led the squad.
At halftime of the contest, Hamilton became the fourth Connecticut basketball player to get his number retired, alongside Swin Cash, Ray Allen and Rebecca Lobo. Not bad company to be in. His set of accolades include being named 2X Big East POY, All-America Selection and was the Final Four MOP en route to UConn’s first national championship.
He didn’t quite do a Rip Hamilton impression, but Cam Spencer was unconscious against the Wildcats. Spencer had a rough game against Creighton and turned it around in a tremendous way just a few days later. He finished with 25 shots on a mere 13 shots, also adding 4 rebounds. Whenever the Wildcats threatened to come back, it was Spencer who shut the door, whether it was with a massive triple or a conventional three-point play.
“Sometimes you need to let the game come to you,” Hurley noted, speaking of Spencer. “When you play against better defensive teams, you need to make shots in tighter windows, you have to make more contested shots. Tuesday against Creighton he didn’t pull the trigger. He learned his lesson.”
Spencer put it a bit more bluntly.
I sucked against Creighton,” Spencer said. “My defense and my performance lost us the game in my opinion. I wanted to respond.”
Donovan Clingan had a solid game in his own right, with 13 points and 6 boards. While those figures are plenty, his effort in guarding Villanova’s Eric Dixon was admirable. Dixon finished with 20 points but needed to take 19 shots to achieve the total. Not only did Clingan contribute to that inefficiency, but he also managed to do so without getting into foul trouble. He was whistled just twice on the evening, a good omen after being held out of the early portion of the Creighton loss.
The squads were deadlocked from the start, as a slow matchup took hold. Nearly eight minutes in, the teams had combined for just 20 points, until Connecticut finally began to turn it on. They went on a 9-0 run, putting themselves in great position at the break. Considering how ugly the game had been up to that point, that type of advantage was excellent.
A Dixon triple cut the deficit to just five, a mark that it teetered around for a moment. Every time the Huskies looked for a more comfortable lead, the Wildcats would respond. That was until UConn went on a tremendous run that saw Spencer drill a three and Hassan Diarra get into the act too.
Before long, the Huskies scored 12 straight and were nearing a 20-point lead. They closed things out and Newton secured his triple double, collecting a feel-good win.
Connecticut will get a well-deserved eight day break here, ahead of a stretch of three games in seven days to finish the regular season. The first of those will come against Seton Hall right back at Gampel Pavilion.
“We’ve been on a heck of a run,” Hurley said. “There are some things this group needs to recharge. We need to give championship performance from here on out.”
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