No. 5 UConn Basketball shocked against Seton Hall in Newark
It was never going to be a perfect season. As talented as the UConn men’s basketball team is and as good as they played in their nonconference slate, they weren’t going to make it through Big East play unscathed. Few thought their first conference blemish would come as soon as Wednesday though.
Regardless of what anyone expected, the Huskies exited the Prudential Center in Newark, NJ with a glaring 15 point defeat, their biggest since losing to USF back in 2020. The contest was a masterclass of everything possible going wrong, with the Huskies putting themselves in no position to pull out victorious.
It was a rough outing overall, with Connecticut having no luck putting the ball in the basket. They made just 4/21 from downtown, an area that plagued them earlier in the season but had subsided as of late. The Pirates only shot eight from beyond the arc, but made three.
The three point shooting wasn’t the only issue that Seton Hall created for UConn. The Huskies were also sloppy, turning the ball over 17 times. And it made an impact. Hall notched 18 points on the fastbreak and Connecticut managed none.
Along with that aspect that the Huskies were out-toughed, they also got bullied in the paint. Revered as one of the deeper frontcourts in the country, they were outscored on the inside by 10, though not for no reason.
Donovan Clingan, who has finally been coming into his own after recovering from a preseason foot injury, had 14 points and a seven plus/minus early in the second half. But then he jumped up to attempt a block but came down awkwardly, spraining his ankle. He was seen postgame in a walking boot and just like that Samson Johnson was the only remaining center in the rotation.
Johnson started out the season on a tear, scoring primarily from dunks, but has had a rough go since Clingan has reemerged. He finished the contest with a mere two points and a -20 plus/minus, generally ineffective. Not that his teammates found too much success either.
Seton Hall mixed up their defense in a way that Connecticut struggled with greatly, employing a few different zones that the Huskies weren’t prepared for at all. UConn’s offense has been their better side of the ball so far this season, so it’ll be interesting to see how they deal with this as opponents look to throw them off.
"Obviously just really stunned by just how unprepared I had these guys for a tough physical conference game,” coach Dan Hurley said postgame. “Credit Shaheen, credit Seton Hall. They just kind of punked us in Big East fashion."
Punked is certainly a fair word. Connecticut did well enough early on, hitting enough shots and preventing the Pirates from doing much of anything. Up 20-10 early thanks to an early six points from both Tristen Newton and Clingan, the game was trending towards another casual double digit victory. Until it wasn’t.
The Hall outscored their visitors 24-7 over the next eight minutes of action, allowing absolutely nothing from the Huskies. It was a fantastic run from Dre Davis and Kadary Richmond, who scored 16 in that span.
Richmond always seems to take his game up a few notches when he faces off against the Huskies. The guard had 23 points on 8-17 shooting, with an eye-popping eight steals and five assists. He had an 18 point double double in last year’s game and is someone that UConn needs to key-in on better next time. But Hurley wasn’t just upset with the way that his team scouted Richmond.
"That was a pretty embarrassing performance for all of us,” the coach noted. "I’m having a hard time even looking you guys [the media] in the eyes right now when you ask me a question because it’s a little feeling of shame. I coached bad, I prepared the team bad, our scout was bad."
Clingan scored the team’s first six points in the half, but then suffered his injury. The Huskies managed at first, keeping the game in the five to nine deficit range, but then let it slip. Freshman Stephon Castle hit a tough shot to get his team within single digits, but a Richmond free throw shut the Huskies out of striking distance.
The Hall lead continued to grow, as UConn’s attempts to comeback came up empty over and over. It didn’t help that Cam Spencer, the team’s graduate leader, fouled out, taking the wind completely out of their sails.
This game is not any sort of predictor that the sky is falling. Though the team was trailing when Clingan got hurt, he was their best player by a lot. Things went off the rails when he exited and the team just looked like they got blitzed.
Almost everything went wrong. Nobody shot the ball well, they committed 18 fouls and were locked up in a way that they likely won’t be again. The way this team is built, they can sustain poor performances from many players, as long as a few are on their game. They just got misfortune that nobody was on.
Taking these types of early losses is often good over the course of the long season. Like taking a whiff of some strong smelling salts, it wakes a team up. Maybe they needed a wakeup. They were largely in cruise-control after winning every game they were expected to (the Kansas game being the exception).
Their history of winning these matchups is not great either. Hurley hasn’t been great on the road at UConn and he’s 1-3 in Big East openers. Looking at the program as a whole, they dropped their first conference game in two of their past three title runs, notably in 2011 at Pitt by 15. They may be fine or they may not be. But a night like this is not an indicator either way.
Their chance to right the ship will come in an easier environment at home against a Rick Pitino-led St. John’s squad in Hartford on Saturday.
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