The Big East Tournament. The most iconic conference tournament at the most iconic arena in the world. It’s home to some of the best moments the sport of college basketball has ever seen, always featuring a healthy serving of nail biters and Cinderella stories.
One such unforgettable moment came in the third game of the day, as 2-seed Creighton came back all the way and staved off 10-seed DePaul’s upset bid in double overtime. Unfortunately for UConn fans who were hoping to go to bed at a semi-reasonable hour, the 3-seed Huskies played in the next game and had to wait for it to finish.
Tipping off at 10:20 p.m. ET, 50 minutes after the already late 9:30 scheduled start time, everyone was ready to get the game rolling. That was, except for UConn, who took a whole half to get their bearings. Slow starts have been something the Huskies have been dealing with all season, but doing it in a game with such importance is risky.
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Regardless of how they started, the way they closed it out is what matters. After trailing at the half, Connecticut scored 22 of the game’s final 27 points to collect a 73-56 victory over 6-seed Villanova.
The star for the Huskies was Alex Karaban, who put together a modest 18 point effort, 15 coming in the latter half, along with nine boards and six assists. He didn’t necessarily shine in one area, but did what the team needed when they needed it from him. He drilled a few especially big shots from deep, one as the cherry on top of a key 7-0 run. Karaban is on a string of a few impressive games, and will need to continue his excellence if UConn wants success in March.
“I felt like I had to be more aggressive coming out of halftime, just be that player that the team needs me to be and just rely on my confidence,” Karaban said. “Just a credit to my teammates for helping me find the ball, and credit to the coaching staff for drawing up what they drew up. I've got to be that player for us, to step up.”
Aidan Mahaney provided a huge spark off the bench on Thursday, scoring a personal 5-0 run as a part of his seven point performance. His struggles have been well-documented, so seeing him contribute in such a fashion has to be nice for his confidence. However, he has had stellar games before and has had trouble following it up with another good performance.
“If Aidan didn't give us what he gave us today, we would be in big trouble,” UConn coach Dan Hurley said. “To have a guy play as well as Aidan did behind [Hassan Diarra] today is a really encouraging sign for us. Really cannot understate how important it is to have him playing well.”
Also quietly impressive was Liam McNeeley, who walked away with Big East Freshman of the Year honors this week. The wing played a decent game, notching 12 points on eight shots along with seven rebounds. It certainly wasn’t his most resounding statline, but in a game that didn’t produce a ton of points, it got the job done.
Samson Johnson was the better of the team’s pair of centers, adding 11 points on perfect 5/5 shooting. He was a team-best +19, really making the most of the time he was on the floor. This is Johnson’s third-straight game playing effective basketball after having one of his worst stretches of the season prior.
“I was in the right mindset going into the game,” Johnson noted. “I want to do everything in my power to help my team win. That’s the mentality I go into the game with. I just want to do everything to help my team win whether it’s scoring, setting good screens for the guys, rebounding.”
A big driver of the Connecticut’s win was holding Eric Dixon to just eight points on 2/15 shooting. The nation’s leading scorer was stopped over and over, a huge hit to the Wildcats’ offensive attack.
“I thought we made very few mistakes,” Hurley said of guarding Dixon. “Like pick and pops and him as a screener, with things we were switching, and then next up sending double teams. Honestly, for him it's just probably one of those nights. Obviously, Samson did a great job. Alex did a great job. Tarris [Reed Jr.] did a great job. I just think as great a player as he is and as inhuman as he's looked a lot of the times, with the season he's had, I think we were fortunate to get him on a night where he missed a couple.”
The Huskies got behind to start, trailing by nine thanks to seven early points by Wooga Poplar. It didn’t take them long to get right back in things though, with Ball converting a crafty layup to get within three.
Hurley got a technical during a timeout that halted some UConn momentum, but its effects didn’t last. A personal 5-0 run by Mahaney and a McNeeley three helped tie the game up, but they still went into the break down by five.
Even as the Huskies tried to get back in things, Poplar did his best to make sure that didn’t happen. The guard hit consecutive threes and threw down a fastbreak jam, temporarily stymieing Connecticut’s efforts.
Still, the Huskies’ deficit felt like it should have been greater than it was. They trailed by five with 13 minutes left, and then it was tied after a Karaban trey and a Mahaney hook.
Connecticut really started to get cooking during their signature 7-0 run, which was capped off by another Karaban triple. The run forced a Wildcat timeout, but another Karaban three only grew the Huskies’ lead. That shot proved to be the dagger, as Villanova went home empty handed. During UConn's 22-5 run to close the game, they weren’t looking to do everything at once, rather taking it one trip at a time.
“You definitely have flashbacks of last year when we go on the big runs,” Karaban said. “It was more so just trying to go possession by possession, break them down slowly. I thought we did a good job of that heading into the under 8 media time-outs. It was a good job collectively as a unit. We were able to break them down slowly and just play our basketball.”
The second half is surely encouraging for UConn, who has now won five straight games. It’s their best streak since ripping off eight in a row from November into January and they’re peaking at the right time. How high that peak can take them is up for debate, but regardless, it’s a good time to be playing their best.
“It's March, so we got to [stack wins],” Karaban mentioned. “We're desperate for championships here, so we want to play our best basketball right now. There's no better time. We've stacked up five wins in a row now. We want to keep going.”
Next up is Creighton, who competed in the aforementioned barn burner. It wasn’t a terribly impressive contest for the Bluejays, who needed every ounce of energy to oust a sub-100 KenPom squad. Either way, the matchups between UConn and Creighton have been enticing. The rubber match comes with a ticket to the Big East championship on the line.
That contest is scheduled to tip Friday at 9 p.m., but Thursday taught us that tip times aren’t always as advertised.
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