UConn Hoops: Huskies use 30-0 run to cruise into Final Four
When you go into the Elite Eight, the expectation is a hard-fought game. Both teams have proven themselves to be two of the top handful of squads in the country through the first half of the tournament. This matchup is the one that separates the good teams from great, with the grand prize being a ticket to the Final Four in Phoenix, AZ–significant enough to bring out the best in any team.
This one featured UConn men’s basketball and Illinois, the top two offenses in all of basketball, per KenPom. Some expected a tight game in the 80s or 90s, others suspected one that featured a slightly more controlled tempo. But nobody foresaw the way it unfolded.
Neither side found much of their lauded attack in the first half, with the sides combining for just 51 points. Though the beginning didn’t live up to the hype, the second half defined the contest. UConn used a 30-0 run that spanned from the end of the first half and into the second and after the run, Illinois didn’t have any fight left, falling 77-52.
“We just had tremendous respect for Illinois,” said UConn coach Dan Hurley. “[Illinois coach] Brad [Underwood] and their program and the team, I obviously would have been thrilled just to get out of here with a win. But our defense is elite. Our offense is elite. We rebound the ball. These guys play every possession like it's the end of the world. [assistant coaches] Kimani [Young] and Luke [Murray] prepare these guys with scouts at a quality level that any head coach in the country would be proud to put forth. Those two guys are amazing.”
The star of the show was Donovan Clingan, who brought his best effort once again. The sophomore center looked like the best player on the floor, scoring 22 points on just 13 shots to go along with 10 boards, 5 blocks and 3 steals. Highlighted by this game and the Big East tournament final against Marquette, Clingan has a knack for showing up in big moments.
“Really in the second half, the way we were moving the ball on offense and how we were playing for one another really just opened up opportunities to dominate in the post and find cutters cutting and getting open shots,” Clingan said postgame. “Just one thing about this team is we always play for the guy next to us. We're not worried about our stats. We're not worried about ourselves. We're worried about the person next to us, worried about the team, and worried about walking out with a W.”
Hurley had a similar assessment of his team’s unselfishness, despite all their talent.
“We've got NBA-level players that are just willing to share and have created an unbelievable culture,” he noted. “We're going to be tough to beat.”
Aside from Clingan, one other player stepped up in particular. Though he didn’t have an impressive game on the offensive end with just two points, it’s what Steph Castle did everywhere else that made all the difference. Not only did he add 5 assists and 6 boards, but the guard hounded Illinois’ best player and All-America selection, Terrence Shannon Jr. all game. Shannon finished with just 8 points on 12 shots and looked frustrated.
“I mean, Steph just made it really, really tough on him,” Hurley noted of his freshman’s defense on Shannon. “He chased him off the line. One of his two buckets was a flash in transition, he got there so fast. Then whenever he did get the edge, we had rim protection there. You had Donovan there, you had Samson there. There's a reason why, in the basketball world, people are as high on Steph as they are. He's a winning player, and obviously he's got an incredible career in the NBA ahead of him.”
As well as Castle did at defending Shannon, he had a tougher time taking full credit for his work, making sure to give props to his coaches and teammates.
“He’s a great player,” Castle said of Shannon. “I feel like, as the best team in the country, we accept matchups like that, we take on challenges like that. I feel like we won that tonight. Big credit to [Clingan]. I know I get a lot of credit for the matchup, but I want to give credit to our coaches for getting us prepared for a matchup like that and to [Clingan] for protecting the rim.”
UConn got off to a blazing start, completely pushed by the efforts of their star center. Clingan went up too weak on his first attempt, missing a layup, but didn’t make the same mistake again.
The very next play he slammed home a dunk and followed that with an and-one layup. Before long the Huskies were up 9-0, looking poised to blow yet another quality opponent out of the arena. Instead, they let the Illini catch up. Slowly, but surely, Illinois pushed themselves back into the game, with Shannon’s layup making it a 3-point game.
Connecticut saw their lead continue to dissipate as the sides went back and forth for the rest of the half. Four straight from Marcus Domask—who had 15 of the Illini’s 23 at the time—tied the game up, but that woke the Huskies up in a big way.
They scored the half’s final five points, but they weren’t done there. UConn also managed to score the second half’s first 25 points, good for an extremely rare 30-0 run. Clingan was the catalyst with a number of layups and free throws and jams, but Karaban was active too.
The sophomore drained a huge three midway through and also punished the hoop on an and-one slam—and hung around on it for good measure. Before long the Huskies were up by 30 and Illinois hadn’t scored for nearly 10 minutes.
“It didn’t seem real,” Karaban recalled of the run. “I’ve never been part of a 30-0 run or seen anything like it before. We knew they weren’t going to back down so we needed to keep going. It’s within our culture, our DNA…Doing it against them, the No. 1, No. 2 offense in the country, it’s no joke.”
As for Hurley, he hadn’t even realized that the run hit 30-0 in the moment.
“No, you don't,” Hurley remarked as to whether he knew about the extent of the run. “I knew that Brad was burning through timeouts and he did everything he could to stop the momentum. But the stops, the transition efficiency. Anytime we were inefficient in transition, these guys playing against the smaller line up, Tristen, all the guards knew that the ball needed to go to Donovan tonight. That's the beauty of the team. It was a special level of basketball that we were playing.”
Even with over a dozen minutes left, that just about wrapped things up, with Connecticut stamping their ticket to the Final Four. And the Huskies didn’t forget to finish the game off with their superstition involving walk-on and Dan’s son, Andrew Hurley, who has become the team’s designated player to dribble out the clock. As thrilled as Dan is with the tradition, Andrew is a bit less enthused.
“I’m a little indifferent on it just because it’s a lot of attention and I’m not a big attention guy,” Andrew said. “I do think that it’s the one comforting thing maybe, that everyone can look back at. It’s scary, knowing that any game can be your last. It’s something that comforts guys in tough times, so I’m happy to do it.”
Their Final Four matchup–and the second to last chance for Andrew to take the air out of the ball–will come this Saturday against No. 4 seed Alabama with a trip to the national championship on the line.
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