NEW YORK — That is school basketball royalty.
Blue blood packages do not simply win championships, they achieve this by making it look simple regardless of carrying the burden of expectations and residing because the Goliath in each recreation they play.
That is UConn.
On Saturday evening, Dan Hurley’s program added one other trophy to its case, and even when it comes as little shock that the Huskies hauled previous Marquette 73-57 at Madison Sq. Backyard, let’s do some fast accounting on the standing of one of the spectacular items in all of American sports activities.
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“Sometime you are going to hear that noise coming from the Knicks locker room and it may be the Knicks,” mentioned a safety officer named Mark, who was left to protect the doorway of Connecticut’s loud lair. Almost an hour after the sport went remaining, UConn’s locker room was an audible carnival, the hooting and hollering bursting into the hallway exterior.
The Huskies hauled their first Huge East Event since 2011 — the 12 months Kemba Walker carried UConn to a Huge East title after which a nationwide title. That was the college’s seventh. It needed to wait 13 years, however now it lastly has No. 8. And it is the fifth time Connecticut has swept the Huge East common season and postseason titles.
And now, due to losses Saturday from fellow No. 1 seeds Purdue and Houston, the Huskies appear to have the lead for the No. 1 general seed on Choice Sunday.
If it occurs, that’ll be a Connecticut first as properly.
In lower than a 12 months, Hurley has taken this program to each peak possible: an NCAA championship in dominant style, then a follow-up season with a 20-3 report vs. Huge East brethren, an undisputed reign over the league it based in 1979, and a most-cherished mid-March Saturday evening celebration in Midtown Manhattan. In the event you want extra, he additionally lastly ended UConn’s 10-year drought in opposition to ranked groups on the street; the Huskies have received 5 straight video games vs. AP Prime-10 groups for first time since 1998-99; and at “Storrs South,” Connecticut was 7-0 this season.
“We have achieved a whole lot of historic issues. I do know we have by no means gotten the No. 1 general seed in program historical past, however it is a group that appears to be making historical past at a spot that is exhausting to make historical past,” Hurley mentioned.
Bingo.
Hurley’s greater than made this system in his picture; he is hand-carved a one-of-a-kind operation together with his maniacal drive, his insatiable need to chase each victory, regardless of how large or small, and snatch it together with his fingers nonetheless buzzing. No slight in opposition to him or his workforce goes unseen. There may be at all times a scoreboard.
“We have clearly been one of the best program within the nation this 12 months,” Hurley mentioned.
Not Houston. Not Purdue. No person else.
Nobody can argue it. After Houston obtained shockingly shellacked in opposition to Iowa State within the Huge 12 Event remaining on Saturday, the Huskies overtook the Cougars at KenPom.com. They’re now No. 1 for the primary time this season. However having watched this workforce all season lengthy, one factor has been apparent and infrequently doubtful: Connecticut’s greatest is best than each different workforce’s greatest.
With a Huge East sweep, the Huskies will strut into Choice Sunday because the workforce greatest outfitted to repeat as nationwide champions since Florida did it in 2006 and 2007. Villanova in 2017 is the latest legitimate candidate for this, and that was a very good workforce, nevertheless it wasn’t as deadly as this UConn group. What does it say about Connecticut that it performed its B-game general previously three days in opposition to Xavier, St. John’s (which obtained a season-high 90 on the Huskies) and shorthanded Marquette, which was with out workforce MVP Tyler Kolek?
It is third gear is sort of a sixth gear for many others.
UConn has grown into one thing monstrous. It has the proper alignment of coach, philosophy, angle and execution. And as Hurley talked about a number of occasions over the previous two nights, the workforce appears to be doing it regardless of allegations of different faculties making an attempt to poach a few of its gamers. (The switch portal will formally open Monday, which is horrible timing and should be mounted ASAP.)
“We’re not doing what a whole lot of packages are doing this time of 12 months, even whereas different they’re taking part in, by third events, making an attempt to tug individuals off different groups,” Hurley mentioned.
He is been direct about it. Public. He is pissed off and he has each proper to be.
How does UConn discover extra motivation to repeat as nationwide champions after profitable a Huge East title and checking each field? Perhaps it is a rally in this system sparked by issues like that. I do not know if UConn will be capable to pull off six straight wins and enter the rarified air of changing into back-to-back nationwide champions. However I do know I will not be shocked in any way if it occurs; I will be shocked if this workforce is not taking part in three weeks from tonight in Arizona, actually.
Tristen Newton, the 2024 Huge East Event Most Worthwhile Participant, left the postgame presser together with his trophy in hand. He mentioned he supposed to stroll the streets of Manhattan again to the workforce resort. I hope he did. That man is a pleasure to observe on the courtroom. His management and consistency has positioned him as a First Workforce All-American so far as I am involved.
As if UConn wanted something extra to make this a legendary evening, take into account: Newton went for 13 factors and 10 assists. He grew to become the second participant in a Huge East title recreation to have double-figure assists since Syracuse‘s Pearl Washington in 1984. And Donovan Clingan? Huge gamers present up in large video games and reinforce their bigness: Clingan had 22 factors and 16 rebounds in what began off as an unsightly recreation earlier than ending in a signature UConn runaway. Clingan grew to become the primary individual to have a minimum of 20 factors and 15 rebounds in a Huge East title recreation since a man named Patrick Ewing did it … in 1984.
Feels like a reasonably good recreation they performed on this constructing 40 years in the past.
That ’84 title recreation ended with Georgetown beating Syracuse by double digits to brush the Huge East common season and postseason titles earlier than happening to win a nationwide title. Previous is prologue?
UConn ripped the torch from Villanova, then Marquette, and has claimed king standing on this basketball-loving league. In the event you suppose this workforce and college and employees and gamers don’t have anything left to show, then you definitely misplaced the plot. There may be at all times one other purpose to chase, one other workforce to annihilate, one other trophy to win. Connecticut screams into the NCAA Event because the beast of the bracket, and it’ll take one thing borderline miraculous to take this workforce down.