One night, Connecticut puts up 95 points, looking like an indomitable offensive force. The next, it can’t throw the ball in the ocean for a full half, and relies on its defense.
As Rick Pitino said after losing to the top-seeded Huskies on Friday night, they can beat you 100 different ways. Consider this Big East Tournament a great example.
The Huskies rode their defense until they found the range.
Once that happened, three-seed Marquette had no shot.
Dan Hurley’s team pulled away late for its first Big East Tournament crown since rejoining the league, beating the Tyler Kolek-less Golden Eagles, 73-57, at the Garden on Saturday night.
The title was the Huskies’ first league tournament title since 2011 and eighth overall, tying Georgetown for the most in Big East history.
“There’s just not a lot of holes in the way that we play,” Hurley said. “We’ve got great offense, rebound the ball. We’re an elite defensive team. We play so hard. We’re deep, and we’re deep with NBA players that are unselfish and about winning.”
With fellow projected No. 1 seeds Houston and Purdue both losing in their respective conference tournaments on Saturday, defending national champion Connecticut could be looking at the No. 1 overall seed in the upcoming NCAA Tournament for the first time. It certainly looks the part.
“We’ve been the best team in college basketball,” Hurley said. “Obviously March Madness next week, who knows what goes on there, but we’ve clearly been the best program in the country this year.”
UConn broke open a close game with a 19-5 run that was spearheaded by freshman Jaylin Stewart. Marquette (25-9) was right there prior to the burst, down only two.
By the end of it, the game was over, the Huskies holding a 16-point lead with 5:54 to go.
On a night when Cam Spencer was held to four points and conference tournament Most Outstanding Player Tristen Newton was off with his shot, it didn’t matter.
Donovan Clingan rebounded from a shaky semifinal against St. John’s with a dominant 22-point, 16-rebound, two-block performance. Stewart added nine points off the bench, his second-highest point total of the season.
Clingan, Marquette coach Shaka Smart said, was the difference at both ends of the floor.
He not only scored at a high rate, he held Golden Eagles forward Oso Ighodaro in check, limiting him to eight points on 4 of 11 shooting.
“This guy right here, Donovan, he’s one of the two or three most impactful players in college basketball,” Hurley said. “If you don’t see that with your eyes, then look at the analytics.”
Remarkably, Marquette shot 48 percent from the field in the second half and was outscored by 14.
Once UConn (31-3) got going, it wasn’t slowing down. It shot 63 percent from the field after halftime.
Kam Jones had 13 points to lead the Golden Eagles and David Joplin followed with 12, but the two only shot a combined 9 of 29.
The start of this showdown was stunning in its inefficiency. Two top-20 offenses that couldn’t find the bottom of the basket. Connecticut didn’t score until 6:33 had elapsed, after missing its first eight shots.
At one point, the teams were 3 of 22 from the field. The Huskies missed their first five layup attempts, according to Stat Broadcast. It didn’t impact them at the other end of the floor.
“We talk about how we can compete with any type of game that’s going on out there,” Clingan said. “We just try to play the best defense possible and not let the up-and-down game happen. And we saw shots weren’t falling, so we just gutted it out and kept doing what we were doing and really just talked about defense.”
This wasn’t Connecticut’s “A” game. Not even close. It didn’t matter.
“We ain’t done yet,” Hurley said in his on-court interview, as UConn fans exploded inside the Garden. The Huskies have six wins left to get.
