There was a different star in each of the UConn men’s basketball team’s three wins on its way to the Phil Knight Invitational championship, the first trophy fifth-year head coach Dan Hurley will be able to place in the expansive display in the lobby of the Werth Champions Center.
First it was Tristen Newton, who had the hot hand in the tournament-opening win over Oregon, scoring 23 points and making his first five 3-point attempts in the first half. Then, junior Adama Sanogo “played like an All-American,” Hurley said, with 25 points and a pair of blocks to beat then-No. 18 Alabama. The Tide then went on to down then-No. 1 ranked North Carolina.
On Sunday night, in the 18-point title-game victory over Iowa State, it was freshmen Donovan Clingan and Alex Karaban, alongside their eye-grabbing captain Andre Jackson, who made other-wordly hustle plays left and right. One time, with about 7 1/2 minutes left in the second half, Jackson lept from just inside the free throw line and intercepted a pass to the baseline, saving it back over his head to Newton before landing just in front of the cameras out of bounds.
Clingan put together the best game of his young career, with 15 points and 10 rebounds in 18 minutes and, though he wasn’t credited with a block, altered nearly every one of the Cyclones’ shots inside the paint. Clingan claimed tournament MVP honors, and Karaban joined him on the all-tournament team after playing nearly every minute of the Iowa State game (38) and making momentum-swinging plays on a consistent basis. The reigning back-to-back Big East Freshman of the Week finished Sunday night with 10 points and 3 key offensive rebounds.
“We just wanted to stay composed, we trusted our own skills,” Karaban said after the game. “We have so much depth to where anyone can step up and we have too many players for them to worry about.”
Clingan, the towering 7-2 center from Bristol, didn’t know he won MVP until he walked into the post-game press conference.
“It feels great. It just shows all of the hard work I put in over the summer, and at the start of this year, battling with Adama every day. It feels good that it’s been paying off and I’ve just got to keep going because we’ve got a long season ahead,” he said.
Over the summer and into the early part of the season, Clingan expected to play the role of a relief pitcher coming in to give Sanogo a break when he needed it. Quickly on Sunday, it turned into much more than that.
Sanogo played just 22 minutes as he got into foul trouble early and made just one of his first five shots. When Clingan came in, the game changed immediately. After a sloppy start for the Huskies on the offensive end, Clingan scored eight points and grabbed five rebounds (two offensive) in his first six minutes on the court. The Huskies held an 8-7 lead when Clingan entered about seven minutes into the contest. When he exited with seven minutes left in the half, UConn had a 10-point lead, 23-13.
“The preseason player of the year (Sanogo) had a foul-plagued, just not one of his best nights, and then to have Jordan (Hawkins) play basically six minutes in the game and to beat a quality team by 18 in a championship game just speaks to the level that this group’s playing at,” Hurley said. “When you’re this deep, you could survive nights when arguably the two best offensive players, definitely our two best offensive players, gave us six points combined in foul-plagued minutes.”
Clingan helped UConn dominate on the boards, as the Huskiesout-rebounded the Cyclones, 48-19. Offensively, he did the little things for his teammates to succeed, setting high screens and floating down low at times for easy finishes, connecting on lob dunks on several occasions.
“I knew that I was gonna have to play behind Adama and just come in when he needed a break and try to do what he’s doing on the court to help my team win,” Clingan said.
On the ESPN broadcast, Seth Greenberg wondered if hall of famer Bill Walton, who was the color commentator, saw a young version of himself in Clingan. Walton replied that he sees a “young Donovan Clingan,” previously claiming that the freshman played like a four-year NBA veteran.
Karaban, who’s made his mark doing the little things, had been recognized with back-to-back Big East Freshman of the Week nods. On Monday, however, Clingan claimed the crown.
“Karaban and Clingan are freshmen, and they are just making huge, immeasurable contributions,” Walton later said. “That’s domination.”
The UConn men flew home with the women’s team, which claimed its own Phil Knight Legacy tournament title with a come-from-behind victory over ninth-ranked Iowa. The two programs are now a combined 13-0 on their young seasons, and each rank in the top-10 in both offensive and defensive efficiency.
“The formula is fairly simple, right?” Hurley said. “It’s like, play elite defense, win the war on the boards, play for each other offensively and play harder than the other team. It’s a very, very simple formula that if you follow it, you’re gonna have a chance to win every single night that you step on the court. If you do those things consistently, and that’s part of your culture and your DNA, you get a shot every time you step onto the court.”
