UConn’s dominant title run proves that Huskies do ‘run school basketball’

GLENDALE, Ariz. – The chants of U-C-O-N-N hailed down for a twelfth straight time on the NCAA Event stage because the group from the northeast farmland of Storrs, Connecticut — the place they get via the lengthy and chilly winters with the heat of basketball success — has made historical past. 

Billy Donovan, you now have firm, and the title of the person becoming a member of you is Dan Hurley. The 51-year-old UConn head coach has achieved what feels increasingly not possible by the day within the present age of faculty basketball, shedding 5 of his prime eight scorers from a nationwide championship group and one way or the other managing to guide his program to back-to-back titles for the primary time since Donovan and Florida did it in 2006 and 2007.

However this yr’s group did not simply repeat; it dominated, closing out the 2024 NCAA Event with a formidable 75-60 win over Zach Edey and the Purdue Boilermakers on Monday evening at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona. UConn gained its six event video games by a mixed margin of 140 factors, which is the best mark ever by an NCAA males’s event champion.

“Clearly, what might you say?” Hurley stated. “We gained … by rather a lot once more.”

With the victory, UConn improved to 6-0 in nationwide championship video games, matching North Carolina for the third-most titles all-time and cementing themselves as one of many biggest packages within the historical past of the game. Solely UCLA (11) and Kentucky (eight) personal extra nationwide championships than the Huskies.

“I feel it is up there by way of the best two-year runs {that a} program has ever had,” Hurley stated. “I can not say something about Duke as a result of I will piss my brother [Bobby] off. However I suppose I can say stuff about Florida. However I like Billy Donovan. 

“I simply suppose it is the very best two-year run in a really, very very long time simply due to every thing we misplaced from final yr’s group. To lose that a lot and, once more, to do what we did once more, it is obtained to be as spectacular a two-year run as a program’s had since previous to whoever did it earlier than Duke. To me, it’s extra spectacular than what Florida and Duke did as a result of they introduced again their total groups. We misplaced some main gamers.” 

The Huskies misplaced three starters from their 2023 championship group, together with Jordan Hawkins and Andre Jackson, who had been each NBA Draft picks, and Adama Sanogo, who was the Most Excellent Participant of final yr’s Closing 4.

However the three important returnees from final season’s title-winning group — Tristen Newton, Alex Karaban and Donovan Clingan — have entered themselves right into a particular column in UConn lore, and are merely wired otherwise.

There’s Newton, the Cool Hand Luke level guard, who turned the primary participant ever to document 20 factors, 5 rebounds, 5 assists and never commit a single turnover in a nationwide championship sport. The senior flooring basic delivered 20-7-5 with not a single mistake in a masterclass efficiency on Monday evening.

“This teaching workers trusts in me to run the group, so I’ve no alternative at UConn however to capitalize off the chance,” Newton instructed FOX Sports activities. “The coaches did an excellent job getting me to return again. Our concept was to be one yr and achieved, however after successful the primary nationwide championship, you instantly wish to do it once more.

“Our tradition and relentless competitiveness helped us win two in a row. It is selflessness. It is shopping for into your position. It is successful. Protection, rebounding and sharing the ball. These are the three messages for each sport. We did that each sport this yr, and I might say it labored out fairly properly.”

There’s Karaban, the sophomore stretch ahead who instructed me postgame that Hurley and his star-studded workers of Luke Murray, Kimani Younger and Tom Moore have a knack for figuring out guys who’re “wired on basketball.” 

Then there’s the native product, Clingan, the jolly inexperienced big who will get picked early on draft evening this June and has entered his title into the ebook of UConn legends.

“What we confirmed tonight is that now we have the very best group within the nation and the very best workers within the nation,” Clingan stated. “No one practices two and a half hours the day earlier than a sport. This group simply loves one another, man. It was the very best determination of my life to return to this faculty.” 

And it was the very best determination for UConn athletic director David Benedict to rent Hurley in 2018, pulling him from Rhode Island to Storrs, the place he has discovered the right marriage and a fan base that feeds off basketball success. There’s nothing regular in the case of school basketball in Storrs, as a result of that would not be ok to do the extraordinary. 

It is why Cam Spencer elected to return to UConn for a fifth season of faculty basketball, and why he would not speak to anyone in October when he misplaced an exhibition capturing competitors to his teammates, and why he tackled Hurley within the last seconds of Monday evening’s sport when he got here off the court docket.

“It is the successful customary right here, and accountability each single day,” Spencer instructed FOX Sports activities when requested what makes UConn such a particular place. “This program is all about successful, and there is a blue-collar toughness in Storrs, Connecticut. Every thing right here is about rising as a participant and discovering methods to win.”

That nonstop drive to maintain including to the {hardware} cabinets might be heard in Hurley’s postgame feedback.

“Yeah, we’ll get pleasure from this for a few days,” Hurley stated when requested what’s subsequent. “On the flight house tomorrow, we’ll begin speaking about what the roster’s going to appear like. Clearly, we graduate some gamers. We will lose a pair probably to the NBA early entry. We will dive in and put collectively a roster that may play a comparable stage of basketball to the one that you simply guys have witnessed the final two years. That shall be our mindset.” 

That very mindset, coupled with the outcomes on the court docket, can’t be argued, which is why Hurley stated he isn’t fascinated by the Kentucky teaching job.

“The very last thing I am fascinated by is one other place,” Hurley stated. “We’re ready proper now to be back-to-back in an period that makes it powerful to do it, and now you are fascinated by the prospect to do it 3 times, like a dynasty in trendy occasions. That is what I am fascinated by.”

Hurley has an excellent stage of respect for the College of Connecticut and appears on the program’s historic run as a option to make Benedict and the individuals who employed him proud.

“Dave Benedict and this faculty noticed one thing in me, and I am simply thrilled to have the ability to pay this place again for what they’ve achieved and the chance they’ve given me,” Hurley instructed FOX Sports activities. “They’ve given us the assets to place collectively a dynasty.” 

On this ever-changing world of faculty basketball, successful back-to-back titles is spectacular alone. However Hurley and his workers have a singular capacity to search out proficient gamers who’re wired to win, which makes this UConn program one scary freight practice for the remainder of school basketball. 

On Monday evening, the Huskies flexed their muscle tissue as soon as once more, and even with the two-time nationwide participant of the yr, Zach Edey, scoring 37 factors for Purdue, it did not matter in the long run end result. And within the means of successful a second straight nationwide title, this UConn program put collectively the newest show of a run of excellence that stands in a category of its personal. 

Hurley’s phrases in the course of the postgame trophy ceremony are validated when a program accomplishes what UConn has achieved:

“For the final 30 years, UConn has been operating school basketball.” 

John Fanta is a nationwide school basketball broadcaster and author for FOX Sports activities. He covers the game in a wide range of capacities, from calling video games on FS1 to serving as lead host on the BIG EAST Digital Community to offering commentary on The Area of 68 Media Community. Observe him on Twitter @John_Fanta.