Donovan Clingan banged his fist against his chest and screamed at the pro-Connecticut crowd at TD Garden in Boston. On consecutive possessions, Clingan had blocked a shot and made an emphatic dunk, causing Illinois coach Brad Underwood to call a timeout with 17:09 remaining in the second half Saturday night.
“U-C-O-N-N!,” the fans chanted. “ UConn! UConn! UConn!”
The Huskies at the time were ahead by 12 points, and Underwood tried to do something to stem the tide. It didn’t work. Nothing did for the Illini.
UConn defeated Illinois, 77-52, in the NCAA tournament’s East Regional final thanks to a 25-0 run to begin the second half that showed how dominant the reigning national champions are when operating at full strength.
After trailing 28-23 at halftime, Illinois had no answers in the second half. The Illini missed their first 14 shots and didn’t score until 12:41 remaining. By then, UConn was up by 28 points and on its way to another easy victory and a berth in the Final Four.
“The second half was kind of like a high school practice where the first team is on defense and the second team is on offense and they just keep getting the ball and fast breaking,” said Bob Hurley, the father of UConn coach Dan Hurley. “It was a defense to fast break drill, but this is against a great college team in Illinois with probably three guys who can play in the NBA.”
The game was tied at 23-23 with 1:49 left in the first half on a jumper from Illinois forward Marcus Domask, who had 15 points in the first 20 minutes. But UConn scored the next 30 points, which was the Huskies’ longest streak since a 32-0 stretch in an 85-32 victory over the University of New Hampshire on Dec. 12, 1990.
That UNH team finished 3-25 and averaged 59.2 points per game, ranking 294th out of 295 Division 1 teams. This Illinois team, meanwhile, entered Saturday averaging 84.2 points per game (ninth in Division I) and with the second-best offense in the country, per analyst Ken Pomeroy’s adjusted offensive efficiency metric.
Still, the Illini could not do anything offensively against a swarming UConn defense that was led by 7-foot-2 sophomore center Donovan Clingan, who had five blocks and three steals and altered several more shots.
“He was Bill Walton-esque with his effect on the game tonight,” Bob Hurley said.
That’s a hefty comparison as Walton is a Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Famer, as is Bob Hurley, who was a legendary coach at Saint Anthony High School in Jersey City, N.J.
Walton was the center on UCLA teams that won national titles in 1972 and 1973. Since then, only Duke in 1991 and 1992 (whose point guard was Bobby Hurley, Bob’s son and Dan’s older brother) and Florida in 2006 and 2007 have won back-to-back national titles.
UConn is the first reigning national champion since that 2007 Florida team to advance to the Final Four. The Huskies did so thanks to their depth as five players scored in double figures led by Clingan, the East Region’s most outstanding player who had 22 points and 10 rebounds in 21 minutes and 55 seconds.
Tom Moore, who has been a UConn assistant for 19 seasons over two stretches starting in the mid-1990s, was asked earlier this month if Clingan reminds him of any former UConn players. Moore said Clingan has a different build and game than other UConn bigs such as Emeka Okafor, Hasheem Thabeet and Charlie Villanueva, all of whom were NBA lottery picks. The closest comparison, Moore said, was Andrew Bynum, a 7-foot center who committed to UConn but never went to college and was the 10th overall pick in the 2005 draft out of high school.
“Donovan is better than (Bynum) in the high post,” Moore said. “Donovan’s a better passer. I think he has more touch but the same frame.”
Moore added: “He’s pretty unique because he can play on the low post and the high post. I don’t know that we’ve ever had anyone as big as him that can effect shots at the rim as well as he does, too.”
Clingan was not the only impressive UConn defender on Saturday. Freshman Stephon Castle, a projected lottery pick in June’s draft, was the main UConn player guarding Illinois All-American Terrence Shannon Jr., who entered averaging 23.5 points per game, including 28.3 points in the Illini’s first three NCAA tournament games. But Shannon managed only eight points on 2 of 12 shooting. Domask, meanwhile, only had two points in the second half after scoring 15 in the first half. No other Illini player besides Domask scored in double figures.
Illinois had season-lows with 52 points and a 25.4% field goal percentage, much worse than the previous lows of 64 points and 32.8%. The No. 3 seed Illini couldn’t do anything against a UConn team that set a national record by winning its 10th consecutive NCAA tournament game by at least 10 points. The No. 1 seed Huskies (35-3) also set a program record for victories in a season, topping the 1999 team that went 34-2 and won UConn’s first national title.
Afterward, Dan Hurley mentioned that someone on his staff showed him a post on X from former Illinois player Sean Harrington following the Illini’s 72-69 victory on Thursday over Iowa State, which had the nation’s best defense, per KenPom.
“Defense stepped up tonight,” Harrington wrote. “Illini were the more physical team. Iowa State didn’t get any easy buckets. (Shannon) was the best player on the floor again. And (Shannon) will be the best player on the floor Saturday. UCONN doesn’t have a good answer for him.”
Hurley’s response?
“Statements like that are asinine,” he said. “You’re going against beasts and monsters every night in the Big East, and the Big East prepare us for teams like Illinois.”
Hurley often uses any perceived slights to motivate his team. He mentioned after Saturday’s victory how the Big East coaches picked UConn to finish third in the preseason poll even though that occurred more than five months ago.
At the media timeout with 3:33 remaining, Hurley said “he finally felt safe” with UConn ahead 71-42 and yelled at the crowd. He knew it was over.
“We’re a program, our players have a lot of confidence and a lot of swagger,” Hurley said. “Our fan base, again, is obnoxious as (expletive) on social media. So everyone hates us.”
He added: “It was a chance to celebrate with them because our fan base and our organization right now, it’s an us against the world of college basketball and I wanted to celebrate with them a little bit.”
With 3:03 left, some fans shouted, “We Want Hurley,” asking the Huskies to insert into the game reserve guard Andrew Hurley, the coach’s son. The younger Hurley entered with 1:47 left and played the rest of the way. He held on to the ball at the end, just like his superstitious father always wants him to do, and handed it to the referee.
In the stands, the large UConn contingent celebrated. The Huskies are accustomed to winning, as they have won five national titles since 1999, but this year’s team has been the most dominant in program history. This is the first time UConn has made the Final Four in consecutive seasons.
On Saturday, the Huskies will face Alabama in a national semifinal game in Phoenix. There will be plenty of familiar faces in the crowd, including Hurley’s parents and his brother, Bobby, the coach at Arizona State, which is hosting the event. Bob Hurley plans on getting to Phoenix on Thursday, one day later than usual, because his wife booked a trip to Disney World starting on Monday.
“It’s going to be very unusual,” Bob Hurley said of getting there late. “But you know what? I could walk to Phoenix right now after this experience.”