As Connecticut men’s basketball coach Dan Hurley walked off the Madison Square Garden floor around 9:15 on Saturday night, he stopped briefly to embrace Jamar Jones.
Hurley was on his way to the locker room to continue celebrating UConn’s 73-57 victory over Marquette in the Big East championship game. Jones was in a jovial mood, too. His stepson, freshman forward Jaylin Stewart, had hit three, 3-pointers in a three-minute stretch midway through the second half, expanding a one-point lead to 11 with 7:33 remaining and helping the Huskies win their first Big East postseason title since 2011.
“Dan the man!,” Jones said.
Before Saturday, Stewart was averaging 2.4 points per game and had made just 6 of 30 3-pointers this season. He closed the regular season with three scoreless games. He didn’t have a point in Thursday’s opening round victory over Xavier, either. But he made all four of his field goals and scored eight points in Friday’s semifinal win over St. John’s. And he contributed nine points on Saturday, a night when the Huskies weren’t at their top form for the first 30 minutes but dominated in the final 10 minutes.
Center Donovan Clingan, a near-certain first round pick in June’s NBA draft, scored 22 points, corralled 16 rebounds and dominated the post. Guard Tristen Newton, the tournament’s Most Valuable Player, had 13 points and 10 assists. The Huskies also have a future NBA lottery choice in freshman guard Stephon Castle and a first team All-Big East selection in senior transfer guard Cam Spencer.
Those four, along with forward Alex Karaban, are the main reasons UConn (31-3) has won 21 of its past 22 games and is the favorite to win its second consecutive national title. No team has repeated as national champion since Florida in 2006 and 2007. And over the past 51 years, Duke in 1991 and 1992 is the only other program with back-to-back titles.
Still, Stewart’s emergence off the bench is just another reason why the No. 2 ranked Huskies enter the NCAA tournament as the likely overall No. 1 seed, especially after No. 1 Houston and No. 3 Purdue lost earlier on Saturday.
Afterward, Hurley said “college basketball is tough on freshmen” and admitted Stewart has struggled at times this season.
“We’ve tried to push him but also stay positive with him,” Hurley said. “We’ve tried to preach patience to his family and the people around him so he doesn’t go one foot out the door on us….If he stays with us, he’s a future star.”
Hurley was asked if he ever felt Stewart had “one foot out the door” and considered transferring.
“Listen, with what goes on, you hear it,” Hurley said. “I get the intel from my staff. The different programs – while they’re still playing and while other people are still playing –that are tampering and making NIL (offers). The whole thing is just an embarrassment the way some programs operate. I don’t know that that’s on his mind, but our game is so despicable in some ways with the way people are functioning in March.”
For his part, Stewart gave no indication he planned on entering the transfer portal, which opens on Monday and closes on May 1.
Stewart, a native of Washington and top 70 national recruit, rebuffed offers from several West Coast schools and committed to UConn in September 2022 after visiting campus. Back then, the Huskies hadn’t won an NCAA tournament game since 2016 and had been knocked out in the first round for two consecutive seasons. But Stewart grew close with Hurley and assistant coach Luke Murray, both of whom visited his home and aggressively pursued him.
“They’re like second family,” Jones said.
Before arriving at UConn at the start of the school year, Stewart got a large tattoo on his left forearm. Beneath the inscription of “Loyalty” is a rendition of the Seattle space needle, as well as the year he was born, the area where he was raised, the street he grew up on and the high school he attended. Sitting at his locker, Stewart explained that he went to the same high school (Garfield) all four years and stuck with the same AAU team (Seattle Rotary), a rarity in today’s basketball culture.
“It just shows the type of person I am,” he said.
Stewart showed no outward signs of someone considering leaving UConn.
“I’m going to be here next year,” he said. “I’m going to take a big leap, and they’re going to need me. I’m just waiting my turn.”