Gameday: Pushing the boundaries of elite
UConn has been here before. San Diego State has been here before, too. Thursday evening’s rematch of last year’s national championship is also the rematch of a tightly-contested Sweet 16 game in 2011 that featured two future NBA All-Stars.
“We had them in Anaheim with Kemba Walker and a chance to beat them close to our home,” recalled San Diego State head coach Brian Dutcher, who was an assistant coach for the 2011 Aztecs.
“They beat the Kawhi Leonard team. We're in their backyard now, and hopefully we'll have an opportunity to beat them close to their home.”
The Huskies are looking for their program’s third NCAA Tournament win over SDSU in Thursday’s regional semifinal at TD Garden. The winner moves on to play the victor of the Iowa State vs. Illinois nightcap, which is expected to tip off after 10 p.m. in Boston.
To get to last year’s championship game, the Aztecs pulled off an upset of the top overall seed at the time, Alabama. Dutcher probably has some faith in his team’s ability to slay the No. 1 dragon once again, but he wasn’t about to give Dan Hurley’s Huskies any bulletin board material.
“It's two different opponents,” Dutcher said. “Alabama was a lot younger. UConn is way more experienced, having won a national championship…The talent level is really close to the same. Both programs put guys in the NBA off their teams.”
“Hopefully there will be some familiarity with them from last year,” he added. “A lot of the same players back. A lot of the same system. They play a lot the same way.”
Before this season, UConn fans wondered if the 2024 Huskies would be as good as the team that broke through and won it all. Today, they’re reckoning with the possibility that this year’s Huskies are even better.
“I just think the pieces fit so well,” Hurley said. “A lot of it's been trial and error. Those couple of years when we weren't successful in the tournament, just the personalities, the skill set… adapting to the analytics and the modern game from an offensive standpoint, the growth there as a coach and in terms of roster construction.”
Perhaps this year’s team is better than the 2023 champions. It performed much better over the regular season, winning both league crowns, and saw multiple players as well as their head coach earning major awards.
Maybe that was the result of the league being weaker, but either way, it’s definitely a different UConn team.
“They had a whole different team last year. So did we,” Tristen Newton said. “I feel like last year I was like one of the fourth options, they weren't really worrying about me last year. I have a different role this year.”
Hurley didn’t go as far as saying this year’s squad is better than 2023, but he hinted at it.
“It's been a great team. It's just been a fun team,” Hurley said. “We finally have kind of figured out the formula.”
Big day for Clingan
While Donovan Clingan, a lifelong Boston Celtics fan, has expressed excitement for playing at TD Garden this weekend, he’s also reminded that he’s playing for his mother, who died of cancer six years ago.
“Six years ago today I lost my mom,” Clingan said on Thursday. “That changed my life forever.”
Stacy Clingan was a star basketball player at the University of Maine. Donovan shared that focusing on basketball after her death helped him feel closer to her.
“When she passed, it made me realize how much I loved basketball and gave me a reason to be great,” he explained. “I just try to live her name through the game… gave me a reason to make her proud and gave me a way to represent her and feel like I still had an attachment to her.”
Karaban homecoming
Alex Karaban is also a lifelong Celtics fan, having grown up not too far away in the Boston suburbs. Storrs Central is very excited to share that we’ve interviewed some of Karaban’s hometown coaches, teammates, and friends for an article about the star sophomore’s ascent from local phenom to college prospect and now someone who’s on the NBA Draft radar. That article is going out tomorrow.
Karaban shared that his mother is running point on getting tickets for close family and friends for the game, and many other fans and friends are buying their own blocks of tickets.
“Probably the only chance I get to play with UConn in Boston,” Karaban said. “It definitely will be special. At the same time it's a Sweet 16 game for us. So we're just locked in as if it was at any other location… I'm trying to get a lot of friends and family. I don't really know the number yet.”
SDSU Matchup Preview
Once again, the amazing Storrs Central community has you covered on preview material. We had TWO thorough SDSU scouting reports posted on the board this week. Huge thanks to BKervick and Cowboy Adama for supporting the cause of keeping Husky fans informed!
Dan Hurley’s Huskies expect a physical opponent with a disciplined defense that will try to slow down the potent UConn attack. SDSU will be going to its big man Jaedon LeDee early and often, trying to get Clingan into foul trouble, and probably needs to make a few extra threes to pull off the upset.
“[LeDee is] physical, can score at all three levels, puts the ball on the floor. He can get to the rim off the dribble. He attacks the offensive and defensive glass at another level,” Clingan said.
SDSU is optimistic about its chances to compete.
“As much as they ran through the tournament last year, dominated pretty much everybody, we felt with five minutes to go it was a five-point game, we put ourselves in a chance to win,” Dutcher said.
While LeDee is their leading scorer and threat by far, the Aztecs do return both starting guards from last year’s team and both have been playing well lately. Trammel was MVP of the South Region last year.
“I've got the starting backcourt from last year's national championship runner-up. I have Lamont [Butler] and Darrion [Trammell] back, and that's a good place to start…two guys that have been in big games that have had important moments in the NCAA Tournament…Hopefully they have that kind of one shining moment that will allow us to get a victory tomorrow.”
If Butler and Trammell are hitting shots, LeDee said he feels “there's not really much the other team can do.”
Though the Huskies appear to have a significant advantage, they’ve stayed hungry and sharp through March and the postseason. This will be their toughest challenge to date, perhaps even tougher than the Tyler Kolek-less Marquette team they beat in the Big East Tournament final, and we all know anything can happen in the NCAA Tournament.
“We're vulnerable,” Hurley shared. “This is not a best-of-five or best-of-seven. You have one off night, you know, where everything falls apart, you could be the best team in the country and not win the tournament.”