When half of the No. 1s and the same amount of No. 2s get shorn from the NCAA Tournament field by the close of the opening weekend, when a 16 beats a 1 for goodness’ sake, when upsets abound and numbers are just numbers, when certainty is absent and it becomes that kind of year, different realities kick in.
Nothing can be assumed this March, apparently, with so much of what came before it having been confounded by the events of Thursday through Sunday, brackets busted everywhere on account of Purdue’s pain and Kansas’ collapse, not to mention Arizona’s agony and Marquette’s mishap.
Forgive the incessant alliteration, but this is the week for such wordplay, and as the Sweet 16 and Elite Eight beckon, truth holds that getting into the business of proclaiming a “sure thing” is an undoubted fool’s errand in 2023.
And yet, if there is a stable presence seemingly unburdened by the chorus of chaos whirling through the heftier parts of the field, it comes from a storied program that had fallen on tough times.
“You can definitely say UConn’s back.”
So said freshman center Donovan Clingan, and it did indeed look that way on Friday and Sunday, as the Huskies, seeded as a lowly No. 4 on account of a midseason blip that no longer feels relevant, punched like a top-line favorite in seamlessly dismissing Iona and Saint Mary’s, both opponents nicknamed the Gaels, both suffering a similar fate of being handsomely outplayed.
The evidence is starting to mount for UConn, led by head coach Dan Hurley, for whom the victory over Rick Pitino’s Iona was his first tournament win with the program, five years since taking over.
The remit when he did so was to try to recreate the three-time national title-winning glory of Jim Calhoun’s reign, the most recent coming in 2014, behind a seventh-seeded tournament juggernaut stewarded by point guard Shabazz Napier.
It has taken Hurley a while, but things are clicking as well here as they are anywhere, with the arguable exception of Houston and Alabama.
“They’ve got all the metrics to win a national championship,” Pitino said of UConn.
Next up is a journey to face Arkansas in a West Regional semifinal in Las Vegas, where the Huskies will be heavily favored despite their opponent having edged out No. 1 Kansas in a thriller. Beyond that, if anyone dares look so far, would be the winner of UCLA and Gonzaga, both ranked first in the country at different points of the season.
UConn had that distinction for a while, too, and take away a strange little stretch around the New Year, when the Huskies briefly forgot how to play and dropped six of eight, and their record is stellar. Those early-year blues certainly don’t feel very significant right now, not compared to more recent matters.
It wasn’t just the nature of the two wins in Albany, N.Y., but the ease in handling difficulty. Pitino had some tactical quirks aimed at throwing them out of step. Saint Mary’s loves to tie up opponents in defensive knots. None of it caused much of a headache.
“(We’re) just taking body blows, it’s what we’ve been able to do (against) quality teams through the course of the year,” Hurley told reporters. “Eventually, I think we’re able to break some teams.”
There have been multiple contributors, through Big East play and that conference’s tournament, and now in March. Adama Sanogo was the star of the weekend and a domineering force in the middle, collecting 52 points over the two games. Sophomore guard Jordan Hawkins is attracting NBA attention. Tristen Newton is a scoring and passing threat.
Hurley, son of legendary New Jersey high school coach Bob Hurley, knows what it means to be leading UConn, where there has been enough success for it to be expected, even during the years when logic doesn’t back up that presumption.
“Playing at UConn, you deal with a lot more pressure and criticism,” Hurley said. “In the first and even second round of tournaments, it’s more of a burden to play at UConn than it is an advantage.”
Maybe, but it sure feels like an advantage now. Hurley’s starters were greeted with thunderous applause when he retired them with under two minutes left of the Saint Mary’s game. There was a swath of support that made the trip to upstate New York, and they won’t be short of noisy numbers in Vegas either, even considering the flight and distance.
For UConn is still UConn and the word is out that UConn is back. All the way back? Four more games to find out, for a four-seed that feels like a one.
