Some Personal News: UConn’s in the Final Four

By
Tyler
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(Getty Images)

The post-bludgeoning euphoria still buzzing through my bone marrow has led to the impossible: content. UConn reached the Final Four on Saturday night by dismantling Gonzaga, 82-54. The Huskies’ offense was great (imagine hearing 12 months ago that UConn would attempt 31 threes in a tournament game and that it’d be a good thing?). It’s defense was greater (Gonzaga was 7-29 in the second half). And the vibes were off the charts, resulting in a condition my doctor called “heart explosure.”

In this site’s proud tradition of lazy formatting, here are some random thoughts.

Andre Jackson is a warlock and everyone’s just going to pretend this is normal?

Uh, is no one concerned about the societal implications of Andre Jackson defying physics and the inverse square law of gravity while peering into the future to position himself in the exact location of future basketballs? Fortunately for humanity, Jackson has chosen to use his powers primarily for offensive rebounding and not leveling cities across the eastern seaboard.

Jackson has been omnipresent in each of UConn’s four tournament games, humiliating opponents with his defense and impossibly collecting 108% of available loose balls. Jackson is the unquestioned leader of the Huskies and his nonfictional numbers are stunning: 7.8 points, 7.8 assists, 7.0 rebounds (including six offensive rebounds against Gonzaga), 57.9% on twos, and less than two-and-a-half fouls per-game while playing relentless defense.

As important, he is setting the tone for everyone else. In one of the few moments of quasi-adversity UConn faced this tournament, when Arkansas went on a little run amid a flurry of Husky turnovers, Jackson ran straight through Anthony Black’s chest, earning himself a technical foul but instantly reminding everyone on the court that UConn was the tougher team. The Huskies absorbed the message and immediately stomped out the embers of Arkansas’ season.

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Jackson also tortured Gonzaga’s Drew Timme. As our pal Licata pointed out, Timme’s silly fourth foul, which effectively ended a game that was already slipping away from the Zags, was preempted by Jackson clowning him on a loose ball.

What’s that? You want more evidence to use against Andre Jackson when he’s put on trial for witchcraft? The people present:

and also, Your Honor,

One statistical oddity considering Jackson’s monster performances: he’s yet to attempt a free throw this tournament. Go figure. Anyway, Andre Jackson must answer for his inhuman behavior as he’s handed the national championship trophy next Monday.

Adama Sanogo is very nice and happy but will also feast on your bones.

It’s been heartwarming seeing a giddy and joyful Sanogo in postgame interviews the last few weeks. He’s a great kid, who is probably one of the three best centers in UConn history. But also, he is ending people’s careers and possibly causing lasting bodily harm by demolishing opposing bigs on both ends of the court.

Sanogo is, at the moment, unguardable. At the season’s nadir, when UConn’s long-range shooting regressed and teams exposed Jackson’s jumper, Sanogo suffered the most. Defenses collapsed on him, weaponizing his on-the-block patience against him and aggressively attacking the ball. He adjusted by putting up quicker shots and getting more involved at the top of UConn’s offense, away from his typical station in the post. His improved three-point shot is now more of a decoy. After attempting seven(!) threes in a February loss at Creighton, Sanogo has only attempted nine in the 11 games since. Against St. Mary’s, he hilariously pump-faked guys straight to hell, driving to the basket for layups.

The biggest adjustment, however, is his passing. Last season, UConn’s relatively stagnant offense struggled to get clean looks for Sanogo. As a result, he used his rare touches to huck shots at every opportunity (the same is true of Hawkins). This season, surrounded by shooters in an offense that orbits him as its sun, Sanogo (and Hawkins!) is far more intentional with his touches. Now, with Jackson camped five feet away on the opposite block and red hot shooters everywhere else, Sanogo is forcing defenders into an impossible decision: let some poor center get eaten alive one-on-one or double and essentially guarantee someone else an open shot. It’s good, actually.

The official stats stole a few assists from Sanogo overnight after the game. He officially finished with four, down from six in the box score when the clock hit zero. That’s wrong and someone should apologize to him. But the point remains: his willingness and ability to pass has made UConn’s offense even more dangerous.

A list of things Dan Hurley gets credit for:

Roster building: What a masterpiece. It might be a happy accident of timing and gigantism that Hurley ended up with two of the ten best centers in the sport simultaneously, but the roster he’s built through recruiting, development and transfers is fairly close to perfect. He’s found the depth, shooting, size and sauce that last year’s squad lacked — a self-leveling collection that can adapt to any variety of game but has bought-in completely to Hurley’s maniacal style of rebounding and defense.

Figuring out how to use Jackson: It was an impressive trick when Big East opponents implemented the Don’t Guard Andre Jackson strategy. It was mostly effective, clearly got in his head, and it took Jackson and Hurley a few games to adjust. Now that they have, UConn’s offense is somehow better than ever. It turns out that Jackson’s speed, strength and warlockery (see above) make him extraordinarily dangerous in the paint. He catches whatever Sanogo fires at him. He’s always in position to steal an offensive rebound from some oaf. As Field of 68’s Terrence Oglesby said, Jackson has figured out how to take all that space defenders are giving him and use it as a runway. This was the most acute in-season adjustment that UConn had to make this year and, although it took a while to implement, the staff knocked it into outer space.

Allowing his assistants to do their jobs well: I say this with the absolute confidence of a dude with a twitter account: UConn has the best coaching staff in the country. While that independently rules, what’s particularly noteworthy is the openness with which Hurley acknowledges his reliance on assistants Tom Moore and Luke Murray and Associate Head Coach Kimani Young. In recent days, Hurley has basically been issuing letters of recommendation for Young and Murray in media interviews. This staff has, at most, two more games together. That’s a bummer but also a sign of success. While it will be sad to see one or both of them leave, the relationship Hurley has built with his staff inspires a lot of confidence that their replacements will also be cool. Who wouldn’t want to come be a part of this?

A totally new offense: This is where I start hooting and hollering. Some people, with the absolute confidence of a dude with a twitter account, previously accused Hurley of not running effective offensive schemes. Hurley now legally can hit those people with a folding chair. Using the aforementioned roster building, Hurley built the offense he wanted that features open threes by good shooters, a billion offensive rebounds and an endless diet of looks for his (also aforementioned) unguardable center. It’s worked so well that I’ve hit myself with a folding chair. Hurley’s recruiting classes are getting better, and after experiencing high-level success with transfers this season, he can probably count on picking from a pile of available talent each spring going forward. This accomplishment should be sustainable and supply UConn with the level of talent Hurley will need to field perennial contenders.

Overcoming college basketball officiating: I will say the hard truth that everyone’s too scared to: Boooooo! Ref, you suck! The officiating in college basketball is terrible, as it is every year and will continue to be forever because no one wants to spend money to fix it and the world is out to get me personally. UConn started the season 14-0 in large part because they were allowed to play defense. Somewhere around the time Big East refs decided to punish Dan Hurley, that changed. Why? Can’t be sure, but I have a hunch Big East refs decided to punish Dan Hurley. The officiating in league play fundamentally changed the way UConn had to play on both ends of the ball.

Fortunately, UConn made a savvy late season adjustment in the form of GETTING AWAY FROM THE BIG EAST REFS PUNISHING DAN HURLEY. It’s amazing to watch basketball again. May it never leave us.

Did this tweet matter?

In a moderately viral pregame tweet, Drew Timme’s life of crime was exposed. This nudnick had been stealing steps all over town, puzzling local authorities. Given the thinly veiled online-ness of UConn’s staff (to say nothing of our online friend Dave Benedict), Russ and I have arrived at a theory that this video caused someone to work the refs a bit pregame, putting an emphasis on those extra steps. Timme got called for a few travels early and then melted down entirely. The rest is history. Anyway, please thank the video for its assistance and wish the video well in the future.

“UConn doesn’t have a point guard”

This talking point (pun intended) keeps popping up as the lone knock against UConn’s title chances. The thing is: it’s stupid. UConn has Tristen Newton. He’s a point guard, as you might’ve noticed by him bouncing the ball up and down a lot before doing a bunch of point guard things. Newton has been good-to-great this year. He’s certainly not in the mold of a 5’10” distributor but as a larger, and therefore better, man he draws many fouls, buries threes, throws a hell of an entry pass, and generally handles the ball with aplomb late in close games. Those fouls drawn — hoo boy — they’re a delightful luxury.

Where Newton might be lacking, Jackson provides. Jackson can guard an opposing point guard if he needs to. He can push in transition and find open guys all over the court. The backup trio of Nahiem Alleyne, Hassan Diarra, and Joey Calcaterra provides some mutant combination of many guard skills including anything you’d theoretically need from a point.

I think what this boils down to is a delayed reaction to UConn’s offensive struggles last season, where RJ Cole was often the only guy capable of creating his own shots, and historical memories of Husky point guards of the past holding large trophies.

The real danger (such as it is) for UConn’s guards is going cold from three. They should simply make them all.

Clingan is well-rested and might eat someone whole like a snake

Sanogo’s dominance has somewhat limited Donovan Clingan’s minutes, which has made Clingan impossibly effective. With the knowledge that he’ll only get about 12-15 minutes of court time, he is expending maximum effort at all times, conserving nothing. Despite being the largest human on Earth, Clingan is beating guys down the floor and defending everything. Arkansas was so scared of him that it implemented the rare “nope!” offense and simply turned around when they saw Clingan standing in the paint.

Fatigue is a real concern with a very young, very large human. Theoretically, at least. Clingan has proved more than capable of contributing like a starting center, but he hasn’t needed to. Instead, he’s doing what everyone else on UConn’s bench has been doing, pumping up the vibes by playing at 100 miles-per-hour until he sits back down and watches the starters go back to work.

What happens next?

UConn is the best team in the world and would beat the Olympic teams of most nations. While it is certainly more than capable of losing a game, that would likely be the result of a combination of bad luck and self-inflicted wounds. My advice: UConn should win two more games.

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1 COMMENT

  1. This tourney has been an absolute blast. UConn is a well-oiled machine that I can’t wait to see in action again this weekend. Jackson has become one of my all-time favorite Huskies. What a wonderful beast. Thanks for this most excellent content!

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