Newton’s triple-double just the latest proof of how UConn’s championship culture has transcended the program

Tristen Newton (2) shoots over Manhattan’s Daniel Rouzan on way to triple-double as UConn defeated Jaspers. (Photo by UConn Men’s Basketball)

HARTFORD, Conn. — Dan Hurley told a gaggle of reporters last month that Tristen Newton would have every opportunity to garner all the individual accolades the fifth-year senior desired as he returned to UConn on the heels of a national championship this past April.

Six games into what the Huskies hope will be a masterful coda to a collegiate career whose success trumps any national attention it may command, the native Texan seems to be well on his way.

Just several days removed from a two-day showing at Madison Square Garden that saw him take charge scoring the ball one day before serving as more of a facilitator the next, Newton did a little bit of everything again Friday for UConn. His 15-point, 13-assist, 10-rebound triple-double — the third for him in one season and change in Storrs, now a program record — allowed the Huskies to cruise to yet another dominating non-conference victory, this one a 90-60 thrashing of Manhattan College inside the XL Center.

“A lot of our players don’t get the credit because our culture is so unselfish and these guys are so about winning,” Hurley would later say with regard to the lack of headlines Newton generates despite his exceptional play. “They’re not huge on social media making it all about themselves. If the national college basketball experts don’t begin to include him in the conversations as one of the better guards in the country, with everything he’s done — he’s a won a national championship, he’s had multiple triple-doubles — all he’s done is win. What’s his record since he’s been here?”

“I think he’s the best rebounding guard in the country. He’s a well-rounded guard offensively, he can make threes, he can drive the ball, a tremendous passer, he’s got a true resume over just the raw numbers. Unfortunately in basketball, especially at the NBA level, it’s all about numbers. Sports used to be all about champions, we celebrated the champions more. Now this is a champion that is averaging 18 a game, triple-doubles. He should be talked about as one of the best guards in the country, but people that don’t watch the games, that just watch TikTok highlights, are the ones judging. They don’t know s***.”

But rest assured as the nation at large appears to sleep on Newton and continue to question his championship mettle, the impact he provides to a team seeking to become the first in 17 years to repeat as national champions has not been lost among those closest to the fight.

“It’s unbelievable,” said Cam Spencer, Newton’s backcourt comrade who is no stranger to playing alongside versatile point guards, having done so last year at Rutgers with Paul Mulcahy. “I think it just speaks to the level of play that he has. He’s able to score, he’s able to pass and get his teammates involved, but then the rebounding is very impressive. I think he’s leading us in rebounds right now, and that just speaks to him as a player just doing it all out there on the floor. A triple-double is no joke in the college game especially, so (that was) an unbelievable job by him. He’s been great for us.”

UConn’s latest dismantling of a non-Big East opponent marked a 23rd consecutive double-digit triumph of that nature, matching NCAA titan North Carolina’s similar streak authored during the Tar Heels’ national title campaign of 2008-09 and extended into the following two seasons. However, the Huskies only learned of the breadth of their current run this week, so the historic stretch is merely a means to an end, with no significant bearing on any one game plan or opponent.

“We’re trying to go be a part of history and do something no team has done,” Donovan Clingan remarked. “Obviously we’re thinking about it, but we can’t go into the game and be like, ‘oh, we gotta win this by double digits.’ We’re going out there just trying to win the game and beat the opponent as best we can, and just do what we do on the court. It doesn’t change how we attack a game or attack the other game. We just go out there and play the game, and let that come to us.”

Hurley was somewhat less noncommittal, instead opting to attribute to final score testimonials to an elite culture that is a throwback of sorts in the tenets it highlights, yet still a byproduct of what selfless pursuit of perfection can yield.

“It tells a story of what our program’s all about and the type of people we pursue in recruiting,” he said. “There still are old-school families out there and kids that are old souls that are about winning and allow us to coach them. There’s so many things involved in how dominant we’ve been (in the) non-conference, having Luke Murray and Kimani Young, two of the best assistants in the country who do an incredible job with the preparation, having NBA-level players that are all about winning and don’t care if it’s them on any given night. It’s just about UConn basketball.”

John Gallagher, Hurley’s counterpart on this day who watched from a nearby perch at the University of Hartford as the Huskies reclaimed their status among college basketball’s upper echelon, cited the ability to win no matter the situation as the reason why UConn is where it is presently, something he hopes to replicate at the mid-major level at Manhattan.

“He could always win a street fight,” Gallagher said of Hurley. “Now he could go in the library and beat the debate team. That’s why Connecticut will be a national championship contender for the foreseeable future.”

Perhaps the most unique aspect of UConn’s climb back to prominence is the sheer nature of its unfinished status. Again, it circles back to the culture Hurley has instilled in five-plus years on the job, the same hard-nosed, relentless competitive streak forged in previous stops at Wagner and Rhode Island, at St. Benedict’s Prep and under his Hall of Fame father, Bob, at St. Anthony before that.

“This whole organization, we’re all about culture,” Dan Hurley reiterated. “It starts in the recruiting process with the type of people we want in here and what they stand for. We get good guys. Everyone loves our guys. We’ve got classy guys, gym rats that love to work and are all about winning. We’ve got as good a culture as anyone can have, I think, in college basketball. We’ve been building that since we got here, and now we also have the high-level talent.”

“Alex Karaban’s going to be a different player in February and March. Donovan Clingan’s gonna be — again, Jordan Hawkins, in November and December, he flashed — but by the time these guys to get to the end of their freshman year, end of their sophomore year, they’re going to be much better players. That’s why I think we’re a really good team right now, but I think we have great upside. I think we’re gonna get a lot better.”