When it went through, Illinois had made it back. Its crowd was beginning to seize the energy and the score was tied at 23.
It would be the last moment of good feeling for Brad Underwood and the Illini for the next seven months.
Over the next 51 minutes of real time, the Big Ten champions scored zero points. The Big East champions, also the defending national champions, scored 30.
UConn embarked on the first 30-0 run in college basketball at any point over the last three seasons, and it did so with a spot on the sport’s biggest stage on the line. The Huskies cruised through, behind a raucous TD Garden crowd and the dominant performance of its favorite son, Donovan Clingan, to their second consecutive Final Four with a 77-52 victory over Illinois.
Watching his son’s team put the competition in the rearview mirror had Hall of Fame high school coach Bob Hurley flabbergasted and impressed.
“It almost got to be like practice,” he told reporters on the court after the game. “They’re playing their defense, and then they’re fast-breaking to the other end after playing defense, except this was a game against a really good college team to get to the Final Four.”
“Illinois is really good, but we don’t know that after watching this,” the legendary St. Anthony head coach continued.
The game even being on level terms was an accomplishment for the Illini, who trailed 9-0 before the first media timeout. With 1:49 to play in the opening half though, it was back to 0-0. It wouldn’t be for long.
Hassan Diarra freed himself for a second chance three-pointer from the wing, and the floodgates opened. The Huskies went into the break up by five, and prepared for a pivotal opening stage of the second half.
The first four minutes of the second half are a crucial sequence in any close game. When you’re winning, it’s a chance to extend the lead, force a few timeouts, and put the opponent in desperation mode. When you’re losing, it’s an opportunity to quickly flip the game back in your favor, and re-apply the pressure.
For UConn, the foot was firmly placed on the gas pedal, and by the time it came off, nothing else mattered.
“We turned it up,” Dan Hurley said. “We started that second half and that first possession just set the tone, and the defense was on point.”
UConn set stagger screens for Tristen Newton to catch the ball at the top of the key, but when Clingan’s initial ball screen didn’t create any separation, the offense continued to flow. The big man set a down screen for Stephon Castle, who caught the ball at the elbow, and the Huskies took advantage of Clingan’s low-post positioning to get an easy two points on the post-up.
Seven-point game.
Illinois’ booty ball was no longer working. The tough shots that Domask was hitting in the first half weren’t falling, Terrence Shannon was running into a brick wall every time he attacked the rim, and UConn’s offense began regressing to the mean.
Karaban fast-break layup. Nine-point game.
Clingan goes one-for-two at the line. Ten-point game.
The pro-UConn crowd grew louder and louder in what Husky fans were calling Storrs North, and it may have peaked with the next play.
“If (Clingan) blocks 100, he blocks 100,” Underwood told sideline reporter Andy Katz in the first half. He didn’t quite block 100, but he may as well have when Quincy Guerrier was stonewalled on the right block, another empty possession for Illinois.
On the other end, Clingan attached himself to the hip of Luke Goode, received a pass over the top from Castle, and slammed the ball into the goal. Seven straight points for UConn to open the second half. Timeout, Illinois.
It was delirium in Boston, shades of the 2014 Elite Eight at Madison Square Garden against Michigan State with the fury of the U-C-O-N-N chant as the teams retreated to their benches.
That sequence may be the defining moment in Clingan’s illustrious UConn career. His number, 32, which he wears in honor of his late mother, is already retired for Rip Hamilton, but for this generation of UConn fans, the digits will forever be synonymous with his alley-oop dunks and stifling blocks.
“He’s a larger-than-life figure in the state,” Hurley said. “And his legend is growing. The way he handles it, the humility, the way he shares, he’s beloved by his teammates because he doesn’t throw in your face everything that comes his way.”
Unless you’re Illinois, then he does throw everything that comes his way right back at you. With 22 points, 10 rebounds, five blocks and four steals just two nights after a frustrating performance, Clingan turned in a legendary one.
By the time the Illini came out of the timeout, Clingan’s point had been made. Illinois no longer wanted to attack him down low, and instead settled for three-pointers on the next few possessions.
When those didn’t fall, and Cam Spencer’s second chance floater on the other end did, extending the run to 16, Underwood needed to talk again.
“Brad was burning through timeouts,” Hurley said. “He did everything he could to stop the momentum, but it was a special level of basketball that we were playing.”
Hurley was reminded of the final game of his first season at UConn. In the American Athletic Conference quarterfinals, a Houston team that ran through the league at 16-2, and entered the tournament with a 29-2 record put the Huskies through hell at the onset of the second half.
“Houston did it to me in Memphis,” he said. “I blew through my timeouts to start the second half, and I still think about that game periodically.”
Even that run wasn’t as dominant as this, as it stood at a measly 31-5.
With the run at 23, Clingan checked out of the game, but Samson Johnson kept the intensity level high. Shannon was all too eager to attack the rim against the backup big man, but the same result met him when Johnson swatted his attempt, and finished with a layup at the other end.
By the time Alex Karaban threw down an and-one dunk on the fastbreak, nobody could even believe their eyes. The TV feed panned to a UConn fan with her mouth wide open, jaw on the floor, hands on her head.
For a team that has broken down barriers in terms of dominance over the past two seasons, this moment stands as the pinnacle. For the first 18 minutes, the game was competitive, it was tied with just two minutes to play in the first half. In what felt like the blink of an eye, the margin was up to 30.
We’ve seen big innings from baseball teams, but a baseball team doesn’t have to play defense every single time immediately following a score.
We’ve seen hockey and football teams put on the onslaught, but there’s fewer scoring opportunities in those sports, that it still doesn’t feel comparable.
In the same way that Secretariat opened up a 31-length victory in the 1973 Belmont Stakes after being even through three-quarters of a mile, the Huskies were moving like a tremendous machine.
“It didn’t look like a group of overachievers,” Bob Hurley said. “That just looked like a machine.”
And the foot still stayed on the gas.
“We were up 30 and Coach said in the huddle, ‘remember what these guys were saying yesterday,’” Clingan said.
The maniacal ability of this team to use any sort of antagonizing as additional fuel is a trait that few teams have mastered to quite this level.
With 12:41 to play in the game, and UConn ahead 53-23, Justin Harmon scored a driving layup and the crowd erupted.
The UConn crowd.
An ironic cheer from a fanbase that might be the only equal in terms of maniacal sickoism for their coach and team.
The Huskies have achieved such a level of dominance that they enter the Final Four as prohibitive heavy favorites, and deservedly so. A loss in either of the next two games would land UConn on lists with 1985 Georgetown, 1991 UNLV, 1999 Duke, and 2015 Kentucky, on the ledger of best teams to not win a national championship.
There’s an immense amount of pressure that comes with this, but that doesn’t take the chip off of UConn’s shoulder. This is a program that Hurley revitalized through grit and toughness, but only elevated back to the very top of the sport when he took a look in the mirror and improved himself while keeping everything that already made the teams special.
Immortality has already been cemented, but the job is not finished. The way this team sees it, a 30-0 run only means that it at some point became a 30-2 run.
And that’s not good enough.
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