MAGNIFICENT SEVEN: UConn manhandles Illinois with 30-0 run to reach 7th Final Four

Dan Hurley and UConn celebrate East Regional championship Saturday, as Huskies thumped Illinois to return to Final Four. (Photo by Jaden Daly/Daly Dose Of Hoops)

BOSTON — Many times during his 26-year tenure at the University of Connecticut, Jim Calhoun referred to the 1989-90 campaign, which ended in a regional final appearance, as the program’s dream season.

Two years after winning the NIT, UConn reached the final eight for the first time in program history, ushering a new era of success hardly anyone thought possible in the far outreaches of the Nutmeg State.

Nearly three-and-a-half decades later, that fabled 1990 postseason run may have some competition. What UConn has done in the past 12 months has bordered on surreal, otherworldly, and unprecedented, all at the same time.

“I didn’t expect that,” Illinois head coach Brad Underwood deadpanned after the Huskies defeated his Illini Saturday night, 77-52, to reach the program’s seventh Final Four.

As UConn has shown on any given night, one should always expect the unexpected to some extent. On this night, it was the manner in which the Huskies dominated that turned heads and set jaws heading toward the floor in the open position. A 30-0 run, spanning nearly nine minutes of action between the end of the first half and start of the second, broke a 23-all tie and set in motion the latest masterclass from a team fast becoming an historic outfit among the sport’s titans.

“Really in the second half, the way we were moving the ball on offense and how we were playing for one another really just opened up opportunities to dominate in the post, find cutters cutting, and get open shots,” said Donovan Clingan, who was named the East Regional’s most outstanding player after carving up the Illini for 22 points and 10 rebounds as UConn set a program record with its 35th win of the year.

“We obviously came out in the second half and got blitzed,” Underwood lamented as Illinois did not score its first points after halftime until 12:41 remained in regulation, by which point the Illini found itself staring down an insurmountable 53-23 deficit. “(UConn did) what they do. They got out in transition, turned some of those blocks, turned a few turnovers into layups.”

For the second time in three games, Stephon Castle was at the center of the defensive efforts for the Huskies. The Big East Freshman of the Year, who rendered Boo Buie into a 2-for-15 shooting night in UConn’s second-round victory over Northwestern, was tasked with neutralizing another first team all-Big Ten point guard in Illinois’ Terrence Shannon, Jr., who had scored 25 or more points in seven straight games entering Saturday’s contest. The rookie reprised his role as the Huskies’ stopper, limiting Shannon to just eight markers and holding the fifth-year senior to a meager 2-of-12 showing from the floor.

“Steph just made it really, really tough on (Shannon),” Dan Hurley reflected. “He chased him off the (3-point) line, then whenever he did get the edge, we had rim protection there. You had Donovan there, you had Samson (Johnson) there.”

“There’s a reason why, in the basketball world, people are as high on Steph as they are. He’s a winning player.”

UConn has a collection of winning players that stretches 14-deep when its entire complement is utilized. And as the Huskies set their sights on Arizona, where they will face Alabama in the Final Four a week from Saturday, the talent — coupled with its coach’s trademark edge — makes this group more formidable than ever.

“We heard the things that players were saying in the leadup to this one,” Hurley said. “As defending national champs and what we’ve done since February, and how we’ve played in this tournament, we feel like we’ve earned a certain level of respect from media and opposing players when they face us right now, because we’ve been that good.”