Notes & Quotes: Entire nation on notice as UConn wallops Xavier

The UConn Huskies haven’t been fully healthy all season. In their first contest with everyone in the mix, and eight days without a game, it looked like one of the best college basketball teams ever. Not this season. Ever.

This team is for real, and it is spectacular.

With their absolute dismantling of Xavier on Sunday, Dan Hurley’s squad demonstrated that it has another level, beyond the one that already has it sitting at No. 1 in the polls and atop the Big East standings.

For the second game in a row, UConn started on a 10-0 run. Unlike the Villanova game, the dominance continued for 40 minutes. After letting Xavier get a handful of points on the board, the Huskies went on a 20-0 run that made it 38-7 with 5:22 left in the first half. They started the second half with a 13-4 stretch and a 9-0 run pushed the deficit to 39 with 10 minutes left.

Donovan Clingan made it impossible for the Musketeers to do anything offensively and even when the Huskies’ deep reserves went in, morale did not improve for the visitors. The 99 points scored represent the highest total for UConn in Hurley’s tenure.

“The single biggest thing was just Donovan finally got four or five practices to get himself into a rhythm with cardio, players getting used to him, he gets used to the players,” Hurley said. “He's got no issues with his foot, his weight is back to around where it was last year, or lighter, so you can see the mobility.”

In a league with DePaul and Georgetown squads that are down so bad, this was the largest deficit in a Big East game this season and the second-largest margin of victory for UConn ever in a Big East game. This Xavier team is no slouch, with wins over Butler, Seton Hall, and Providence to its name.

The Huskies tied a program record with 17 three-pointers made and set an NCAA record with 10 different players hitting a three. They held Xavier to 28 percent shooting from the field in the first half while posting their best shooting night of the season, 72 percent eFG%, hitting 59 percent from behind the arc.

Remarkably, Clingan played a role in their outside shooting success as well, and not just by hitting his first career three-pointer — something Hurley said he is “still processing.” His presence helped his teammates find open looks.

“It's not coincidental that we made more threes with him back. Because we got better threes because of the paint and rim pressure he puts [opponents] under all game,” Hurley said. “Donovan just impacts everything.”

The Huskies dominated even as two of their best scorers, Alex Karaban (8 points, 3-8 FG, 7 rebs) and Cam Spencer (5 points, 6 rebs, 6 assists), played more supportive roles. Tristen Newton led the way in this game, as he has in the last three and most of the season. He’s scored 16 or more points in five of the last six games and leads the team in points, rebounds, and assists per game.

In addition to his stellar defensive presence, Clingan got more involved offensively on Sunday, finishing with 18 points, going 8-of-9 from the field, and grabbing eight rebounds along with two blocks.

Also, four different players — Spencer, Castle, Newton, and Hassan Diarra — finished with four or more assists as UConn posted a season-high 28 helpers for its fourth-highest assist rate of the season.

On a day when UConn was commemorating the 2004 national championship team, with stars like Emeka Okafor, Charlie Villanueva, Rashad Anderson, Ben Gordon, and Josh Boone, among others, all in attendance, this year’s Huskies look like they’re capable of reaching similar levels of dominance.

A lot has changed in college basketball since 2004, and a lot has changed for UConn athletics institutionally as well, but Hurley and the Huskies have restored old glory to this program. Already ranked third in KenPom and first in the polls, they’re just starting to realize their full potential.

That should be a horrifying thought for the rest of the country.

What Went Well

Everything. The Huskies shot and defended at an extremely high level as nine players scored five or more points. Their passing was elite and their 7-foot-2 gamechanger was getting it done on both ends of the floor. Everything was firing on all cylinders.

Here are some highlights from what Hurley had to say after the game:

He shared that his coaching staff instills confidence in the whole team through their thorough prep and dedication to return after winning the national championship last year:

“We've got a full coaching staff that returned from [last season] that stayed intact and probably shouldn't stay intact past this year. Luke Murray and Kimani Young should be on every head coaching search list. … I got the best people around me, championship staff, championship players.”

Hurley also said the team gleans confidence from last year’s experience, not just the high points:

“I think last January helped us a lot, as bad as that was to go through. We know we went through an absolute crushing month of January. So I think we go into games not necessarily afraid to lose a basketball game because we've walked through the fire and still dominated the NCAA tournament last year… We go out and we really are attacking these games.”

On Clingan’s three:

"I'm still processing that. I know you people are happy because you had all the summer [BS] articles that you were writing about his three-game and I’m gonna have to get that sh*t under control.”

What Needs Work

Umm… some threes were banked?

Misc. Notes

The 2004 team was honored with a pre-game video as well as a halftime ceremony emceed by Joe D’Ambrosio. … Hurley shared that he was at the 2004 Final Four games in San Antonio with his older brother, Bobby. … Ben Gordon had been estranged from the program and public life as he dealt with personal matters. This was his first time back to a game, and he was welcomed by the fanbase with open arms. … The 43-point margin was the second-largest for UConn ever in Big East play, behind a 96-51 thrashing of Cincinnati in 2008. … Hurley mentioned that the Connecticut Children’s Medical Center guests were in the locker room along with Okafor, Gordon, and the other former stars, calling it “probably the best locker room scene I’ve been a part of.”

Up Next

The Huskies are hosting Providence at Gampel Pavilion. Tip-off will be at 8:30 p.m. on FS1.

The Friars (14-6, 5-4 Big East) are ranked 48th in KenPom (140th Offensively, 9th Defensively) and have won three in a row after starting conference play 2-4, though two of those three were against DePaul and Georgetown and the third was against Seton Hall, who was without Kadary Richmond.

KenPom projects a 75-63 UConn win.