Notes & Quotes: On to the Sweet 16 after trouncing Northwestern

Donovan Clingan was unstoppable once again, flirting with a triple-double as top-seeded UConn crushed another opponent on its way to the Sweet 16.

Clingan scored 14 points with 14 rebounds and eight blocks in the Huskies’ 75-58 romp of No. 9 Northwestern in the second round of the NCAA Tournament at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn Sunday night. His early dominance set the tone for an eventual blowout.

“I feel healthier and lighter than I've ever felt,” Clingan said after the game. “Just really got my confidence back [and] trying to fly around the court and do whatever my team needs me to do to win.”

UConn (33-3) opened with an 11-2 run, built the lead up to 22 points at the half, and cruised to victory — leading by as much as 30 points. It was a school-record eighth straight NCAA victory, one shy of Michigan State’s all-time record. They advance to take on SDSU in the East Region semifinal in Boston.

Tristen Newton scored 20 points with 10 assists, his 11th double-double of the season, while Cam Spencer added 11 as UConn advanced to the Sweet 16 for the second straight season. It’s the first time the program has made consecutive trips to the round since a three-peat from 2002-04.

“Impressed with the performance,” head coach Dan Hurley said. “Really attacked them in the paint… to get that separation while going 3 for 22 from three… and to still win by that margin, it spoke to our defense and obviously the 20 assists on 29 field goals.”

UConn shot 53 percent from the field and outscored NU 52-26 in the paint, holding Northwestern to 26 percent shooting in the first half and 37 percent on the game. Wildcats’ star guard Boo Buie went 2-of-15 from the field in his final college appearance, as Steph Castle and Hassan Diarra handled that assignment.

“I was very impressed in person with their defense,’’ NU coach Chris Collins said. “They have all the ingredients to win another there’s no question about it.”

A closer look at the UConn win:

What Went Well

Admiral Clingan: David Robinson (Navy) and Hakeem Olajuwon (Houston) are the only other players to record at least 14 points, 14 rebounds, and eight blocks in a tournament game. The sophomore big man destroyed the Wildcats, posting a double-double in the first half for the second time in three games (also doing it in the Big East championship). He’s hit double-digit scoring in 11 of his last 14 contests and just set a new career-high for blocks with eight. All five of his double-doubles on the season have occurred since February.

CLINGAN: “I had a lot of fun out there. Our guards, our perimeter defense was great, forcing the guys to come into the paint and let me protect the rim, which is the game plan.”

Locked Up: The Huskies once again wove a defensive masterpiece, especially Castle who was primarily responsible for Buie. The Northwestern guard didn’t score his first until the 1:22 mark of the first half. Buie scored just nine points and didn’t hit a single three (0-3). He came in averaging 19.3 ppg.

CLINGAN: “Steph is one of if not the best on-ball defender in the country. To hold a guard like that to zero made field goals in the first half is impressive… He wants that. He wants to go against the best player on the other team. Before the game, at halftime, it’s not just today it’s every single game he’s like ‘I’m going to hold this dude to zero tonight.’”

CASTLE: “I mean, we had DC behind us, so  that gave me a lot of confidence to really guard the way I wanted to and I feel like we did a great job on (stopping Buie).”

The Gameplan. The Huskies executed their game plan to perfection. They kept Buie in check, funneled the ball to Clingan defensively, and offensively they got off to a great start thanks to the space created by his dominance in the paint. In the second half, Hurley got more folks involved and human nature also took over as the 30-point lead shrunk down to 16 in the second half. But the Huskies started off very strong and then clamped down for the win.

HURLEY: “This game was about the three-point line… We went into it wanting to keep Boo and Ryan and Brooks to less than four made threes between them and we wanted to limit their attempts to seven.

We felt like they couldn't beat us in a middy-tough-two game. We knew Donovan would take the rim away, and we wanted to chase those guys off the three-point line. We felt like the only way that they could beat us today is if they made a lot of threes…

So we blew everything up, got over everything, were über aggressive with our centers, and were really just trying to funnel the ball to their five men. That was the game plan.”

What Needs Work

Three Falling: Despite getting a lot of open looks the Huskies had an ice-cold night from three. That has to change in the next game because San Diego State (24-9) is one of the better defensive teams in the country, ranking 26th in eFG% allowed. The Aztecs also went 13-for-27 on 3-pointers in their 85-57 win over Yale in the Round of 32.

SPENCER: ‘’The threes weren’t going but we were scoring other ways. We were sharing the ball well so everybody was feeling pretty confident.’’

Misc. Notes

UConn is now 67-32 in NCAA Tournament games and advances to its 19th Sweet 16 (a 20th in 1996 was officially vacated). … All three Big East schools (Creighton, Marquette) advanced to the Sweet 16. … The Huskies have won 39 of their last 42 games… Dan Hurley has been named a Naismith Coach of the Year Award finalist. … Newton had his eighth 20-point game of the season. … Clingan has 22 games this season with multiple blocks. His eight blocks are also a program record, surpassing the mark of seven set by Emeka Okafor in 2003.

Up Next

Thursday, March 28, vs. 5-seed San Diego State, in Boston, 7:39 p.m on TBS.

SDSU is ranked 17th in KenPom, with the defense being its strength, ranked ninth in efficiency compared to the 53rd-ranked offense. The Huskies are sitting first in overall efficiency with the second-best offense and eighth-best defense in the country.

This will be a re-match of last year’s national game, which UConn won 76-59 to claim its fifth national championship. The two teams also met previously in the 2011 Sweet 16, as Kemba Walker scored 36 points to lead UConn to a 74-67 victory on their way to the program’s third national championship.