Thinking out loud… while wondering if I’m too indecisive. But now I’m not sure.
UConn’s Dan Hurley told CBS Sports’ Matt Norlander late Monday night his Huskies were “pretty bulletproof” under the lights in March. Which might qualify those players and coaches as Supermen.
‘Cuz they were.
Head coach Dan Hurley of the Connecticut Huskies cuts down the net after beating the Purdue Boilermakers 75-60 to win the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament National Championship game at State Farm Stadium on April 08, 2024 in Glendale, Arizona.
It likely pains some Friar Faithful that Big Brother to the west has had the success it has had these past few seasons.
Yes, PC has a ton of tradition. They have Dave Gavitt, the Founding Father of the Big East and of Life As We Know It. But UConn has street cred for eternity for what they’ve done over the past 25 years.
Back-to-back natty’s? SIX crowns since 1999? That’s not just blueblood status – when you consider the efforts at creating parity the sport has dealt with in the past 25 years.
That’s superhero status. At least to UConn fans, of course. But let’s include Coach Hurley and his staff; finding the right players, teaching, and coaching the right strategies, and above all – finding talented athletes who play selflessly and shoot the ball with great accuracy.
Emphasis on shooting the ball. Kim English (and any other coach, for that matter) now has a blueprint from the blue-blooded Huskies on how to win at the highest level. Get a competent big, surround him with guys who shoot (and score) without conscience and defend like wild dogs.
Easy, amiright? Bottom line: you can never have enough shooters. The Huskies were relentless on the floor and off the bench. They had answers for every run thrown at them. The game plan to beat a very good Purdue team was stunning in its’ simplicity – make someone other than the National Player of the Year, Zach Edey, beat them.
No one did.
This Connecticut team may be the best college basketball team in a generation — at least since Indiana’s last undefeated team in 1976, almost half-a-century ago.
∎Think Dr. James Naismith would recognize the game he invented 133 years ago? I think he’d be amazed with what Hurley has done with his offensive sets and defensive intensity, even if he’s put off by some of the, um, behavior.
∎Perhaps a little credit should go to URI’s athletic director Thorr Bjorn, who initially recognized Coach Hurley’s drive and talent coming from Wagner College in 2012, letting him “grow up” and learn in Kingston before Hurley took on the challenge in Storrs.
∎And let’s not forget – while Hurley and his Huskies likely downplay it – UConn benefitted mightily by the Big East rescue mission from the AAC. With all due respect to the American, it never was and never will be “The Big East.” That’s why there was a split more than a decade ago.
∎“Requiem for the Big East,” as ESPN entitled its’ infamous ’30-for-30’ series in 2014, was hardly a death knell. The Huskies’ rejoining familiar friends and foes lit a match under the reconstituted league and set it on fire, following Villanova and Marquette’s growth and success along with the revitalization of Providence, Seton Hall, and St. John’s and the new energy of Creighton, Xavier, and Butler.
The Big East now has four national titles in their signature sport over the past eight years. The Big Ten hasn’t won ONE since that ‘thing’ known as Y2K.
Got snubbed? Go win the whole enchilada. And throw in the NIT too, while you’re at it. Seton Hall’s winning the consolation prize is the first time a league has won both championships in the same season since 2006 (Florida – NCAA and South Carolina – NIT from the SEC) and the second time, ever.
∎Not for nuthin’, but City College of New York won BOTH titles themselves in the same year, back in 1950. Classes must not have been a priority then, like in a few places I know about now.
∎And yet the college basketball powers-that-be every year (looking right at you, Selection Committee) continue to drool over the Indiana’s, Iowa’s, Illinois’ and assorted flotsam and jetsam that now extends from the left coast all the way to Piscataway, NJ.
Please. That’s not even a conference anymore. It’s a consortium hell bent on just one thing – making $$$ – while destroying amateurism as we once knew it.
And if you think that’s off, go listen to what one of your own, Purdue’s Matt Painter, said this week about Name, Image and Likeness $$$ ruining the sport as we once knew it. Sometimes, Goliath deserves to be hit with a stone from a slingshot.
∎X post of the Week I, from @AndyGold24: “The Big East now has as many championships in the last eight years (4) as the Big Ten has in the last 42 years.”
∎But wait, there’s more: X post of the Week II, from @totally_t_bomb: “Since 2001, the Big Ten is 0 for 8 in the finals and the Big East is 8 for 8. Pretty kooky.”
∎If anything, or anyone, could take the spotlight away from the national title game this week, it would be one-time UMass, Memphis, and now former Kentucky coach John Calipari. And he did that, upstaging UConn’s coronation with his late-night jaunt to the Land of ‘Woo Pig, Sooie!’
New Arkansas Razorbacks basketball head coach John Calipari holds his first news conference after his introduction at Bud Walton Arena on April 10.
Gotta give Coach Cal credit. He’s always been a step ahead of the pack.
∎One move begat another, however, and Dan Hurley’s name was prominently mentioned in the search to replace Calipari at Kentucky. But why trade one blueblood for another – unless it’s purely about the Benjamins?
∎Coaching changes: Totaling 60 in men’s Division I, with five coming from the Missouri Valley at last count. Just one in the Big East (Chris Holtmann to DePaul), two in the Atlantic-10 (Saint Louis, Duquesne), one in the Ivy (Cornell) and none in America East. So far.
∎Are women’s hoops surging in popularity? 18.9 million watched the natty, an all-time record for women. The men’s championship, by comparison, drew 14.8 million viewers…which was up 4% over a year ago…and did outdraw the women’s semis. Just sayin’.
More: As the popularity of women’s basketball surges, Providence and Rhode Island hope to follow suit
∎The Iowa-South Carolina game was the most watched basketball game – men or women, college or pro – since 2019.
∎Caitlin Clark is certainly a catalyst from within. But this nonsense about her joining the NBA, or being drafted? C’mon. It’s been done before as little more than publicity stunts with two pretty good players in Ann Meyers and Nancy Lieberman in the past. Don’t fall for the rhetoric.
Caitlin Clark drives to the basket in the April 7 title game against South Carolina.
∎Not for nuthin’, Part II: The NIT final between Seton Hall and Indiana State, at a sold-out Hinkle Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, was the most-watched NIT championship game, too.
∎Portal update: More than 1,500 at the Division 1 men’s basketball level at midweek, including DePaul’s entire roster from this season past. Can’t remember an occasion where a DI team has turned over an entire roster from one year to the next. Even if St. John’s almost did that (just two players remained) a year ago.
Eight former URI players remain in the transfer portal, which does include Zek Montgomery landing at Bradley. And Bryant’s Earl Timberlake decided to stay in Smithfield for his final year.
∎CBS’ Jon Rothstein posted this week from sources that the Big East-Big 12 Battle will run its course and not be renewed after next season. Along with the recently completed Gavitt Games’ series with the Big Ten, is this an early signal of scheduling strategies changing…especially in the Big East?
∎Let’s just hope, as the Big East posted this week on “X,” that teams (and TV, too) remember “iron sharpens iron.”
∎Lost in the hubbub during Final Four week was Providence athletic director Steve Napolillo’s decision to extend head coach Kim English’s contract by a year, keeping him with a six-year deal. It’s good to be proactive, but better to be ready when future suitors come calling with more cash on the table. And they will.
∎Thought it was pretty cool this week to watch a couple of NBA games – at least plausibly interesting with the postseason looming – and see former PC guard Justin Minaya (Portland) and ex-Rhody guard Jeff Dowtin (Philadelphia) strutting their stuff.
∎X post of the Week III, from @BostonSportsInf: “Manny Ramirez will be paid more money by the Red Sox this year than 20 of the 26 players of the 2024 Red Sox active MLB roster.”
∎Watching Tim and Stacy Wakefield’s daughter Brianna throw out the first pitch for the Fenway opener – to Jason Varitek, no less – was about as emotional a scene as I can recall. Wake passed on the final day of last season; his wife died less than five months later.
I mean, the Red Sox start to the season out west was great, but…
…the (Trevor) Story is already over. Out for the year following shoulder surgery. Lucas Giolito out, Nick Pivetta on the IL, younger players forced to fill in and make mistakes. Yeah, it was fun for a week.
∎Sorry, I just don’t get it. I watch a lot of college football, and sure, J.J. McCarthy won at Michigan. He had a loaded team. Are the Patriots going to spend the #3 pick on a guy they think can win in the NFL, especially without a loaded team?
The more I see the rumors out there about trading with Minnesota, the more I like them over taking McCarthy at three, if he’s the choice du jour. Multiple first rounders this year and another first round pick for 2025 for the third draft spot? Do it.
∎Just not sure how to frame O.J. Simpson’s passing this week. So, I won’t. Not even sure what to think. I know this much – as a player, Orenthal James could ball. As a broadcaster, “Juice” had charisma x 1000. As a person? As a fellow human? That’s now between Simpson and his maker.
∎David in Providence wrote this week to mention the passing of Barrington’s Pete Wilk from brain cancer earlier this month: “A good friend of mine…Pete grew up in Barrington and graduated from BHS. He was the head baseball coach at Georgetown for more than 20 years and is the winningest coach in Georgetown baseball history. He currently was head coach for the Vermont Lake Monsters in the Futures League and led his team to that championship several years ago.”
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This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: UConn Huskies might be best men’s college basketball team since ’76
