UConn relies on depth, relentless defensive pressure in statement win over Marquette
HARTFORD, Conn. — On the eve of his team’s most high-profile game since winning the national title last April, when Connecticut defeated San Diego State to secure its fifth championship in 24 years, Dan Hurley put the Huskies through a practice that neared three hours in length. The duration was far from unusual for one of Hurley’s grueling sessions, but the message he shared with his players following a listless few minutes certainly struck a different chord.
“Wake up!” Hurley bellowed. “This is a Final Four-level team we’re playing.”
The opponent Hurley was referring to — Marquette — traveled to the XL Center with an eight-game winning streak in tow, unquestionably one of college basketball’s hottest teams. Led by head coach Shaka Smart, the Golden Eagles were 19-5 overall with a 10-3 mark in conference play that slotted them second in the Big East, trailing Connecticut and no one else. They, too, are in contention for a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament.
A year ago, it was the Huskies who had the last laugh after storming through the NCAA Tournament to capture the sport’s ultimate prize, cementing the program among the best in the modern era. But it was Marquette that claimed both the Big East regular season and tournament titles, defeating the eventual national champions twice in three chances, most notably in a semifinal at Madison Square Garden that Hurley clearly hasn’t forgotten. And he made sure his team hadn’t forgotten it, either.
Hurley reminded his players that the Golden Eagles had won that night because they played with more toughness than Connecticut. They harassed UConn’s guards for 40 minutes, holding Tristen Newton, Jordan Hawkins and Andre Jackson Jr. to 14 combined points in what finished as a two-point win. “They f—— punked us,” Hurley said. He’d repeat the message later that afternoon in a news conference with local reporters.
By 5 p.m. ET on Saturday afternoon, as a rollicking sold-out crowd never quit roaring, Hurley’s team had delivered the punking he desperately wanted to inflict. The Huskies, winners of 13 straight entering the weekend, demolished No. 4 Marquette in one of the most emphatic results of the college basketball season. They shoved, shattered and shellacked the Golden Eagles in an 81-53 undressing. Chants of “Over-rated! Over-rated!” rained down on the visitors in the waning moments of a game UConn fans won’t soon forget.
Four players reached double-figure scoring for the Huskies, who took a commanding lead in the Big East standings, led by star center Donovan Clingan (17 points, 10 rebounds) and Newton (15 points, eight rebounds, eight assists). Connecticut led by 16 points at halftime, by 29 points with 4:17 remaining in the second half and by 28 when the final buzzer rang. The defending national champions made quite a statement.
Here are three quick takeaways from Hartford:
Relentless pressure
Few point guards in college basketball, if any, entered the weekend playing a sweeter brand of basketball than Marquette’s Tyler Kolek, the reigning Big East Player of the Year. A smooth-shooting, poignant-passing maestro, Kolek arrived in Hartford as the Golden Eagles’ leading scorer (16.1 points per game) and distributor (7.4 assists per game) for an offense that ranked among the top 25 nationally in efficiency. His name is always the first on any scouting report drawn up by coaches around the league, and Hurley’s crew was no exception.
During a spirited Friday practice, UConn’s coaching staff enlisted the help of a graduate assistant with former Division I playing experience to simulate everything Kolek offers: the silky left-handed perimeter jumper; the half-moon drives that slice through the lane searching for cutters; the devilishly flipped passes from all angles using his supremely gifted left hand. The primary defenders were guards Stephon Castle and Hassan Diarra.
For as much as Hurley cared about the on-ball defense he watched in practice, the staff cared just as much, if not more, about the actions of UConn’s help defenders, the players tasked with clogging those passing lanes and knifing in front of Golden Eagles for steals. The swarming pressure Hurley demanded on the practice court was immediately applied in the first half against Marquette, which finished the opening 20 minutes with twice as many turnovers (six) as assists (three).
Time and again, Kolek swooped through the lane searching for cutters, for options, for anything other than a white jersey. And time and again he found nothing. Diarra ripped the ball away for three steals in 14 minutes of playing time. Three other teammates notched at least one steal as well. And the Huskies — routinely encouraged by Hurley to sprint the other way in transition — netted 10 fast-break points and nine points off turnovers to build a 42-26 lead.
Staying the course
In addition to his clamping defense on Kolek, who finished Saturday’s game with seven points, two assists and four turnovers on 2-for-11 shooting, Diarra provided a scoring punch that validated his decision to remain in Storrs for another year. The Texas A&M transfer joined the Huskies ahead of their national championship-winning season in 2022-23, but playing time was difficult to find on a roster that featured two NBA Draft picks in the backcourt. He averaged 2.1 points in 12.7 minutes per game as a reserve and played just four minutes in the national semifinals and the national title game combined.
But rather than enter the transfer portal a second time in search of greener pastures, Diarra opted to remain with the Huskies, eager to carve out a larger role. He retooled his perimeter jumper and improved his 3-point shooting from 18.9% a year ago to 35.9% this season, selective about his opportunities but efficient when he took them. He developed a more effective handle to get downhill and score more effectively at the rim, upping his overall field-goal percentage from 30.1% to 48.5%. His lockdown defense remained unchanged.
The win over Marquette was one of Diarra’s finest performances in a Connecticut jersey, imprinting himself on the game at both ends of the floor. He paired with Castle to hound Kolek unrelentingly from the first whistle to the last, limiting the Golden Eagles’ star to his lowest point total since Marquette defeated Seton Hall back on Jan. 27. He buried three 3-pointers on six attempts to match his season high, finishing with 14 total points. He also contributed five rebounds and six assists for an impressive all-around showing.
Everything Diarra did was valuable on an afternoon when some of UConn’s most reliable scorers endured subpar efforts. Power forward Alex Karaban, who averages 14.9 points per game, finished with only seven points after shooting 2-for-9 from the floor. And Castle, who averages 11.2 points per game, scored just three points on 1-for-7 shooting.
The depth at Hurley’s disposal seems boundless.
Sizing up the Big East race
During his pregame interview session on Friday afternoon, Hurley lauded the upcoming game against Marquette as an excellent showcase for college basketball. He was pleased that both UConn and Marquette — preseason top-10 teams — had held up their ends of the bargain over the last few months, as Hurley described it, laying the groundwork for his program’s first top-five matchup at home since Feb. 16, 2009, at which point former coach Jim Calhoun was still the head coach in Storrs. At 23-2 overall and 13-1 in the league, the Huskies held a lead in the Big East standings by two and a half games.
An emphatic victory on Saturday afternoon at the XL Center only increased Connecticut’s lead with five games remaining before the Big East Tournament, positioning the Huskies for their first regular-season conference championship since 2006. They never won the American Athletic Conference during their short-lived stint from 2013-20, nor have they finished atop the Big East standings since returning to the league ahead of the 2020-21 campaign. It’s one of the few remaining boxes for Hurley to check after crossing off a national title last year.
Still, the remaining three weeks won’t be easy for UConn, which is inching closer to earning a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament. The Huskies have a quick turnaround before another difficult game Tuesday night at No. 17 Creighton, a place with arguably the best home-court advantage in the league. Beyond that, the schedule includes a rematch with Seton Hall, which is still the only Big East team to defeat Connecticut this season, and difficult road games at Marquette and Providence to finish. Hurley’s team is likely to be favored in all of them.
Michael Cohen covers college football and basketball for FOX Sports with an emphasis on the Big Ten. Follow him on Twitter at @Michael_Cohen13.
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