University of Connecticut Athletics
Huskies Meet Saint Mary's In NCAA Second Round
3/18/2023 8:31:00 PM | Men's Basketball
UConn Athletic Communications / March 18, 2023
ALBANY, N.Y. – Sunday's NCAA West Region second-round game figures to be a contrast in styles.
The fourth-seeded UConn Huskies (26-8) are an aggressive, push-the-ball on offense, apply ball pressure on defense type of team. The fifth-seeded Saint Mary's Gaels (27-7) are a methodical, ball-control, use the shot-clock to its fullest type of team.
Whichever team manages to play closer to its identity will likely prevail as UConn and Saint Mary's collide on Sunday (6:10 p.m., TNT) at the MVP Arena in Albany in the NCAA West Region game. The winner will advance to the NCAA West Regional next week at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas to meet Arkansas, an upset winner Saturday against top-seeded Kansas.
"When you look at them you see, at least for me, some similarities to the Villanova teams, in terms of, they don't make a lot of mistakes, they grind you up at the offensive end with long possessions," UConn Coach Dan Hurley said. "Their defense gives you very little. And obviously, their pace of play is one of the slowest in the country."
Saint Mary's has won 18 of its last 21 games and two of those losses were to West Coast Conference champion Gonzaga. The Gaels have a solid point guard in fifth year senior Logan Johnson, two perimeter threats in freshman Aidan Mahaney and senior Alex Ducas, and a tough big man down low in junior center Mitchell Saxen. The fifth starter is senior forward Kyle Bowen. The Gaels don't have a lot of depth, but their slowdown style of play doesn't call for a lot.
"They are so well-coached and with the exception of Mahaney, they've all been in the program, so it's going to be hard to affect them," Hurley said. "You can extend your defense and do some things to try to speed them up and get them outside of their comfort zone. But if your ball-screen defense isn't 1,000 percent on point, Mahaney and Johnson will just eat you alive.
"And Saxen is a hell of a low post player – he's physical, he's tough, he's skilled. It's just a veteran group. I think the crowd might help us play better, but I don't think it's going to negatively affect them at all because they are such veteran players and they've been in many big spots before."
However, the Gaels have their concerns as well, an especially big one in UConn junior Adama Sanogo, who is coming off a 28-point, 13-rebound effort in the Huskies' 87-63 first-round victory over Iona.
"Sanogo, you don't have to watch him too long to figure out he's a force, especially on the boards," said Saint Mary's Coach Randy Bennett. "He's big, he seals, he does a good job there. They do a good job getting the ball to him. They're playing off him a lot. So,you have to have a game plan to deal with him.
"And it's not just he runs down the block and posts up. They're going to roll him into the post -- like I said, he's going to get offensive rebounds. Some of that is because their on-balls. You have to show on the guard or emergency switch on the guard, and now you have a guard
trying to block him off on the boards and that's not going to work."
"They have multiple ways to attack you," Bennett added. "That's why they're good."
Besides Sanogo, the Huskies had a solid game from guard Jordan Hawkins, who had 13 points, all in the second half, Andre Jackson, who had 10 points, 5 rebounds and 7 assists, and Donovan Clingan off the bench, with 12 points and 9 rebounds in less than 14 minutes.
"I think we have the ability to wear a team down," Hurley said. "Iona played as good as they can play for a half. We were playing just OK offensively and guarding just OK. But eventually, we have a chance to break a team because we have a chance to be fresh in the last 10-12 minutes to the game."
