University of Connecticut Athletics
Early Deficits Don't Rattle Confident Huskies
3/14/2024 8:43:00 PM | Men's Basketball
By PHIL CHARDIS
Special to uconnhuskies.com
NEW YORK – After the first four minutes of its next-to-last game and the first three minutes of its last one, the UConn men's basketball team trailed by a combined score of 25-2. After 40 minutes of each game, the Huskies led by a combined 41 points.
Down 15-2 to Providence in last week's regular-season finale and 10-0 to Xavier in Thursday's quarterfinal of the BIG EAST Tournament, the Huskies reacted with a collective shrug. No panic, no yelling, no rush, no loss of control. The Huskies are supremely confident and with an unbreakable trust in their system and their ability to execute it.
It took 8:33 for the Huskies to catch Providence at 21-21 and then they outscored the Friars, 21-3, for the last 7:26 of the first half. It only took 3:15 for UConn to overtake Xavier and lead, 11-10, but the Huskies actually waited until the second half to overwhelm the Musketeers for an 87-60 romp. The point is, the top-seeded (BIG EAST Tournament) and No. 2 (AP) Huskies (29-3) figure to be a tough nut to crack, no matter how big a deficit they face early in the game.
"The last two games, we expected them to come out fast," graduate guard Tristen Newton said. "We never want to be down 15-2 or 10-0, but we know who we are, we know the type of players we have, we know the coaching staff we have. We just weren't guarding. So we had to change our mentality to guard and we know the offense will come. So, no panic, but at the same time, we can't do that too many more times or it won't work out well for us."
Clearly, the games will get increasingly more difficult for UConn, starting with the BIG EAST Tournament semifinal against St. John's, but is there anyone who doesn't think that the Huskies are not up to the challenge? They just  spotted two desperate teams 13 and 10 points, respectively, and defeated both going away.
"Yes, we have to do a way better job of fixing that – we can't start off back to back games like that," sophomore forward Alex Karaban said. "But we always know that it's a long game and it's going to take a lot for a team to beat us. We just have to continue with that mindset – it's a long game and our best basketball is yet to come."
Amazingly, as a freshman, Steph Castle has adopted the attitude of his older teammates. Low key anyway, Castle has remained calm and sure of himself and his teammates, no matter what the deficit.
"No team is going to go out easy," he said. "But I think we really believe in what we do. As the game goes on, we have a super beat team, and we're going to break teams down. So we don't really get too rattled by anybody else's runs because we know how good we are and we know we're going to make our own runs. So other team's leads don't phase me and I don't think they phase anybody else. I look to our older players – they stay composed, so it makes it easy for me to stay composed. We know we have a great team and there's a lot of time on the clock and not to get panicked by anything the other team is doing."
Sophomore center Donovan took a lot of the blame for Thursday's poor start, playing passively and detached, but as with the rest of his teammates, he knew it was nothing the Huskies couldn't correct – especially when he was taken out of the game before the first TV timeout.
"It was a whole mental thing for me," Clingan said. "I sat on the bench and told myself, 'OK, wake up. It's win or go home. The season's on the line and we have to play with everything we've got.' So, in my head, I realized that I had to stop worrying about what happened in the past, worry about the future. Obviously, it's not great to start the game down, 10-0, but then come out, stay composed and realize that everything is going to be all right, we've only a few minutes into the game."
When the game got to the second half, Clingan and the Huskies put on a clinic, shooting a remarkable 78.6 percent overall, 42.9 percent from three-point range and pouring in 53 points to end Xavier's upset dreams.
Every other team is going to be excited to play UConn and give it their best shot, especially as the game begins. The Huskies, however, are much more interested in how the game ends. Â Â Â Â Â
