GLENDALE, Ariz. – Connecticut assistant coach Luke Murray went to second-year center Donovan Clingan midway through this season with a statement. UConn was going to face Purdue in the national championship, and he better get acquainted with Zach Edey. Murray and Clingan discussed how they would play the hypothetical game, and Clingan said he wanted to play it one-on-one and let the rest of the Huskies win the game.
Murray had the scout for Monday night’s title game, and the coaches decided to stick with Clingan’s request. He would play Edey one-on-one in the post, and Clingan would wall in and force Edey into tough 2s while his teammates stuck to the perimeter and took 3s. In the pick-and-roll, the Huskies played two-on-two against Purdue point guard Braden Smith and Edey, not scoring the rollers, and again, sticking to the shooters.
“Statistically,” Clingan said, “it’s really hard to win games by just scoring 2 points.”
Monday night, UConn Math and Giant won. Edey got his, scoring 37 points on 25 shots, but Purdue made just one 3-pointer all night — and the Huskies completed one of the most dominant runs in LA tournament history. NCAA with a 75-60 victory.
Pulling that off would have been impossible without Clingan, who is college basketball’s cheat code on the defensive end.
Few dared not bring a double team to Edey, or at least dig in from the perimeter and try to give him something to think about when he puts the ball on the floor. NC State opted for that strategy Saturday night, and the Boilermakers made 10 3-pointers, four of which were assisted by Edey on putbacks.
“We watched the film,” UConn guard Tristen Newton said. “They get their 3 points on people going down there and helping Edey.”
Murray also studied the numbers this weekend and noticed a trend in Purdue’s efficiency numbers. Purdue’s success didn’t really depend on whether Edey was “good, great, or great.” He’s still scoring, finishing in double figures in every game this season. What mattered was the production of starting guards Lance Jones, Fletcher Loyer and Smith as well as knockdown shooter Mason Gillis off the bench, particularly what they did from beyond the 3-point line. The goal was to keep Edey between 25 and 28 points and keep these four under 20.
Yes, Edey went over his total, but the other four totaled 17, with Gillis and Loyer both scoreless.
This is due to what UConn’s guards did as soon as Edey touched him. They left their big man on an island, refusing to leave their mission.
When Smith got a ball screen, the goal was to send him to the left and try to slide under screens, while Clingan would backtrack and not leave Edey behind. If Edey won the race to the edge, help would have to be called in. Purdue makes this really difficult, as their shooters get so high, forcing whoever ends up scoring into a long closeout.
Smith is as good as it gets at making passes like this:
“The idea of a pick-and-roll is to try to put two on the ball and be at a disadvantage and put stress on the defense,” Murray said. “(Clingan) takes away a lot of that.”
The Huskies were unable to stop Smith from going right, but Clingan managed to not need help from his teammates. That’s an incredible ability for a man who stands 7 feet 2 inches tall and weighs 280 pounds. He shouldn’t be able to move that much mass backwards that quickly, but that’s why Clingan will be a lottery pick.
Clingan tried to play cat and mouse with Smith, faking him as his teammate who was screened tried to get back into the game. Watching the film, he knew that Smith preferred to pass the ball when he was rising in the air, and the assisting defender had no choice but to engage. Smith got Clingan once early:
Clingan has learned his lesson. The next time, he intentionally backed away, hoping it would create some indecision in Smith, and it worked to perfection:
That’s what Clingan has done all year. Even when he’s out of position, the fear of his shot blocking scares his opponents. Even Edey fell victim to it, missing three shots at the rim that he normally would have made and traveling once while trying to fake Clingan, who didn’t bite.
As is usually the case, the Huskies completely change their game plan when backup center Samson Johnson comes into play, which is difficult for opponents to adapt to but seamless for UConn. With Johnson, the plan was to double Edey, fooling Camden Heide, then recovering once the ball was gone. The first time Edey saw this, he threw it over Heide’s head and Purdue was called for a back-and-forth.
Smith made the right decisions, finishing with eight assists and just one turnover. In reality, he only had two readings; either feed Edey or try to score himself. He’s been killing coverage this year with his pull-up, but he only made 2 of 7 jump shots against the Huskies, who deliberately tried to wear him down with constant ball pressure from Stephon Castle and Hassan Diarra.
“We played against athletes, against really good defensive guys this year and in the tournament, but not against the collection of defensive players like UConn,” Purdue coach Matt Painter said. “We played against someone, he would have A defender locked down. These guys bring confined defenders off the bench.
The Huskies are relentless, defending with maximum effort on every play and never missing a single detail presented by their coaches. That’s how they got through this tournament, with the closest game being a 14-point win over Alabama. That’s how they held Purdue to 3-point range for just the third time in Painter’s 19 years at school.
In case you’re wondering, those other two games were also losses, including the last time that happened: February 26, 2002, in a loss at Michigan State when the Boilers went 1 on 9 from 3. Edey also got his. , scoring 25.
In three of Purdue’s four losses before Monday night, the Boilers had made five 3s or fewer.
Give up 37 to Edey? Many programs would have feared such a scenario. But the Huskies trusted the numbers and Clingan.
“The math won,” Murray said.
Exactly as they predicted.
(Top photo of Donovan Clingan defending Zach Edey: Jamie Squire/Getty Images)