BOSTON — Having a national title rematch during the opening week of the college basketball season is about as common as a comet.
Fortunately, we got it Friday night when No. 4 Connecticut took on defending/16th-ranked champs Michigan at TD Garden, with the Huskies win 85-77. The game marked the first matchup between the participants in the previous season’s men’s title game since Duke and UConn played just days after the season began at Madison Square Garden in November 1999. Friday’s contest was only the second time in the past 17 seasons that men’s college basketball played the game again the following season. It also featured the teams responsible for three of the last four NCAA trophies.
The two big questions surrounding one of November’s biggest games:
1. What would Michigan look like without Dusty May, who took the Dallas Mavericks job more than a third of the way through the offseason?
2. Could Dan Hurley really have another national title contender Again?
The majority of this column will deal with a resounding response to number 2, so let’s quickly tackle number 1 first. The game was a whistle-and-foul affair that totaled 59 free throws on 48 hacks and lasted nearly two and a half hours to play. It wasn’t an aesthetic masterpiece, much like the last time these two played at Lucas Oil Stadium (when the teams shot 34.1 percent, the second-worst accuracy in a national title game since 1950).
And even though Michigan was clearly the inferior team, it’s not hard to see how it could claw its way into the top four in the Big Ten. UM should have one of the best sophomores in the country (Trey McKenney, who scored all of his team’s 22 points in the second half) and is more likely than not to put together a respectable follow-up season at one of the greatest championship legs of the modern era.
“This team is not defending a national championship,” Wolverines coach Mike Boynton said after the loss. “They’re trying to establish their own legacy.”
The crowd split was 80/20 in UConn’s favor, hardly a shock given the handiness of Huskies fans across New England.
“Today was a road game for us,” said fifth-year Michigan forward Roddy Gayle.
Michigan’s loss means that, for the first time since 2000-01, the Wolverines have failed to start a season 2-0. Additionally, UConn was Michigan’s first ranked opponent this early in a season since 1993. Boynton’s team has plenty of opportunities to prove itself this month, starting with Marquette next Wednesday, then Villanova on the road Nov. 21, followed by the 16-team Players Era in Las Vegas Thanksgiving week. Lots more to come on the guys from Maize and Blue soon enough.
Let’s turn to the Hurley Huskies, who once again seem to have all the pieces necessary to participate in another Final Four. Hurley has a way of giving clues about his teams’ confidence levels. When the two-time national champion said the following after a 41.8 percent shooting night that included 13 fouls from three of Michigan’s starters, it’s a promising sign of what’s to come.
“I think we’re one of the best teams in the country, kind of a game you should win by 15 and you win by eight,” he said. “We’re good at this.”
Sardonic Hurley portends many good days to come. The Huskies won by keeping Michigan at arm’s length with shooting almost as good from 3 (40.9% on 9-of-22 shooting) as they did from the field (41.8%; 23-of-55). Sinking 30 of 36 free throws proved significant — as did Michigan’s 7 of 28 performance from beyond the arc.
The story Friday night in Boston, however, was the guard play. UConn’s backcourt of Silas Demary Jr. and Braylon Mullins looks poised to quickly stake a verifiable claim as the best 1-2 backcourt duo in the sport. After both struggling badly in the national championship game – Demary due to a serious ankle sprain – they combined here for 44 points, 11 rebounds and three steals. The shooting wasn’t effective, but the tandem outplayed Elliott Cadeau and McKenney, the former a shell of the player we saw win the Final Four MOP at Indy. (Nineteen points in April, but only eight points, plus five turnovers and a follow-up foul.)
“It was going to be a game where guys who can make plays off the dribble would have to do that against this particular defense, and he’s the best guy we have to do that,” Hurley said of Demary.
UConn’s rugged senior point guard didn’t watch clips of the title game — and Hurley didn’t let him watch. If Demary hadn’t been 50% effective seven months ago, maybe things would have gone differently. Demary told CBS Sports he couldn’t plant his foot with any conviction due to the nature of the sprain. The tape around his ankle and all the painkillers administered did not have a positive impact on his effectiveness. He only scored two points and committed one foul.
There is no point in living in the past and there is no point in witnessing this kind of failure. So he has no interest in watching it.
“It’s hard to see yourself so close to your end goal and to get there so short,” Demary told CBS Sports. “You don’t want to relive the same moments you experienced in the moment. I’ve been circling this game since we lost.”
The preseason pick for Big East Player of the Year, Demary said he needs to be the vocal leader that Alex Karaban and Tarris Reed Jr. were last season.
“I’ve had enough experience being around the right guys and the right people to know how to run a team,” he told CBS Sports. “I have one of, if not the best, leaders in the country who knows how to do it. He’s helped me along the way. Coach Kimani (Young) has helped me along the way, and I think I’ve taken that responsibility of being a guy that everyone looks to, no matter what the game presents. I feel like I have to lead this team in every huddle, talk to them about anything and everything, see what I see and to try to communicate as much as possible.”
Mullins also got off to a good start. After hitting the game-winning 3 to help UConn beat top-seeded Duke in the Eastern Regional final, the power of that shot propelled his profile nationally, making him one of the game’s most recognizable players. He had back-to-back 20-plus point games. His 23 on Friday led all others.
But Demary is the guy. He has 12 assists and no turnovers in two games, and Mullins told CBS Sports that everything on this deep UConn team stems from Demary at the top.
“He’s going to do big things this year and we need him every game,” Mullins said. “I’ll try to live up to his standards as much as possible, but I mean he does a lot for us.”
Then there’s Colben Landrew, the next NBA talent to choose Hurley’s program as a launching pad to the pros.
“You could see all the talent and different things he could do, driving the ball, making a 3, getting on the offensive glass,” Hurley said of Landrew. “The guy’s just, he’s a stud. I mean, 22 minutes, eight rebounds, six defensive and his physical level compared to the freshmen is, it’s a different level.”
We’re almost a week into the season. Duke looks ridiculous and could win 20 games this season by 20+ points. Preseason No. 1 Florida looks absolutely up to the task, as does No. 3 Illinois, which is averaging 116 points through two games and losing two of its top six players.
Connecticut is also in first place with these teams. A clear win against a ranked team was necessary, just to be sure. Hurley called the win a “confidence builder” for a non-conforming roster that ranks among the best you’ll find. (Ohio State, Arizona and Duke await later this month.)
“There was a huge amount of pressure on us to win this game today, not because of what happened in April,” he said. “There’s no coming back from that. It’s just that with what we had planned with our schedule, we really had to win this game today.”
Winning these types of games has become an expectation. Connecticut is now up to 10 straight neutral-site regular-season wins against ranked opponents. Hurley has this program’s reputation looming over the sport, with potentially the best backcourt in college basketball — and reinforcements on the way. Before the game, veteran shooter Solo Ball was active in warmups. His broken wrist was initially supposed to keep him out this season. Instead, a return over the next month seems likely.
So here we are again with UConn owning prime real estate at the pinnacle of the sport and ready to chart another course to another Final Four.
Gn sports
