GLENDALE, Arizona. – Connecticut assistant coach Luke Murray came to second-year center Donovan Clingan sometime in the middle of this season with a statement. UConn would face Purdue in the national championship and better get acquainted with Zach Edey. Murray and Clingan discussed how they would play the hypothetical matchup, and Clingan said he wanted to play him 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 block and force Edey to hit tough twos while his teammates stayed tight on the perimeter and took threes. In the pick-and-roll, the Huskies would play two-on-two against Purdue point guard Braden Smith and Edey, not touching the rollers and, again, sticking with the shooters.
“Statistically,” Clingan said, “it’s very difficult to win games just by scoring 2.”
On Monday night, math and the University of Connecticut juggernaut won. Edey got his, scoring 37 points on 25 shots, but Purdue hit just one 3-pointer all night and the Huskies ended one of the most dominant runs in NCAA Tournament history with a 75-60 victory.
Accomplishing it would have been impossible without Clingan, who is college basketball’s cheat code on the defensive end.
Few have dared not to double-team Edey, or at least attack from the perimeter and try to give him something to think about when he puts the ball on the court. NC State had followed that strategy Saturday night and the Boilermakers hit 10 3-pointers, four of which were assisted by Edey on kickoffs.
“We watched the film,” UConn guard Tristen Newton said. “They get their threes from the people who go there and help 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 excellent.” He always scores, finishing in double figures in every game this season. What mattered was the production of starting guards Lance Jones, Fletcher Loyer and Smith along with 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 those four under 20.
Yes, Edey surpassed his total, but those other four combined for 17, and Gillis and Loyer were held scoreless.
How that happened was because of what the UConn guards did as soon as Edey touched him. They left his great man on an island, refusing to abandon his mission.
When Smith got a ball screen, the goal was to send him to the left and try to slide under the screens, while Clingan dropped back and didn’t let Edey get behind him. If Edey won the race to the rim, help would have to be sought. Purdue makes it really difficult, because his shooters rise very high up the court, forcing whoever finishes to take a long closeout.
Smith is as good as he can make 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 pressure on the defense,” Murray said. “(Clingan) just eliminates a lot of that.”
The Huskies were unable to stop Smith from heading to the right, but Clingan managed to stop him from needing help from his teammates. It’s an amazing ability for a man who is 7-foot-2 and weighs 280 pounds. He shouldn’t be able to move that much mass back that quickly, but that’s why Clingan will be a lottery pick.
Clingan tried to play cat and mouse with Smith, faking it while his teammate who was tested tried to get back into the play. From watching film, he knew that Smith preferred to pass the ball when he was in the air, and the help defender has no choice but to commit. Smith got Clingan once early:
Clingan learned his lesson. The next time, he backed away intentionally, hoping it would create some indecision in Smith, and it worked perfectly:
This is what Clingan has done all year. Even when he is not in position, the fear of blocking him scares opponents. Even Edey was a victim of it, he missed three shots at the rim that he would normally make and went wide once while trying to simulate Clingan, who didn’t bite.
As is often the case, the Huskies completely change their game plan when backup center Samson Johnson enters the game, which is difficult for opponents to adjust to, but perfect for UConn. With Johnson, the plan was to double-team Edey, fooling Camden Heide and then recovering once the ball came out. The first time Edey saw that, he threw it over Heide’s head and Purdue was called for an over-and-back.
Smith made the right decisions, finishing with eight assists and just one turnover. In reality, he only had two readings; feed Edey or try to score himself. He has killed drop coverage this year with his jumper, but he only made 2 of 7 jumpers against the Huskies, who deliberately tried to wear him down with constant ball pressure from Stephon Castle and Hassan Diarra.
“We’ve played against athletes, we’ve played against some really good defensive guys this year and in the tournament, but not against the collection of defensive players like UConn has,” Purdue coach Matt Painter said. “We played against someone, they would have has blocked defender. “These guys are getting locked-in defenders off the bench.”
The Huskies are relentless, defending with maximum effort on every play and never missing any of the details their coaches lay out. That’s how they got through this tournament and the closest game was a 14-point win against Alabama. That’s how they held Purdue to a three-pointer for the third time in Painter’s 19 years at the school.
In case you were wondering, those other two games were also losses, including the last time it happened: February 1st. On December 26, 2022, in a loss at Michigan State when the Boilers went 1 for 9 from 3. Edey also got his, scoring 25.
In three of Purdue’s four losses before Monday night, the Boilers had made five or fewer 3-pointers.
Give up 37 to Edey? Many programs would have feared such a scenario. But the Huskies trusted the numbers and Clingan.
“Math won,” Murray said.
Just as they predicted.
(Top photo of Donovan Clingan defending Zach Edey: Jamie Squire/Getty Images)
