STORRS, Conn. — This was a complete reversal of fortune, a 180. This time, it was Providence coach Ed Cooley who was talking about his team’s lack of toughness, about getting knocked off its game by the crowd, about, as he put it, “a BS effort” by his team.
A little over six weeks ago, on Jan. 4, it was Dan Hurley in that position, after the UConn men were manhandled in Providence. “Outtoughed” was his word of choice that night.
Could a change in venue really make this much difference?
“This environment is a good an environment as you have in college basketball,” Cooley said after UConn’s 87-69 victory Wednesday. “These fans deserve a lot of credit. They willed their team today.”
Everywhere, every year there is evidence that true road wins are hard to get, especially in conference play and most particularly in the Big East. The series of road games against the top teams between Dec. 31 and Jan. 18 put the Huskies “in a blender” Hurley said, nearly derailing a season on the fast track to March glory.
But there is one group that has had a better, more consistent year than UConn, which is 21-7 and moving up in all the metrics that matter, and that’s the fan base.
“It’s just such an advantage to play in here,” Hurley said. “Our crowds have been incredible this year. It’s been years since we’ve had crowds like this in both venues. It would have been hard for anyone to come in here with this type of crowd and get a win.”
The three losing seasons, the long years in the American Athletic Conference and, finally, the pandemic had thinned the crowds at Gampel and the XL Center. But despite rising prices, the faithful were lured back by UConn’s early season success. The wins in Portland put tickets back in the get-em-while-they’re-hot category. Starting with the Oklahoma State game Dec. 1, the Huskies sold out the last seven games at Gampel, capacity 10,167. Starting with the Villanova game Dec. 28, four straight sellouts at XL, capacity 15,564.
The challenge was to make it as hard for other teams to win in Connecticut as it was for the Huskies to win at Xavier, Marquette, Providence, Seton Hall and Creighton, and challenge was met. With $2 beer on tap, and white shirts and towels, the crowd made its presence felt as emphatically as ever with the appearance of Providence, the not-so-friendly neighbor, at Gampel, the Huskies feeding off the frenzy to blow it open in the second half.
“My kids weren’t [ready],” Cooley said. “I thought we were soft, I thought we were not connected and I think the environment had a lot to do with that, so the $2 beers definitely worked, the white shirts definitely worked. That was a game that they needed to win and they played like it.”
And the challenge for Hurley’s Huskies was to match the intensity of their fans, as well as the opponents, to play Big East basketball, whether one calls it a rock fight, a mud fight or a steel-cage match, three characterizations often used by Hurley.
For a long stretch that wasn’t the case and Hurley referred to his team as two entities, the “nonconference team” and the one that was struggling to find itself in the Big East. At last, that line of demarcation is blurred.
The number that jumped off the page Wednesday was UConn’s 40-to-20 edge in rebounding. Much of that was a testament to their tenacity in chasing loose balls. Providence had a 41-39 edge on Jan. 4, and got every meaningful one.
The other difference was the defensive game freshman Alex Karaban played on Bryce Hopkins, a leading candidate for Big East Player of the Year. Hopkins had 27 points and five rebounds at Providence, 16 points and no rebounds this time.
“Providence can arguably be one of the toughest teams in the Big East,” Karaban said. “To outrebound them by 20 is something that takes a lot of hard work and takes a lot of tough guys to do. We became a tougher team throughout the year, and if we stick to our identity that coach always says, defense, rebounding and toughness, it just shows that we’re a hard team to beat.”
Before conference play began, the Huskies played a lot of pretty basketball, great ball movement, especially at the Phil Knight event. But not many teams have imposed such style on the Big East. They got 20 assists against Providence, but to complete the package and become a team that can be a March threat, UConn had to grow tougher, more physical and learn to put teams away down the stretch.
With the help of one hellacious home crowd after another, the Huskies developed steel in their spines and avenged road losses with decisive home wins over Marquette, Seton Hall and Providence. In their lone Gampel loss, they were nearly willed back from 17 points down before losing to Xavier.
Next, to get a better NCAA seed and complete their “revenge tour,” the Huskies need to flip the script and atone for the dispirited loss to St. John’s in Hartford with a win Saturday in the rematch at The Garden, UConn’s home away from home.
Their final home game is against DePaul at XL; the Gampel portion of the schedule is over. Cooley wasn’t the first coach to leave the building talking about its atmosphere. A great home crowd can bring the tenacity out of its team, and get under the opponents’ skin, especially in a heated rivalry like this one. UConn’s crowds have held up their end.
“For the many arrogant fans out there that don’t think this is one of the best New England basketball games,” Cooley said. “Connecticut has been very fortunate to have some incredible teams and incredible coaches, and this fan base is incredibly spoiled. Appreciate winning. There’s a reason why them dudes are in the Hall of Fame, on the men’s and women’s side. Don’t get arrogant with it. Appreciate it and try to get the next one. That’s what an educated fan base appreciates, and that’s what the Friars do.”
