PORTLAND, Ore. – Nate Oats is probably as close a friend as UConn men’s basketball coach Dan Hurley among college basketball head coaches. That didn’t stop the emotions on Friday evening from temporarily boiling over.
UConn and Alabama engaged in verbal sparring on midcourt as they headed to their respective locker rooms at halftime. Early in the second half, Oats was hit with a technical foul after disagreeing with a call.
Ultimately, cooler heads prevailed – and so did UConn. The 20th-ranked Huskies finished the game with steadfast defensive efforts en route to an 82-67 win in a Phil Knight Invitational semifinal game at the Veterans Memorial Coliseum.
UConn (7-0) meets upstart Iowa State in the tournament championship at 10 p.m. Sunday at the Moda Center. The Cyclones (5-0) defeated top-ranked North Carolina on Friday, denying the Huskies a chance to play the nation’s No. 1 team for the 13th time in program history.
But UConn will make a journey to championship play, regardless of opponent.
“We’re used to being successful at (multi-team events),” Hurley said. “The whole mindset of the program this year is we’ve been fighting for the last couple of years, we’ve fought in the Great East, we’ve fought in tournaments. But we’re trying to go from contenders to champions. Now we have a chance to do that on Sunday.”
Hurley’s frenetic energy seemed to rub off on his players in the first 15 minutes, as the Huskies’ insane defense helped build a 15-point lead with less than 7 1/2 minutes left at halftime.
No. 18 Alabama (5-1) fought back but closed to five by the break and leveled the game with several ties in the second half, including 52-52 with 8:52 left. But the Huskies’ stubborn defense fired back at exactly the right time, leading a stunning 19-4 run that left Alabama 1-on-8 off the ground.
“We had a great defensive game plan,” noted second guard Jordan Hawkins. “I think we played it perfectly. They bothered us a bit towards the end of the first half. Towards the end of the second half, the boys improved.”
UConn’s defense was positively stifling for most of the first half, especially against Alabama’s leading scorer Brandon Miller. Nahiem Alleyne, at 6ft 4, who gave up five inches of height to Miller, draped the whole freshman star and held him to just one shot in the first five minutes. Andre Jackson moved off the bench as a tag team and continued to harass Miller with more turnovers than shots.
Miller had a 24-point performance the night before in Alabama’s 81-70 win over Michigan State. He came into play averaging 21 points and 9.2 rebounds per game while shooting 53 percent from 3-point range, but finished with 18 relatively benign points in 5-for-15 shooting.
“We met him on halfcourt 5-on-5,” Hurley said. “Get into his airspace and let him handle the ball. Any time he was involved in any kind of dribbling handoff or ball screen, we were super aggressive. We wanted to chase him off the line and get him to do the ball to handle ball.”
Meanwhile, after a 4-for-16 start from the ground, UConn ran 12-0 over a two-minute stretch and hit 7 of 8 shots at once to take a 28-13 lead.
However, Alabama rolled off a 9-0 run to end the half and had to feel over the moon to lose just 35-30 despite turning the ball 16 times and only attempting 23 shots in the first 20 minutes.
The officials had to separate the teams during a verbal sparring en route to their respective dressing rooms.
“It was nothing,” Hurley insisted. “Tristen (Newton) and Jahvon (Quinerly) hardly spoke to each other. People overreacted. It wasn’t worth melee. I was in worthy hand-to-hand combat and it wasn’t worth it.”
“You know Danny’s going to be super fiery,” Oates said. “He’s one of the most competitive guys I know. He fights for his boys, I fight for my boys. He got a warning, I got a ‘T’.” I won’t argue with Danny during a game, I have a lot of respect for him.”
In fact, Hurley helped Oats land his first coaching job as an assistant to Hurley’s older brother, Bobby, in Buffalo. When Bobby went to Arizona State, Oats took over as head coach, thrived and got the job in Alabama a few years ago.
“Bobby gave me a chance. Danny obviously had a say since Bobby worked for Danny,” Oates noted. “I guess I’m in Danny’s (coaching) tree. I respect these guys. Shoot, if it wasn’t for him I’d probably still be a high school coach in Detroit. I am thankful for what he has done for my career. At the same time, you’re trying to win.”
On Friday night, it was Hurley who got that win.
“We knew we had to be strong and play well to beat the Alabama team,” Hurley said. “This is a damn good team. The length, the point guard play and Miller who is obviously a great player. And the level of coaching, so it was a great win.”
RIM RATTLING
• Adama Sanogo led UConn with 25 points and Hawkins added 16. Alex Karaban contributed 12, Joey Calcaterra was another infusion off the bench with 10 and Newton survived a poor evening of shooting to finish with nine points and eight assists.
Coming in with a whopping 52.8 rebounds per game, the Crimson Tide led the nation, including 17.8 on the offensive glass, but only edged the Huskies 35-32, with nine offensive boards.
• Hurley said he took a different approach going into a game against a good friend.
“I usually bend over to a pretzel that leads into some of these games where there are these six degrees of separation. But I just looked at it when they won (Thursday) night how cool and awesome and an honor it would be to share a court with Nate with the history of our friendship and the level of coaching he is and how good his team is. Two former high school coaches who now coach large programs. I’ve tried not to become what I’ve done in the past, which sometimes makes these things personal. I’ve stayed pretty far away from that.
• For the second night in a row, members of the UConn women’s basketball team attended the game and cheered on the Huskies.
“It means everything,” Hawkins said. “We have a really close relationship with the guys over there. We love the support, we can definitely hear it in the crowd.”
• UConn’s visit to Nike headquarters for a Wednesday night banquet brought a nice surprise: free Nike sneakers for all players.
Actually, it wasn’t a big surprise. The same thing happened at the first PK80 tournament in 2017. The players went into a dark room in the Tiger Woods building, where LeBron James greeted them on a giant video screen. That screen flipped to reveal trainers for all players from the 16 men’s and eight women’s teams who were in town for the tournament.
[email protected] @DaveBorges