Donovan Clingan’s finest hour: UConn’s 7-foot-2 ‘unicorn’ shines on big stage

HARTFORD, Conn. — Toward the end of a news conference in which there wasn’t much for Shaka Smart to say, his team having been clobbered by No. 1 Connecticut, 81-53, in a game the Huskies led for more than 35 minutes, the Marquette head coach fielded a question about the two best teams in college basketball, an inquiry he is uniquely qualified to answer having faced them both. 

In late November, on a neutral floor, Smart’s group played Purdue in a non-conference showdown that ended as a narrow three-point loss for the Golden Eagles. And then on Saturday, after winning eight consecutive games, Marquette traveled to the sold-out XL Center in Hartford to tangle with UConn, winners of 13 straight games entering the weekend. 

So how would Smart, whose squad was the preseason pick to win the Big East, compare the two programs that have occupied the top spot in the AP Poll more than anyone else this season? How would he compare second-ranked Purdue, led by the 7-foot-4-inch center Zach Edey (23.3 points, 11.8 rebounds, 1.1 blocks per game), with a group of top-ranked Huskies, anchored by the 7-foot-2-inch center Donovan Clingan (12.1 points, 6.4 rebounds, 2.3 blocks per game), finally healthy after back-to-back foot injuries?

“I’ll leave that to you analysts,” Smart said with a smile. “We played a lot better when we played Purdue than we played today. Two really, really good teams with, I think, Clingan and Edey, [who] just give them something that other teams don’t have. They’re not exactly the same, but they are both unicorns from the standpoint of one of these things is not like the other. But I think you’ve got two terrific teams right there.”

Saturday’s game finished with the largest-ever margin of victory for a conference matchup between teams ranked in the top-five of the AP Poll, the Golden Eagles having climbed to No. 4 after defeating St. John’s and Butler last week. And throughout that demolition, which peaked when Connecticut led by 29 with 4:17 remaining, as the crowd seemed to reach a new decibel, Marquette was gored by the horn of the Huskies’ unicorn. Clingan spent the afternoon alternating between spearing Smart’s team for a game-high 17 points and five rebounds on the offensive end of the floor and rebutting the Golden Eagles’ every move on defense, his massive frame and fluid movement harassing star point guard Tyler Kolek while rerouting big man Oso Ighodaro. Clingan grabbed five more defensive rebounds to complete just his second double-double of the season in what was arguably his finest performance considering the stage and caliber of opponent. 

“Clingan really, really bothered us,” Smart said. “Even more so than he had in the past.”

So much of the ferocity that Clingan and UConn played with on Saturday was a direct result of the past three matchups between these teams last season, two of which were won by Marquette. It was the Golden Eagles who fended off Connecticut to win the Big East regular-season title with a 17-3 mark in conference play. And it was the Golden Eagles who snuffed Connecticut out of the Big East Tournament with a gritty semifinal win that forced Hurley to admit Marquette had played harder, played tougher. This weekend’s date at the XL Center was the Huskies’ first shot at revenge.

Saturday’s game was also the first between Connecticut and the Golden Eagles with Clingan in a starring role. After a freshman campaign spent backing up All-American center Adama Sanogo, who was the unquestioned focal point of UConn’s offense last season, Clingan stepped into the starting lineup for a retooled roster across which the scoring burden would be spread. There are five Huskies currently averaging double figures in scoring through 26 games — and Clingan is one of them — but all five average fewer points than Sanogo and second-leading scorer Jordan Hawkins did a year ago. This week’s win over Marquette was just the third time Clingan eclipsed 15 points against a Big East opponent this season. 

“There’s a bunch of other centers that have gaudier numbers,” Hurley said when asked about the impact Clingan has made since returning from injury on Jan. 17. “But they don’t play on a team like ours that is so balanced. We react offensively, really. We send the ball where the defense tells us to send the ball. I don’t know what [Clingan] averages a game, but he’s one of the most impactful players in the country. Top two, top three most valuable players in the country, that kid.”

Numerous advanced metrics support Hurley’s claim, though few coaches in the Big East would question it given the level UConn has reached. Based on the Bayesian Performance Rating that measures a player’s overall value when on the floor, Clingan ranks second nationally behind Edey, according to EvanMiya.com. His Offensive Bayesian Performance Rating is also second to Edey, who is shooting better than 61% from the floor this season, but Clingan surpasses his monstrous peer defensively. Clingan has the sixth-best Defensive Bayesian Performance Rating in the country, six spots ahead of Edey.

The Golden Eagles realized just how impervious Clingan’s presence can be nearly every time they entered the lane during Saturday’s game. Kolek, who poured in 22 points and made six of nine shots from inside the arc against Purdue, was limited to just seven points on 2-for-11 shooting against Connecticut. When Smart was asked what troubled the reigning Big East Player of the Year on a dreadful afternoon, the answer was simple: “Clingan had a lot to do with it,” Smart said. 

[Is this year’s UConn team better than last year’s national title squad?]

Even Ighodaro, who finished with 14 points on 7-for-12 shooting, resorted to mid-range push shots rather than challenging Clingan at the rim. The final box score only credited Clingan with a single block — though he claimed another in his postgame interview — but the number of shots he impacted and possessions he ruined almost certainly reached a dozen. That he accomplished all that without committing a foul was the most impressive stat of all. 

“Finally,” Hassan Diarra joked when a reporter asked Clingan about defending without fouling. Clingan averages 2.1 fouls per game so far this season and had reached four fouls in three of his last five appearances prior to Saturday. 

“He showed just tremendous discipline,” Hurley said. “We’ve been on his a– about just stop putting us in position where we’re having to coach around foul trouble. Both him and [backup center] Samson [Johnson] tend to do that to us a lot, and it’s a very dangerous thing. Donovan is one of the most impactful players in the country. We’re maybe the best offensive and best defensive team in the country, maybe both ends, when he’s in the game. So stay down, don’t take shot fakes, wall up. I thought he had tremendous discipline.”

Added Clingan: “If they score a tough two over me and I walled up and I got my hands up and [Ighodaro] had some finish that, you know, was difficult, that was my idea going into the game. Two points for him means less than what one foul for me does.”

Without any fouls derailing him, Clingan could apply his aggressiveness evenly at both ends of the floor. He opened Connecticut’s scoring with a beautiful reverse layup that showcased his touch around the rim, slicing to the hoop on a well-timed cut. He ran the floor in transition for a powerful dunk that extended the Huskies’ lead to 16 and forced Smart to call timeout. He turned offensive rebounds into second-chance points and set redwood-esque screens to free his 3-point shooting teammates: Tristen Newton (3-for-7), Cam Spencer (2-for-6) and Diarra (3-for-6), who tied his season high with 14 points. 

An array of dunks and layups enabled Clingan to shoot 7-for-8 from the field in what finished as his most efficient performance since a 99-56 blowout of Xavier on Jan. 28, a day Clingan made eight of nine attempts en route to 18 points. Connecticut’s undressing of the Musketeers had been the Huskies’ high-water mark before shellacking Marquette on national television. It’s hardly a coincidence that Clingan starred in both. 

“You play elite offense, you play elite defense, and you’re a great rebounding team, and you play harder than the opponent,” Hurley said. “That doesn’t give them a lot of places to go.”

A unicorn, indeed. 

Michael Cohen covers college football and basketball for FOX Sports with an emphasis on the Big Ten. Follow him on Twitter at @Michael_Cohen13.

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