Donovan Clingan took one step up the ladder and snipped off his piece of the net, wagging it in the air before tying it to the back of his Big East Tournament championship hat for safe-keeping amidst Saturday night’s celebration.
The 7-foot-2 sophomore from Bristol, one of the most decorated basketball players ever to come from the state of Connecticut, added yet another trophy to his case.
“To put the Connecticut jersey on and be able to represent the state of Connecticut means a lot to me,” Clingan said. “I’ve grown up in Connecticut my whole life. And watching UConn play, and to be able to be a part of history and be part of something special like we’ve done last year and this year, it means a lot to me.”
He was seated at his locker surrounded by reporters when Tristen Newton, the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player, approached from behind the scrum with a camera, waving his hand to ask a question:
“Donovan Clingan, how does it feel to be the best center in America?” the point guard asked his center.
“No words,” Clingan said as he shook his head. “It feels great to win a Big East championship.”
The big man scored 22 points and grabbed 16 rebounds – the first player with at least 20 points and 15 rebounds in the title game since Patrick Ewing in 1984 – and dominated the second half after a sluggish start that made it clear both teams had played three games in as many days.
Clingan had 10 points and 10 rebounds by halftime but missed five of his first seven shots as both teams struggled to put the ball in the basket. He helped hold off the Golden Eagles, who shot 32.3% from the field compared to UConn’s 30% over the first 20 minutes, with a pair of blocks and, though his layup attempts were off the mark, found points from the free throw line, where he’s shot just 57% this year.
“I saw how the game was going the first couple minutes and realized that I had to attack the glass and rebound the ball best I can and finish around the rim,” he said. “Today I finally made my free throws.”
He took over in the second half, made all five of his shots, as a banged-up Marquette team, playing without its star point guard Tyler Kolek, ran out of steam.
“Donovan Clingan was the biggest difference,” Marquette coach Shaka Smart said. “He puts you in a bind as a team defensively because it’s hard to guard him with one guy, and the way that we defend pick-and-rolls, sometimes he smaller guys get on him, and that’s a problem. But he does that to a lot of people.”
“He turned into Cling Kong,” roommate Alex Karaban said. “He’s a beast out there.”
Clingan led Bristol Central to 43 consecutive wins and a state title in his last two years of high school and decided to stay home, where he’d help UConn win its fifth men’s basketball national championship as an overqualified backup.
In his first year as a starter and the centerpiece for UConn’s unselfish and balanced attack, Clingan helped put the Huskies in position for a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament with a 31-3 record, a league-record 18 wins for the Big East regular season title and now, the program’s first tournament title in the league since 2011.
“This guy, last year he could have been – he would have been a top-20 pick in last year’s draft and accepted playing behind Adama and embraced that, and is just an incredible person,” head coach Dan Hurley said. “Most players in his situation in the college game today, the agent would have been calling, the dad would have been calling, he would have been boycotting practice and being pissy.
“But he’s a great, great guy. Obviously he’s going to be a lottery pick coming up here in the very near future, but he never makes it about himself. He’s just about team. He’s got incredible personality. I’ve said this, this guy next to me somehow finds himself still being an underrated player, which is incredible, because he’s going to be a 12- to 15-year NBA player. But this guy right here, Donovan, he’s one of the two or three most impactful players in college basketball. If you don’t see that with your eyes, then look at the analytics.”
A special relationship at the four
Jaylin Stewart has had to wait for his turn and Saturday, with Karaban struggling, just 1 of his first 7 from the field, it was his time and he made the most of it. Stewart hit three 3-pointers in a row and helped give the Huskies their largest lead of the game as Marquette ran out of gas.
Almost immediately upon returning to the locker room, Karaban made a post on X, which he doesn’t do often.
“JAYLIN STEWART,” it read in all caps, captioning a picture of Stewart before he got to Storrs.
JAYLIN STEWART pic.twitter.com/0JejlH4Zoc
— Alex Karaban (@AlexKaraban) March 17, 2024
From the bench, the moment “felt amazing,” Karaban said. He told Hurley to keep Stewart in the game as he continued to hit shots. “I was honestly so happy, I’m the happiest for him right now. He deserves it.
“I told him, ‘You won us this championship and I appreciate you so much for that.'”
It’s been an up-and-down year for Stewart, a long ways away from his hometown Seattle. Karaban, the starter at his position, took the freshman under his wing and helped him grow confidence as he found his role on the team – now establishing himself in an important eight-man rotation as the Huskies look for back-to-back national titles.
“From Day One, (Karaban’s) for sure been like a role model for me, a big brother,” Stewart said. “Took me under his wing, we kind of play the same position so I watched him every day, I watch his every move so I can’t thank him enough.”
More history:
…UConn finished the season 7-0 in Madison Square Garden, more wins than any program this year. The Huskies beat Indiana and Texas in the Empire Classic, North Carolina in the Jimmy V Classic, St. John’s (twice), Xavier and Marquette. The program is 75-60 all-time in “Storrs South.”
…Newton, who averaged 17 points, eight assists and six rebounds through three tournament games, was named the Most Outstanding Player as Clingan earned a spot on the All-Tournament team alongside St. John’s Daniss Jenkins, Providence’s Devin Carter and Marquette’s Kam Jones and Oso Ighodaro.
…UConn set the three-game Big East Tournament record for team assists with 73, passing St. John’s 69 in 1986. The Huskies had 21 assists on 26 made shots in Saturday’s final.
…Dan Hurley brought up tampering several times after the game, pleading that his little-used freshmen wait their turn behind the number of future NBA players in UConn’s starting lineup. “I get the intel from my staff, different programs that, while they’re still playing and while other people are still playing, are tampering… The whole thing is just an embarrassing mess the way some programs operate,” Hurley said. “Our game is so despicable in some ways with the way people are functioning in March.”
The transfer portal opens on Monday.
