2024 NCAA Basketball Tournament Brackets
GLENDALE, Ariz. – Regardless of how this Final Four weekend ends for the UConn men’s basketball team, whether the remarkable two-year run of dominance is crowned by a second-consecutive championship or a crushing exit, it will be the last time this group plays together.
The team has talked about it as it closes in on the waning moments of the season in which so many records were broken.
“We know it’s gonna be the last week as a team, and we really don’t want this season to end,” said redshirt sophomore Alex Karaban, who was on the bench, unable to play when the Huskies made their second consecutive first-round exit in the 2022 NCAA Tournament and is now in the starting lineup on the Final Four stage for the second year in a row.
“We want our mark to be left on UConn’s history.”
This team already has. After losing five of their top eight contributors from last year’s title run, the Huskies followed it with the best record in program history, a Big East regular season (with a Big East record for wins) and tournament title, and another trip to the Final Four.
“A lot of emotion,” Hurley said. “Just thinking about the level of success that this group of players has had this year. Really going into the season, obviously we talked about Brooklyn to Boston to Phoenix. We really wanted the Big East regular season and the Big East tournament championship. Those were the ones we hadn’t had. We had the regional championship last year, we won the national championship. Just the run that this group has been on has been historic, historic within the UConn program and then the first defending national champ to get back to the Final Four since 2007. It’s been an historic run.
“You do take little moments to appreciate it, but they don’t last long.”
Soon after the season inevitably ends, news regarding players deciding to leave for a professional opportunity or, for some, to stay, will flood the cycle.
Donovan Clingan, No. 1 pick? UConn men’s basketball players rocketing up NBA draft boards
UConn’s fifth-year backcourt of Tristen Newton and Cam Spencer has no choice as their eligibility expires. Stephon Castle and Donovan Clingan, each projected lottery picks, face an opportunity that will be hard to pass up and Karaban, widely projected to go in the second round if not higher, will face a challenging decision of his own.
Whether the offseason begins Saturday or Monday night, the Huskies will have to reload in a major way. But with Hurley and all of the recent success in this ever-changing landscape, Storrs will be among top destinations for recruits.
“The last two years since NIL started, I’ve coached my teams harder than I’ve coached any teams just because of everything that these guys now have at their disposal. The resources that the University of Connecticut and programs now invest in these players is not for their attendance. It’s not just to be on campus. It’s to produce and to produce winning,” Hurley said.
“The way we travel, you know, the residence, the full-service dining we have in our 40 million plus practice facility, the NIL opportunities. I coach the hell out of these guys because of everything that they get. And they have a responsibility to work harder and to represent UConn and to fight their absolute ass off to win games for our donors, our fans, the university because of everything that they get that past players didn’t get.”
UConn is set to bring in two high school recruits in guard Ahmad Nowell and versatile forward Isaiah Abraham, both top-85 prospects in the class, per ESPN. But the Huskies’ staff will be active in the portal, where they’ve had tremendous success with players like Newton, Spencer and Big East Sixth Man of the Year Hassan Diarra, a senior with another year of eligibility should he take it.
With the prospective departure of Clingan, the 7-footer from Bristol, the Huskies have already reportedly contacted multiple big men in the transfer portal, including Rutgers’ Clifford Omoruyi and Florida Atlantic’s Vladislav Goldin.
Both are more traditional centers who could complement 6-10 junior Samson Johnson, a likely returner.
Omoruyi, 6-11, 240 pounds, averaged 10.4 points and 8.3 rebounds in his fourth season at Rutgers. Goldin, from Russia, started at Texas Tech but has spent the last three years at FAU, helping lead the Owls to the Final Four in 2023. He entered the portal shortly after coach Dusty May left for the head job at Michigan following a loss to Northwestern in the first round of the tournament. At 7-1, 240 pounds, Goldin averaged 15.7 points and 6.9 rebounds this season.
When the focus shifts from this season to the next, UConn’s staff will be searching for players, and personalities, that fit.
“There’s a lot of positive things about being able to get a change of scenery,” said Hurley, who’s been vocal about the free agency-like shopping for players and his hesitancy with two-time transfers. “You just hope it doesn’t create an environment where young people just run from fixing themselves, which is usually the issue, so…”
