UConn men's basketball team's defense leads to win over Alabama in Phil Knight Invitational semifinals

PORTLAND, Ore. — Nate Oats is probably as close a friend as UConn men's basketball coach Dan Hurley has among college basketball head coaches. But that didn't stop the emotions from boiling over at times on Friday night. UConn and Alabama engaged in some verbal sparring at midcourt as they left for 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 bookended the game with stalwart defensive efforts en route to an 82-67 win in a Phil Knight Invitational semifinal game at Veterans Memorial Coliseum. UConn (7-0) will face upstart Iowa State in the tourney championship on Sunday at 10 p.m. at Moda Center. The Cyclones (5-0) knocked off top-ranked North Carolina on Friday, depriving the Huskies a chance to play the No. 1-ranked team in the nation for just the 13th time in program history. But UConn will take a trip to the championship game, no matter the opponent. "We're used to having success in (multi-team events)," Hurley said. "The whole mindset of the program this year is we've been contending the last couple of years, contending in the Big East, contending 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 carry over to his players over the first 15 minutes, as the Huskies' manic defensive effort helped build up a 15-point lead less than 7 1/2 minutes before halftime. No. 18 Alabama (5-1) fought back, however, got within five by the break and tied the game multiple ties in the latter half, including 52-52 with 8:52 left. But the Huskies' tenacious defense fired up again at just the right time, spearheading a head-spinning, 19-4 run during which Alabama was 1-for-8 from the floor. "We had a great defensive game plan," sophomore guard Jordan Hawkins noted. "I think we played it to perfection. Late in the first half, they got to us a little bit. Late second half, guys stepped up." UConn's defense was positively smothering for most of the first half, particularly on Alabama leading scorer Brandon Miller. Nahiem Alleyne, at 6-foot-4 giving up five inches of height to Miller, draped all over the freshman star and held him to just one shot over the first five minutes. Andre Jackson tag-teamed off the bench and continued to pester Miller into more turnovers than shots. Miller was coming off a 24-point effort in Alabama's 81-70 win over Michigan State the night before. He entered the game averaging 21 points and 9.2 rebounds per game while shooting 53 percent from 3-point range, but wound up with 18 relatively harmless points on on 5-for-15 shooting. "We got into him in the halfcourt, 5-on-5," said Hurley. "Got into his air space, made him handle the ball. Anytime that he got involved in any type of dribble hand-off or ball-screen, we were super-aggressive. We wanted to chase him off the line and make him handle the ball." Meanwhile, after starting 4-for-16 from the floor, UConn pulled off a 12-0 run over one two-minute stretch and hit 7 of 8 shots at one point to take a 28-13 lead. However, Alabama rolled off a 9-0 run to close out the half, and had to feel ecstatic to be only down 35-30 despite turning the ball over 16 times over the first 20 minutes while attempting a mere 23 shots. Officials had to separate the teams during some verbal sparring on the way to their respective locker rooms. "That was nothing," Hurley insisted. "Tristen (Newton) and Jahvon (Quinerly) were barely even saying anything to each other. People overreacted. That was not worth of any melee. I've been in worthy melees, and that was not worthy." "You know Danny's going to be super-fiery," said Oates. "He's one of the most competitive guys I know. He's fighting for his guys, I'm fighting for my guys. He got a warning, I got a 'T.' I'm not gonna argue with Danny during a game, I have a lot of respect for him." Indeed, Hurley helped Oats get his first coaching job, as an assistant to Hurley's older brother Bobby at Buffalo. When Bobby left for Arizona State, Oats took over the head coaching reins, had success and got the Alabama job a few years ago. "Bobby gave me a shot. Danny obviously had a say in that, since Bobby worked for Danny," Oates noted. "I guess I'm in Danny's (coaching) tree. I respect those guys. Shoot, if it wasn't for him, I'd probably still be a high school coach back in Detroit. I'm grateful for what he's done for my career. At the same time, you're trying to get a win." On Friday night, it was Hurley who got that win. "We knew we had to be tough and play well to beat that Alabama team," Hurley said. "That's a heck of a team. The length, the point guard play and Miller who's obviously a tremendous player. And the level of coaching, so it was a great win." RIM RATTLINGS • Adama Sanogo led UConn with 25 points and Hawkins added 16. Alex Karaban contributed 12, Joey Calcaterra was again an infusion off the bench with 10 and Newton survived a poor shooting night and finished with nine points and eight assists. The Crimson Tide entered the game leading the nation in rebounding at a whopping 52.8 per game, including 17.8 on the offensive glass, but only outrebounded the Huskies 35-32, with nine offensive boards. • Hurley said he took a different approach heading into a game against a good friend. "I usually bend myself into a pretzel leading into some of these games, where there's these six degrees of separation. But, I just looked at it from when they won (Thursday) night, just how cool and great and an honor it would be to share a court with Nate, with the history of our friendship and the level of coach he is and how good his team is. Two former high school coaches that are now coaching big-time programs. I tried to not to what I've done in the past, which is sometimes turn these things into some personal thing. I stayed pretty far away from that." • For the second straight night, members of the UConn women's basketball team were at the game, cheering on the Huskies. "It means everything," Hawkins said. "We've got a really close relationship with those guys over there. We love the support, we can hear them in the crowd, for sure." • UConn's visit to Nike's headquarters for a banquet on Wednesday night featured a nice surprise: free Nike sneakers for all the players. Actually, it wasn't much of a surprise. The same thing happened at the inaugural PK80 tournament in 2017. The players filed into a dark room inside the Tiger Woods building, where LeBron James welcomed them on a huge video screen. That screen rotated around, revealing sneakers for all the players on the 16 men's and eight women's teams in town for the tournament. david.borges@hearstmediact.com @DaveBorges

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