UConn men notebook: Clingan, Huskies in unfamiliar territory

Jan. 6—PROVIDENCE — The UConn men’s basketball team is dealing with back-to-back losses for the first time this season after dropping a 73-61 decision at Amica Mutual Pavilion Wednesday night.

For Huskies freshman and Bristol native Donovan Clingan, losing consecutive games is something he’s not accustomed to.

Prior to UConn’s loss to the Friars, the last time Clingan’s team lost two straight was during the 2019-20 season, his sophomore year at Bristol Central High.

The Rams lost at East Catholic Jan. 30 and at Windsor four days later.

From then until Wednesday, Clingan’s teams posted a combined 64-2 record, including a run of 57-straight wins — 43 in high school, 14 at UConn.

“We need to get back to where we were because, I’m not saying it’s not fun, but it was a lot more fun when we were winning 14 in a row,” Clingan said. “We’re a very, very good team. We just have to find our way again and get back to where we were.”

Just because it’s an unfamiliar feeling though doesn’t mean that Clingan and the Huskies think drastic changes are necessary.

“We’re all super confident,” Clingan said. “We just have to get back to where we were and have the same mindset. We just have to keep working. We’ll be all right, we just have to figure out what’s going wrong.”

Clingan recorded his third double-double of the season against Providence. The 7-foot-2 center finished with 12 points and 11 rebounds while matching his season-high of four blocks and adding a steal in 21 minutes off the bench.

“I don’t really care about my stat line. We lost, so that’s what’s bothering me the most,” Clingan said. “I mean I could say I’d be happy with it if we won, but we didn’t. I wish I could’ve done more rebounding-wise, making more layups, setting better screens, blocking more shots. I wish I could’ve done that stuff better to help us win, but it didn’t go our way (Wednesday), and we’ll be back.”

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Clingan’s performance was one of the few bright spots that Huskies coach Dan Hurley took away from Wednesday night.

“Donovan was great (Wednesday),” he said. “I mean him and Alex (Karaban) were our two best players.”

He performed so well that Hurley played both Clingan and Adama Sanogo together for stretches instead of his more traditional tactic of alternating the big men.

“We didn’t have much time to practice with it, so it was not pleasing to the eyes in terms of the alignments and everything out there,” Hurley said. “But I wanted to get Donovan on the court. … We tried to play some 1-3-1. But we’ve got to kind of tinker a little bit with what we can do offensively versus man with them in there.”

Clingan played a total of 30 minutes in UConn’s previous three games.

He said it was “pretty cool” to be out there simultaneously with Sanogo.

“I thought we worked pretty well together,” Clingan added. “We rebounded the ball well. We just have to get used to that more and more every day in practice and then we’ll be good.”

While Clingan still had some stumbles Wednesday, he continued to gain praise from the opposition.

“Standing next to him, that was my first time seeing him,” Providence sophomore Bryce Hopkins said. “I was standing at the free throw line and I was just looking up at him like ‘This dude is massive. He’s huge.’ He’s going to be a great player. He’s only a freshman and he’s going to be a very big problem in the Big East.”

Sanogo on Wooden list

Sanogo was named to the John R. Wooden Award midseason top 25 watch list, which was announced by the Los Angeles Athletic Club Wednesday evening.

The 6-foot-9 junior forward had previously been on the award’s preseason watch list.

Sanogo has started all 16 games for the Huskies this season. He’s averaging 17.4 points, 6.8 rebounds and 1.1 steals in 25.8 minutes per game.

His scoring average leads the Big East while his 60.4 percent shooting percentage is sixth in the league.

Sanogo finished with 11 points, seven rebounds, a block and a steal Wednesday.

The Wooden Award All-American team will be announced during the week of the Elite Eight, and the award winner will be announced April 7.

A late season watch list will be announced before the national ballot of 15 players is released. A panel of around 1,000 voters will create a top 10 out of those 15 players ahead of the NCAA tournament.

Floyd stings former team

A former Husky provided a big basket for Providence Wednesday.

Corey Floyd Jr.’s three-pointer with 26.4 seconds left in the first half helped the Friars to a halftime lead they wouldn’t relinquish.

Floyd’s bucket came as the shot clock expired. It put Providence up 33-28, and the Friars would take a three-point lead into the break.

“That was just a bad situation where we didn’t finish multiple possessions like that where the ball kind of squirted somewhere with two on the shot clock,” Hurley said of the play. “Credit Providence, I mean those guys were making multiple efforts.”

The basket was Floyd’s only shot of the game. He added a rebound in 11 minutes of action.

“I thought we got some really quality minutes from Corey Floyd Jr.,” Providence coach Ed Cooley said. “A lot of quality minutes from him. A big three in that first half, and then his physicality defensively continued to play into the identity of the way Providence College wants to play.”

Floyd didn’t play a game for the Huskies after redshirting his freshman season last year. He transferred to the Friars in April.

Worth quoting

“With what Danny’s done with that program and how far they’ve come and where they’re at, they’re going to have to get accustomed to playing in front of crowds like this. It’s a credit to him building that program the way it is right now. When you have a juggernaut like that, people are going to be excited for their team to play against you. So, it’s a credit to what Danny and his staff have done.” — Cooley on UConn’s success being partly responsible for the atmosphere inside Amica Mutual Pavilion Wednesday.

For coverage of UConn football and men’s basketball as well as area high school and local youth sports, follow Adam Betz on Twitter: @AdBetz1, Facebook: Adam Betz — Sports Writer, and Instagram: @AdBetzJI.