HARTFORD — Liam McNeeley had promised there would be a different result when the UConn men played Villanova. He called for his team to “play angry,” play “desperate.”
It’s a big check for a freshman to write, but McNeeley was willing to step into a void and provide the words, and once again had the will and the wherewithal to cover them when the Huskies’ season needed saving.
“We were down 14 with 12 minutes left,” McNeeley said. “I mean, it’s do-or-die. We’re in a do-or die situation at every moment, and we were desperate in those last 12 minutes.”
UConn men’s basketball completes 14-point second half comeback to defeat Villanova, 66-59
After the disastrous loss at Seton Hall on Saturday, and taking into account a loss at Villanova earlier in the season, the Huskies had to have this one at the XL Center Tuesday. But they trailed for nearly the entire night, and when Villanova stretched its lead to 53-39 with 11:59 left, the two-time champs looked cooked.
Then they began to spring to life. Then McNeeley checked back in after a brief breather and got 11 points, five rebounds and an assist over those last 12 minutes, and went 9-for-9 from the free throw line, putting the Huskies ahead with 1:42 left. UConn prevailed, 66-59. The freshman may be a one-and-done, but neither McNeeley, who finished with 20 points and seven rebounds, nor the Huskies are done yet.
“Liam made a ton of plays out there,” coach Dan Hurley said. “I thought (the difference) was Liam, the will of Liam, who came to UConn to have a chance to have a real season and if we blew this game today … ”
There was no need to complete the sentence. For most teams, most seasons, a record of 18-8, 10-5 in the Big East, would be quite satisfactory, but not for the two-time champs in this place and time. In a sense, McNeeley’s relative youth and inexperience, coupled with the personal expectations, are becoming huge assets for UConn.
Yes, he is a freshman, but by all accounts this will be his only season of college basketball, so the now-or-never vibe of a senior reverberates around him. There were five scouts, representing four NBA teams, in the arena Tuesday night.
No, he hasn’t won a championship at UConn, so he doesn’t have the frame of reference to say “everything will be OK.”
It was not OK when the Huskies lost three games in Hawaii in November. McNeeley called for the team to have “more swagger” when they returned to the Mainland. They needed big nonconference wins and McNeeley delivered 17 points against Baylor, and 26 at the Garden against Gonzaga.
It wasn’t OK when McNeeley missed eight games with a high ankle sprain. The Huskies lost three of them, including the game at Villanova, and Hurley called his absence “catastrophic, in the basketball sense.” It wasn’t OK when McNeeley returned and played admirably for a first game back in a close loss to first-place St. John’s Feb. 6. UConn needed a road win at Creighton Feb. 11, where not even the championship teams could win. McNeeley delivered 38 points, the Huskies needing every bucket to win.
And it was certainly not OK on Tuesday night, when McNeeley was stuck with six points at halftime and UConn trailed by eight. The season hanging in the balance, he had to take charge.
“Liam, he’s a killer,” Hassan Diarra said. “His mentality each and every day, the way he attacks the game, he holds nothing back. He’s super poised, super confidence, probably one of the most confident players I’ve ever played with. His maturity level is super high. What he brings to the game is so special, that’s why he is who he is.”
UConn had a one-and-done player last year, the extraordinary Stephon Castle, now starring in the NBA with the Spurs.
“Steph was surrounded by a super team,” Hurley said. “So there is so much more pressure on Liam to get on the glass. He wasn’t playing well at the point, we were down by 12 or 14, then he turned it up and we won by seven. He’s got more pressure on him than any freshman in the country to play well, or else his team’s not going to win.”
And McNeeley backs away from none of it. He has run toward the pressure, toward the danger. “What this is going to do for him,” Hurley said, “developing all aspects of his game, the resilience, having to carry so much wait, having to make so many plays, having to be a two-way player, second-leading rebounder, now he’s got the ball in his hands late in the game.”
McNeeley, averaging 15.1 points, is scoring at all three levels and, with 6.5 rebounds, has rejuvenated the Huskies in that area. With Diarra compromised by a knee issue, McNeeley, 6 feet 8, is playing point-forward for stretches.
As presently constructed, UConn does not always look like a tournament team, with the lack of depth, but will likely get to March Madness. The signature wins are there and four times now, the Huskies have overcome 14-point deficits. That tells you something, even if, on paper, they should never have been in such dire straits.
So UConn’s postseason chestnuts were once more extricated from the fire, the freshman performing to keep things alive. Getting to March this year will be more than half the fun, if Hurley, his Oura Ring and the fans’ psyche can take a few more weeks of this high-wire act. Next up, the rematch with St. John’s, Sunday in New York.
“We’re desperate right now,” McNeeley said. “We’ve got to play like it. We’ve got to play … with … desperation. That’s what we did in those last 12 minutes, but before that we were not putting together a good game. We’ve got to play like that all game, every game, for the rest of the season.”
