A Performance for the Ages

The Story: Despite a little bit of a nervy start, the top-seeded UConn men blew past No. 9 seed Xavier with an 87-60 win in the quarterfinals of the Big East Tournament yesterday afternoon, setting them up for a showdown with No. 5 seed St. John’s tonight at Madison Square Garden (5:30 p.m., Fox).

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW: Six players reached double figures in scoring for the No. 2-ranked Huskies (29-3), with Tristen Newton and Donovan Clingan scoring 13 points, Alex Karaban, Cam Spencer and Samson Johnson finishing with 12 and Stephon Castle notching 10 in one of the most balanced, dominant performances of the season.

• UConn opened the game in a 10-0 hole after just about three minutes and, to show the extent of its in-game transformation, finished it by making an astounding 15 of its last 15 shots — every one it took over the last 12 minutes. Overall, the Huskies shot a bewildering 78.6 percent (22-for-28) in the second half.

• Clingan was a large part of that, as he scored 11 consecutive points during a roughly three-minute stretch that he punctuated with a dunk that pushed the lead to 66-49 with 5:38 to go. “He turned it up and got pissed off,” Dan Hurley said.

SHARING THE BALL: The Huskies have never been afraid of making the extra pass to locate an open teammate for an easier shot, but they took their ball movement to a new level yesterday with 29 assists on 35 field goals.

• How significant was that number? Not only did UConn set a season high in assists, surpassing the 28 it coincidentally had against Xavier on Jan. 28, but it was a program record for a Big East Tournament game, surpassing the 27 assists the Huskies had against Syracuse on March 12, 2009 — the six-overtime game.

• Spencer had eight assists, Newton and Castle finished with five, and Clingan and Hassan Diarra had four.

INSIDE THE BOX SCORE: UConn wasn’t just good offensively. It held Xavier to 34.4 percent shooting, its worst performance in a Big East Tournament game, including 28.1 (9-for-32) in the second half.

• The Huskies countered the Musketeers’ opening 10-0 run with a 13-0 run, took a 34-33 advantage into halftime, and then blew Xavier’s doors off by hitting a 29-point lead with 2:34 left.

• UConn had the 43-28 advantage in rebounding, led by Castle’s eight boards and seven from Newton and Clingan, and outscored Xavier 54-24 in the paint.

• Making the victory even sweeter? UConn went deep into its bench for the final 4:24 and the reserves kept the shooting streak going. Apostolos Roumoglou made a 3-pointer (plus two free throws!), Solomon Ball made a layup and a 3-pointer, and Jayden Ross delivered with a layup to provide the final points.

• Quincy Olivari led Xavier with 17 points and six rebounds while New Haven’s Desmond Claude added 13 points and six rebounds.

WHAT DID HURLEY SAY? “A little bit of it was like, raise your intensity level. This is a playoff game. When you’re trying to end the other team’s Big East career or their Big East season, or you’re trying to end a team’s season, period, you’ve got to be absolutely on point. The execution’s got to be on point. The effort and the intensity and the attention to detail, it’s all got to be there.”

SEE YA, CREIGHTON: Who said the Big East Tournament isn’t unpredictable? In addition to St. John’s knocking off No. 4 seed Seton Hall 91-72 yesterday afternoon, No. 7 seed Providence did the Huskies a massive favor by showing No. 2 seed Creighton an early exit with a thorough 78-72 victory.

UP NEXT: UConn prepares for its third game against Rick Pitino and St. John’s. The Huskies won 69-65 at the XL Center on Dec. 23, then won 77-64 at Madison Square Garden on Feb. 3.

• This is the first time the teams will have met in the Big East Tournament since St. John’s beat UConn in the first round in 2010.

• The Big East championship game is set for tomorrow at 6:30 p.m. on Fox.

— Zac Boyer

Muhl: ‘I’m Forever Grateful’ to UConn

The Story: Even though she has a year of eligibility remaining, Nika Muhl has decided to leave UConn whenever the postseason ends — and her mind was already made up midway through the season.

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW: Muhl, from Croatia, will go down as one of the Huskies’ greatest point guards, even though that’s not necessarily what was expected of her when she enrolled at UConn in 2020 alongside Paige Bueckers.

• Muhl is the only UConn player to twice finish a season with more than 200 assists, and if she has nine more in the NCAA Tournament, she’ll surpass Moriah Jefferson with her school-record 660th.

• Her decision to leave UConn is primarily financial, as she intends to begin a professional career closer to home in Europe. But she went out in style — literally — with a photo shoot in Geno Auriemma‘s black Mercedes convertible that even the coach was unaware was happening.

DELAYED DECISION: Muhl has teased since Senior Night late last month that her decision was up in the air, but as it turned out, she was simply trying to find the right way to make the announcement without overshadowing any of her teammates.

• Bueckers has already said she’ll return for a fifth season, and Aubrey Griffin will return for a sixth. Aaliyah Edwards may return for a fifth season, too, but her decision is also unknown. The Huskies technically have a scholarship available that Edwards could take.

• Muhl’s decision became apparent to Geno shortly after Griffin tore an ACL on Jan. 3. During a conversation about the future, Muhl hinted that she wasn’t planning to be a part of it — and when Geno called her on it directly, she confirmed that was the case.

WHAT DID MUHL SAY? “I don’t think I sat down and made a list of pros and cons. I just had that feeling that I’ve given my all in my time here. It’s time for other players. It’s time to move on to some different things.”

ONE LAST RIDE: Muhl said she recognized before even enrolling at UConn that she was choosing to be a part of something bigger than she could ever experience back home, but the gestures the program made this season spoke volumes.

• UConn organized a preseason tour of Europe over the summer that included games in Croatia, and because it couldn’t schedule a traditional homecoming game, it instead had Ball State — where Muhl’s younger sister, Hana, plays — travel to Gampel Pavilion.

WHAT ELSE DID MUHL SAY? “I’m forever grateful and thankful that I was able to share those moments with the whole team. And I’m so thankful to Coach and the whole coaching staff and the whole program, everybody, to be able to make that happen for me. I just felt like with all of that, it was the best year of my life.”

AS FOR UCONN: The Huskies (29-5), Big East Tournament champions for the 22nd time, will learn their NCAA Tournament opponent during the selection show Sunday night.

• UConn figures to be a No. 3 or No. 4 seed. It was last a No. 3 seed in 2005, and hasn’t been any lower than that since it was a No. 6 seed in 1993, when the tournament had 48 teams.

— Zac Boyer

Morning Reads

• • The women’s hockey team lost a heartbreaker in the first round of the NCAA Tournament last night as Minnesota-Duluth’s Mannon McMahon scored off a rebound 17:13 into the second overtime for the 1-0 victory. Goalie Tia Chan made 48 saves in an incredible performance for the Huskies, who were playing in the tournament for the first time.

• The softball team (10-11) will play its first home games this weekend with DePaul in town for a three-game series that begins this afternoon.