GLENDALE, Ariz. — In so many ways, Stephon Castle is the Connecticut Conundrum. You already have to account for consensus All-America point guard Tristen Newton, honorable mention All-Americans Donovan Clingan and Cam Spencer and big-shot specialist Alex Karaban. Got all that covered? Oops, well, here comes the five-star freshman like a rattlesnake coiled in tall grass, selectively striking whenever anyone gets too distracted by the family of grizzly bears trying to eat them.
That sudden, searing pain in Alabama’s … attempt to pull an upset Saturday night at the Final Four? It was Castle. He represents the problem with playing UConn, because he’s about the fifth-biggest problem, until he isn’t. Until he drops a career-high 21 points in a national semifinal and helps deliver the Hydra Huskies to a second straight NCAA championship game, via an 11th consecutive tournament win by double digits.
What do you do when the fifth-leading scorer is a lottery pick who suddenly unleashes the full bag of tricks? You lose, despite your absolute best effort, as Alabama did, 86-72, on Saturday night. Castle, a McDonald’s All-American, could’ve gone plenty of other places and been the focal point in what is surely his only season of college basketball.
“That’s true,” Castle said, “but I never won anything in high school. I never won a state championship. So I wanted to come here and be coached by a winner. I wanted to be a winner.”
That winning coach, Dan Hurley, who is on the cusp of becoming the first back-to-back champ since Billy Donovan at Florida in 2006 and 2007, called Castle’s shot(s) Saturday. He told the kid who was a 26.1 percent 3-point shooter this year and who’d made just 1 of 12 3s in the postseason that Alabama would sag off him to start the game, and that he would make the Crimson Tide pay.
“He said this morning that Steph was going to do what Adama (Sanogo) did against Miami in last year’s semifinals,” assistant coach Luke Murray said. “Because Miami didn’t play on Adama at all on the first few possessions, and he went out and made two of them.”
So did Castle on Saturday night. He sank a pair of wide-open 3s, like fangs in an unsuspecting derriere, and scored eight points in the first three minutes of the biggest game of his life.
“Coach Hurley has taught me so much,” Castle said, “that I can go out and play in environments like this and be fine.”
When Alabama cut the lead to 48-47 in the second half, Castle started (with a dime to Clingan) and finished (with a super slam off a lob from Newton) a 7-0 burst in 60 seconds, which had Hurley racing to halfcourt and roaring, “Let’s go!” as he slapped the Huskies’ hands.
When Alabama, unrelenting all night until it had no choice, tied the game at 56, Castle once again pressed the detonator. He triggered an 8-0 run in 97 seconds by bounding up in traffic, fighting off a horde of fellow hustlers for an offensive rebound, then going right back on attack. He drew a foul, sank two free throws, then swished a driving floater to finally break UConn free. The Crimson Tide never got closer than six points over the final nine minutes.
STEPH THROWS IT DOWN 💪💪💪#MadeForMarch | #MixForSix pic.twitter.com/jl37fRZ2Hs
— UConn Men’s Basketball (@UConnMBB) April 7, 2024
As ever, Newton, Clingan, Spencer and Karaban all scored in double figures, but this time Castle set it all off. He’d been a defensive stopper all season — a 6-foot-6 wing with all the requisite athleticism and attitude to shut down most opponents’ best perimeter scorer, including Illinois star Terrence Shannon Jr. in the Elite Eight — but this was the total package. This is what’s possible when your program is set up to surround a top-10 recruit with quality veterans and then slow-cook a young star.
“He would probably admit this: The support he gets from those other guys insulates him a little bit and allows him to be at his best,” Murray said. “We look across the country at the freshmen, and he’s one of the few guys out there playing a big role on a winning team. And Steph deserves a lot of the praise for that. Making that adjustment from being the guy in high school and having all that adulation and being able to fit in the way he has is a real credit to him.”
Hurley loves to call Castle “the anti-entitled five-star freshman,” because there has never, not even in the recruiting process, shown a whiff of interest in his personal stats or playing time. He required no promises. Didn’t even balk at the fact Newton was absolutely not giving up the No. 2 jersey to a rookie.
“I saw his parents rip his you-know-what multiple times,” Hurley said. “His parents are not fans. They hold him accountable and responsible to have an elite work ethic and be coachable and not thinking that the world spins around him at 17, 18 years old. We knew what we were getting.”
The only assurance Castle wanted before committing to Connecticut was that these Huskies were built to repeat. So Hurley laid out the 2024 NCAA Tournament sites where he believed UConn would play when they inevitably earned the No. 1 overall seed: Brooklyn to Boston to Phoenix.
“That was the pitch,” Castle said, “and we’re living it right now. Everything we talked about is becoming reality.”
Another vision that has materialized throughout this NCAA Tournament run: Castle stepping right into the role vacated by Andre Jackson Jr. from last year’s title team. Jackson was also not a great 3-point shooter (28 percent), but he became an elite cutter, and when opponents sagged off, he killed them with slashes to the basket and high-flying finishes. Castle surely caused flashbacks for Huskies fans Saturday night.
“We went to it late. Castle made a great cut,” Murray said. “That’s what we call a ‘Jackson cut.’ We got it twice. Andre Jackson helped us a lot in knowing what to do with Steph. Teams played him similarly at times, and Andre became a really good cutter. Steph has really grown as a cutter, too. Defensively, he’s been as advertised every night. That’s always been there. That’s been the constant. But offensively, when he’s able to make some shots, get to the rim, become that fifth double-figure scorer, it can really be trouble for teams.”
It was a nightmare for Alabama. The Tide shot the lights out for a half, got heroic efforts out of Mark Sears and Grant Nelson, didn’t let UConn’s veteran stars go nuts (for most of the night) — but the poison they picked turned out to be rattlesnake venom.
“They do a great job of recruiting the right players,” Newton said of the Huskies’ staff. “Obviously, if Coach wants someone on the team and he says they’re going to help us, they’re going to help us. (Castle) came here to win. He didn’t come here to score 30 or 40. But then we needed him to score and he stepped up in a big moment.”
This is the Connecticut Conundrum, and Purdue is the last team left to try and solve it.
(Top photo: Bob Donnan / USA Today)
