Day 7

Illinois started slow, to say the least. They quickly found themselves down 9-0. The Illini could not find the range, even missing four free throws. Clingan went out for a rest. Illinois saw an opening and went on a little run to make it a game at 13-10. Clingan re-entered the game and the Illinois offense went back in the deep freeze, going scoreless for 5 minutes. UConn was not exactly lighting it up the other end themselves. The two top offenses in the game did a Houston-Iowa State impression in the first half. UConn went 1-11 from 3; 33% from the floor overall. Illinois even worse at 28% from the field. 28-23 Huskies at the break. The exact opposite of what I was expecting.

The game was played in Boston. The Illinois fans showed up and made some noise. But this was basically a UConn home game.

UConn charged out of the break with a 27-0 run (30-0 counting the end of the first half). I wrote that sentence when it was 17-0 and then kept updating it every trip down the floor. Unreal. Illinois couldn't score when Clingan was in the game. Not a single point in the second half until under 13:00.

UConn is better than last year. How is that possible?

Clingan with 22 points, 10 boards, 5 blocks and 3 steals. And he altered a bunch more shots, which doesn't make the box score.

Illinois shot 25% overall and 25% from 3. Their supremely efficient offense managed just 52 points for the game.

It was more interesting to write about Larry David in the second half. UConn pounds another team, this one by 25.

Murray's son, Luke, is a UConn assistant.

Larry David has no obvious connection with either school. A New Yorker, he's an avid Jets, Yankees, Knicks and Rangers fan.

We are in the midst of what is supposedly the last season of Curb Your Enthusiasm, one of the best comedies ever for my money. Larry David plays an exaggerated, and very annoying, version of himself on the show. Way back in season 6 (2007) Larry takes in a family when their home is destroyed by hurricane Katrina. Then a brother, Leon Black who lives in LA, shows up and asks which room is his. Leon is played by JB Smoove. On the show, the rest of the family eventually returned to NOLA, but Leon stays at Larry's house for reasons that are never explained. It's actually because Smoove and David have great chemistry and Smoove excels with the ad libbed nature of how the show is produced.

In this tourney, Smoove is featured with fellow Curb actor Keyla Monterroso Mejia in AT&T commercials. You get a sense of what makes these two special, but the commercials fail to take advantage of their unique talents.

The Illinois coach is the definition of a journeyman. He coached at Hardin-Simmons junior college, Dodge City College, Western Illinois and Daytona Beach Community College before finally breaking into the big leagues as an assistant at Kansas State (under Huggins and then Martin). Underwood followed Frank Martin when he moved to South Carolina in 2012. He then climbed the ladder again as a head coach going from Stephen F Austin to Oklahoma State to Illinois. His teams has losing records the first two years at Illinois, but they've won at least 20 for the past four years.

The consistency is somewhat surprising because everyone seems to think of Illinois as just a stepping stone. To Kentucky, apparently. A quality shooting guard, Davion Mintz, transferred to Lexington. The next year two assistants, recruiters Orlando Antigua and Chin Coleman, took jobs with the Wildcats. That was the year Illinois had All-America big man Kofi Cockburn. He has ready to head to UK as well, but my team had just recruited Oscar Tshiebwe. No one expected Oscar to be the player of the year at that point, but recruiting over him wouldn't have been cool. In addition, Skyy Clark, Zacharie Perrin and Jayden Epps transferred the last couple years. But Illinois just keeps chugging along. I think Underwood is a quality coach, even though his name never comes up for higher profile jobs (Louisville, for example). His team looked bad tonight, but who has looked good against UConn this season?

I actually checked the transfer portal (the things I do you you wonderful people) and no Illinois players have declared so far. Curiously, one of the top shooting guards in the portal, Wisconsin's AJ Storr, is an Illinois native and folks except that he will return to his home state and join Underwood's program.

Latrell remains out for Alabama with a head injury. Nick Pringle, who aggravated a heel bruise against UNC, was in the starting lineup.

Bama's star of the Sweet 16, Grant Nelson and his ridiculous moustache, picked up two fouls early earning him a spot on the bench. At which point Clemson ran their offense through the post and their bigs, especially Schieffelin, went to work.

Bama, the top scoring team in the game (over 91 ppg) got only one bucket over a 5-plus minute stretch. They got some open looks, but the shots weren't falling (starting 1-13 from behind the arc). The Tigers built a double digit lead.

Most coaches sit a player with 2 fouls in the first for the remainder of the half. Nate Oates got Nelson back in the game with just under 12:00 left. The Tide finally got it in gear and went on a UConn-esque 20-2 run to take the lead. The Tide went from down 13 to a 35-32 halftime lead.

The 3-point shooting was poor on both sides and then there was a flurry of them. Seven rained down in rapid succession as we headed to the stretch run. Bama hit four of them as they edged out to a 7-point lead. 

Clemson hung tough and kept it close, but Bama had an answer - usually a 3 - every time things got tight. Terrific performance from Chase Hunter: 12 points, 6 assists, 5 rebounds, 4 steals and 2 blocks. RJ Godfrey with a dozen off the bench.

Pringle's free throw form is bizarre. Not surprisingly, he's only a 53% shooter from the line. He hit some big ones for Alabama tonight, going 8-13. I was surprised every time one went in. 

Bama's Jared Stevenson is from Chapel Hill. His Mom played hoops for UNC. He had a huge impact off the bench on both ends of the court including five 3-pointers. 

Mark Sears was brilliant as usual for the Tide. 23 points including 7 (!) from deep.

Alabama can put up as many points as anyone, including UConn. Defense is an open question, particularly in terms of Clingan.

[Editor’s Note: Mrs Notes does not get my obsession with Spinal Tap, which she’s never actually watched. She does not understand why this clip makes me laugh even though I have seen it dozens of times. In fact, her look of disbelief made me laugh even harder. Back to the Notes.]

Randall Godfrey and Brice Hunter were inseparable. Both were multi-sport athletes, but they each starred on the gridiron. Godfrey was a brusing linebacker, Hunter an elusive receiver. Both were high school All-Americans, both became stars at the University of Georgia. And both played in the NFL, Randall for a decade.

When their playing days were through, Randall and Brice settled near one another in the Atlanta suburbs and started raising families. Randall and his wife Rhonda had four kids while Brice and his wife, former Georgia women's basketball player Brandi Decker, had three. Then tragedy struck.

Brice got into an argument with a neighbor over music volume that ended in gunshots. Brice Hunter dead at 29 years old.

Randall and Rhonda became parental figures to the Hunter children who, not surprisingly, were all athletes. Two of the boys, Chase and Dillon, played basketball with Randall "RJ" Godfrey. They always get asked why hoops instead of football. In RJ's case it was two concussions. In middle school. Neither parent could justify that. The boys were as close as their fathers. They didn't know where they would end up for college, but they wanted to go together.

Clemson, South Carolina is a less than two-hour drive to Atlanta. The Tigers have always recruited The A. Trevor Lawrence is from the Atlanta exurbs, for example. Chase Hunter went to Clemson with Dillon and RJ following two years later.

Randall speaking of Brice: "It took a piece of my heart when we lost him. I’m just overjoyed when I see them out there, playing well, and contributing, helping Clemson to where they are today."