Graduate point guard Tristen Newton reflects on two-year run at UConn that changed his life

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GLENDALE, Ariz. – After taking in the confetti shower, watching “One Shining Moment” and cutting down the nets, the UConn men’s basketball team had five minutes together in its locker room after winning a second straight national championship on Monday night.

Head coach Dan Hurley walked into the circle of players with cups of water to throw around and was doused before continuing the tradition of slamming a ball into the floor, dislodging a ceiling tile above.

“That’s the best five minutes of the day,” assistant coach Luke Murray said. “Only the guys that are in that room at that time know what we go through.”

For players like Tristen Newton, who’s been with the program for the last two years after transferring in from East Carolina and was named the Most Outstanding Player of the Final Four, the moment was surreal, a challenge to define with words.

“I wouldn’t trade this for the world,” said the graduate point guard nicknamed “Mr. Triple-Double,” who led the team with 20 points, five rebounds and seven assists without a turnover. “UConn’s changed my life for the better. I love Connecticut.”

Five years after coming out of high school with zero stars attached to his recruiting profile, Newton established his case next to Kemba Walker and Shabazz Napier as one of the best UConn guards of all time. He shut down the criticism that he wasn’t a “true point guard” and wouldn’t be a great fit with the Huskies. Now he’s a two-time national champion, an All-American, a Big East regular-season and tournament champion, with a school-record four triple-doubles – he’s won it all.

Everything Hurley said when he convinced Newton to come to Connecticut, and then when he did it again after Newton tested pro waters last summer, has rung true.

“Still to this day. He told me (if) I come here I’m gonna end up in the draft conversation and win a national championship, and then when I came back he said I was gonna up my numbers and get even more in…

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Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/graduate-point-guard-tristen-newton-194000283.html

Author : Hartford Courant

Publish date : 2024-04-09 19:40:00

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