A star is born: UConn's Liam McNeeley embraces 'great first experience' playing at MSG

NEW YORK — He tapped the rebound to himself and absorbed a foul with 20.4 seconds remaining, setting in motion the long, celebratory walk from one end of Madison Square Garden to the other as an appreciative fan base recognized the job was nearly complete. All that separated No. 18 UConn from a third consecutive victory over a high-major opponent — having already upended then-No. 15 Baylor and Texas earlier this week — were two free throws from true freshman Liam McNeeley, a budding star for head coach Dan Hurley and the Huskies' shining protagonist on a night when the court shimmered with future pros. He buried the first and drilled the second to preserve his team's 77-71 win over eighth-ranked Gonzaga and stabilize a campaign that briefly teetered.

"He was great tonight," Gonzaga head coach Mark Few said when asked about McNeeley. "He really, really was. And listen, UConn is — god, they just have the heart of a champion, man. Danny [Hurley] kind of brings that out of them. We knew it was going to be a physical fist fight, basically, and I thought we were up to that task. They just made a couple more of those baskets."

Many of which were credited to McNeeley, the former five-star recruit and one-time Indiana commit who poured in a career-high 26 points on the brightest stage of his young career, igniting an overwhelmingly pro-UConn crowd on a night when some of his more experienced teammates struggled. That the Huskies turned so frequently to McNeeley, a baby-faced teenager who scored 11 of his team's final 24 points, in such a raucous and high-pressure environment reflected the long-term potential Hurley sees for his team, which is chasing a third consecutive national title. To see him anchor the offense by making seven of 13 shots from the field and hitting 10 of 12 attempts from the free-throw line — all while snagging eight rebounds and dishing out four assists through pick-and-roll opportunities — encapsulated the kind of wide-ranging influence normally reserved for upperclassmen.

And the Huskies needed everything McNeeley gave them to offset the heinous shooting of leading scorer Alex Karaban, who missed all seven of his attempts from beyond the arc; the concussion to starting center Samson Johnson, who had "started that game in just electrifying fashion," as Hurley described it, with an alley-oop on the opening possession and a one-handed lefty jam shortly thereafter; and the foul trouble for impact sophomore Solo Ball, who failed to reach double-figure scoring for the first time all season.

"His performance tonight should shoot him to the top of any of these lists I see of the best freshmen in the country," Hurley said, "because he's doing it at both ends. He's doing it on the backboard. He's not [relying on] volume scoring. And there's so much pressure on him because he's our second-best player next to Alex."

Some of that pressure came from the legions of UConn supporters who streamed through Grand Central Terminal in the hours before tipoff, flooding into the city on Metro-North Railroad cars sweltering from the body heat of standing-room-only crowds — chunks of which were bedecked in holiday garb for SantaCon NYC. For decades, Connecticut residents have made these semi-annual pilgrimages to high-profile games at Madison Square Garden, be that for the Big East Tournament in early March or marquee regular-season matchups, like Saturday night's Hall of Fame Series against Gonzaga. So frequent are the Huskies' appearances and triumphs in this storied building that the fan base has dubbed it "Storrs South" in reference to the university's campus in Storrs, Connecticut. Last year's team, which finished 37-3 overall and captured the program's second consecutive national championship, won all seven times it played at MSG by an average of 14.3 points per game.

On Saturday, a call-and-response chant echoed through the train station's underbelly as fans poured into Manhattan: "UConn!" someone screamed. "Huskies!" those around him shouted back. And on and on it went. The arena hummed with similar expectations as Connecticut welcomed Gonzaga into the liquored-up fray. Nearly 19,000 fans, many of whom had clearly been imbibing for hours by the time they reached the arena, transformed the venue into what felt like a UConn home game. They booed when the Bulldogs jogged onto the court for final warmups at 7:41 p.m., forcing the public address announcer to shout over them for the visiting introduction. They booed again when a pregame video celebrated Gonzaga's pedigree under legendary head coach Mark Few, who has been at the helm since 1999. But when the camera panned to UConn's players and coaches linked arm in arm during an electric rendition of the national anthem, the crowd roared with delight.

"It was like a prize fight," Few said.

And that was exactly the kind of backing Hurley pleaded for after his team's stunning losses at the Maui Invitational, where the Huskies arrived ranked second in the country and were swiftly felled by Memphis, Colorado and Dayton on consecutive days. Upon returning to Connecticut, Hurley used his postgame news conference following a 99-45 thumping of Maryland Eastern Shore to request "grace and patience and just incredible support" from UConn fans who'd come to expect near-perfection amid back-to-back national titles littered with lopsided outcomes. The standard Hurley and his staff were holding the players to hadn't changed — the Huskies are still chasing a three-peat — but losing two stars to the NBA lottery in Stephon Castle (No. 4 overall) and Donovan Clingan (No. 7 overall), plus two more veterans who earned two-way contracts in Cam Spencer and Tristen Newton, meant it would take the Huskies a while to reconfigure.

But as the supporting cast propelled UConn to a fourth consecutive victory on Saturday, the progress Hurley is making became increasingly clear. There were crucial contributions from sophomores Jaylin Stewart (two 3-pointers) and Jayden Ross (two assists, one rebound, one steal). There were critical minutes from Michigan transfer Tarris Reed Jr., whose 12 points were buttressed by six rebounds and three blocks. And there was the revelatory brilliance of McNeeley, the No. 18 overall player in the 2024 recruiting cycle, whose four free throws and acrobatic layup in the waning minutes nudged Connecticut ahead for good.  

Which is why it felt so apropos that Saturday's game ended the way it did: with McNeeley dribbling out the final few seconds of a win he'd largely fueled.

"I had never played in the Mecca before," McNeeley said. "But it was a great, great first experience."

Michael Cohen covers college football and basketball for FOX Sports with an emphasis on the Big Ten. Follow him at @Michael_Cohen13.

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