The First National Championship Game: The San Diego State ‘Super Owl’s Case in the Big Easy Game against the UCLA Basketball Team of the Year 2021
Butler’s winning buzzer-beater was the first for the Final Four since Jalen Suggs for Gonzaga against UCLA in 2021 and No. 5 overall. It’s the only one where the winning team was behind at the time.
“I don’t know how big it was,” said the man who was calm and focused after the greatest shot in NCAA Tournament history. “We’re going to the national championship. That is not something many people do.
But look to San Diego State for the underdog story. It is the school’s first national championship game. They had never made it to the Elite Eight before this year.
The Owls were using constant movement and ball reversals to create mismatches, which they seemed to have solved with San Diego State’svaunted defense.
How the Aztecs fought back in the Big Bang, but didn’t lose. The Huskies did get a win by beating Miami 72-59
When FAU’s Johnell Davis missed a contested layup, San Diego State coach Brian Dutcher opted to not call timeout, joking that he didn’t have any plays left.
The clock was still running, and the basketball player found a cut off and circled back. He made a jumper that sent the Aztecs sprinting out onto the floor and made Padres fans explode with joy at their home game.
After a March Madness filled with twists and surprises – all four No. 1 seeds failed to reach the Elite Eight for the first ever time in NCAA men’s basketball tournament history – it is time for the grand finale as UConn faces San Diego State on Monday for the title.
Matt Bradley, the Aztecs’ head coach said after the game that they had always been knocked down. “But the biggest thing we always do is get back up and keep fighting.”
San Diego State had been building toward this since coach Brian Dutcher took over for his longtime mentor Steve Fisher. Dutcher added an extra dose of nasty to the defense.
The Owls went 5 of 11 from the 3-point range in the first half, compared to the two NCAA Tournament opponents who had only gone 5 of 44.
“They went on a run, getting extra possessions,” said FAU’s Nick Boyd, who hit three early 3s and finished with 12 points. That was the turning point of the game.
FAU kept San Diego State at bay most of the second half thanks to Alijah Martin, who seemed to have an answer for every Aztecs move by scoring 19 of his 26 points in the second half.
Nobody was guarding the best player. So Adama Sanogo spun the ball to get his fingers just right, set his feet behind the 3-point line and splashed in the shot. He did it again in less than a minute.
It was as much basketball clinic as highlight video — and all of it perfectly fitting for the Huskies, who are methodically steamrolling through a March Madness bracket that has been a free-for-all everywhere else.
UConn doled out another drama-free beatdown Saturday, getting 21 points and 10 rebounds from Sanogo to dispatch Miami 72-59 and move one win from the school’s fifth national title.
Jordan Hawkins overcame his stomach bug and scored 13 for the Huskies, who came into this most unexpected Final Four as the only team with any experience on college basketball’s final weekend and with the best seeding of the four teams in Houston — at No. 4.
“They’re one of the best teams in the country,” UConn coach Dan Hurley said of the Aztecs. I think it’s nice that both of us earned our way into the game.
Since the brackets came out, the 13 point win has been the closest of the bunch. Since 1985, the tournament has expanded to 64 teams with six teams making it to the title game. It’s an impressive list of giants who are able to close. Four of the first five went on to win the championship.
Some thought Miami (29-8), with the nation’s fifth-ranked offense and four players who have scored 20 points at least three times this season, might be the team to slow this Huskies juggernaut. Not to be.
Jim Larranaga said that what they tried didn’t work. Inoffensively we were out ofsync but defensively we were holding ourselves together.
Semi-Leptonic Huskies vs. Connecticut in NCAA Basketball: What’s Happening at the Campuses of the San Diego State University Aztecs?
Not that the University of Connecticut was boring. The buzzer beater by Alex Karaban that sent the Husky running into the locker room gave them a 13-point lead, which they maintained despite being held to single digit scores in the second and third quarters.
They built it to 20 before the first TV timeout of the second half. By then, Jim Nantz, calling his last Final Four, could start saving his voice for Monday.
Not helping: Hurricanes guard Nijel Pack missed about five minutes after managers had trouble locating a substitute for a busted shoe. Pack finished with eight points and Jordan Miller went 4 for 10 from the floor and the line for 11 points in Miami’s Elite Eight win. Only one player from Miami made a lot of shots.
He said that he’s a defensive guy first and foremost. “I just love the way we guarded them. They’re one of the best offenses in the country, and we really disrupted them.”
The type of all-around effort the Huskies have been putting in since the start of February, when they began the bounce back from a six loss-in-a-row, was shown in the five blocks and 19 assists they had.
The men’s NCAA basketball championship game is set: The San Diego State University Aztecs are up against the University of Connecticut Huskies for the national title.
Connecticut is the higher-ranked team for a reason. The No. 4 seed had a rough patch earlier in their season — with a stretch of six losses in eight games — putting the Huskies at the middle of the pack in mid-season. Coach Dan Hurley, who admittedly lost his newfound zen over his row with referees, also attributed the drought to weak defense.
It is the end of an amazing month for both San Diego State and Connecticut, and the final game will be somewhat of a surprise for most people filling out their brackets.
Making the Most of what we do: Adama Sanogo’s journey to the Final of the Big East Conference and what he’s been up to
It means a lot to us. After reaching the final, star forward Adama Sanogo said “It means everything we work for.” “The work has paid off, and still going and keep working and be able to go Monday night.”
Tristen said that they felt like the best defense in the nation. People don’t play teams like us every year. The Big East is a real physical league, and coming from those conferences, I don’t feel like they have teams that play defense like the Big East does.”
“What Adama did in his matchup with one of the most physical interior guys we’ve faced. What Tristen was able to do in terms of his floor game, in his first half, in particular.”
Against the San Diego Aztecs, UConn will face a similar imperious defense that held FAU to just eight shots after halftime in the Final Four.
Source: https://www.cnn.com/2023/04/03/sport/march-madness-championship-game-final-preview-spt-intl/index.html
The Aztecs and the Coulomb in the Final Eight: A Shot Downhill and a Collision at the Longest End of the Ballgame
“It was about seven seconds after we got the ball, and he told me to go downhill, get something at the rim. They did a good job cutting me off. Once I looked up, it was two seconds left, I knew I had to make a shot. I am comfortable with the shot. It went in; I went to a pull-up.
The Aztecs were in the Final Eight and narrowly escaped their opponent after a controversial foul call with 1.2 seconds remaining.