Following six games and 240 minutes of absolute domination during March and part of April, it became evident that only one thing could stop the UConn Huskies.
The last horn.
Monday night, the team from Storrs, Connecticut, capped one of the most remarkable March Madness journeys in history with a 76-59 victory against San Diego State to win its sixth national championship.
“The four national championships are approaching, correct?” stated coach Dan Hurley. “We were aiming for fifth place.” Now we have our own.”
Adama Sanogo of UConn earned Most Valuable Player honors with 17 points and 10 rebounds in the championship game, while Tristen Newton also had a double-double with 19 points and 10 rebounds.
The Huskies beat the Aztecs and win their fifth title.
The Huskies (31-8) were the sixth team since the expansion of the bracket in 1985 to win all six NCAA Tournament games by double-digit margins en route to the title. They won the six games by an average of 20 points, which was just slightly less than North Carolina’s 2009 championship run.
UConn held a 16-point advantage late in the first half, but the Aztecs (32-7) closed the gap to five with five minutes remaining. Nevertheless, Jordan Hawkins (16 points) responded with a 3-pointer that sparked a 9-0 run, and the only remaining suspense was whether UConn would cover the 7.5-point spread and go 6-0 with double-digit victories.
True and true.
Keshad Johnson scored 14 points for San Diego State, which fell short of the Final Four in their inaugural appearance. Lamont Butler and Darrion Trammell both got 13 points.
Over a span of 11:07 in the first half in which the Aztecs did not score, UConn established the tone for this game. Incapable of shooting over or around this big, lengthy UConn club, they missed 14 consecutive field goal attempts.
They went from leading by four to trailing by 11, and when they weren’t getting shots blocked (Alex Karaban had three and Sanogo had one) or altered on the inside, they were coming up short — a telltale sign of a team that was out of energy after two nights ago’s draining 72-71 buzzer-beater victory over Florida Atlantic.
Bill Murray was one of the few celebrities to witness the Huskies win their fifth consecutive championship in one of the more surprising Final Fours. This was the final game Jim Nantz will call after 37 years behind the microphone.
He has several UConn anecdotes to share, but this one was surely not the most dramatic.
Even with that little period of uncertainty in the middle of the second half, UConn never fully allowed the Aztecs, who overcame a 14-point deficit in the semifinal, to contemplate any further last-second drama.
Hurley stated, “We knew we were the greatest team in the tournament going in, so we just had to perform at our level.”
After back-to-back first-round exits in the tournament, Hurley resorted to the transfer portal in search of additional perimeter shooters.
Nonetheless, there was something distinctly traditional about the way the Huskies handled business early on.
They did not even consider 3-point shooting in the beginning, instead focusing on skip passes to Sanogo in the post and wearing out SDSU while establishing an early lead.
The late drive to within five points was precipitated by an overzealous defense following the Aztecs too closely. However the defensive team concluded the game shooting only 32% from the field.
And following a late surge by the Aztecs, Hurley and company were seen consoling one another on the bench before the buzzer.
Hurley is the third coach to bring a trophy to Storrs after UConn’s most recent triumph. He joins Jim Calhoun (1999, 2004, 2001) and Kevin Ollie (1999, 2004, 2001). (2014).
And Sanogo — no, Adama — joins other first-named individuals on that school, including Huskies superstars Kemba (Walker), Rip (Hamilton), and Emeka (Okafor). He averaged 19.7 points and 9.8 rebounds during UConn’s six-game tournament run.