The title game will be played by San Diego State
The first game of the national championship game against Florida Atlantic in the swaggy Owls: When Andrew Butler hit a jumper
San Diego State secured its spot in the title game on Monday after defeating Florida Atlantic 72-71 in the most dramatic way possible, a win that led to delirious celebrations on the court.
“I didn’t really know how big it was,” Butler said after his calm reaction to one of the greatest shots in NCAA Tournament history. We are going to the national championship. That’s not things many people do.”
San Diego State has a story to tell. It’s the school’s first national championship game. Before this year, they’d never made it to the Elite Eight.
The swaggy Owls (35-4) seemed to have solved San Diego State’s vaunted defense, using constant movement and ball reversals to create mismatches they could exploit.
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 ticking down, Butler dribbled to the baseline, found that cut off and circled back. He stepped back to create a little room and hit a jumper that sent the Aztecs racing out onto the floor and made fans of the San Diego Padres go crazy.
The Huskies ‘It Was All You Need’: Adama Sanogo and Dan Hurley at UConn’s First Championship Game
The status of “Blue blood” remains up for debate, but the University of Connecticut is trying for its fifth national title and has won more championships than any other team during that time. They haven’t dropped a win in the previous four title game appearances. A win on Monday would be coach Hurley’s first title with the team.
According to the Aztecs’ Matt Bradley, the team has always been knocked down. “But the biggest thing we always do is get back up and keep fighting.”
San Diego State had been working on this since the arrival of Brian Dutcher. Dutcher was following the mold created by Fisher, adding more nasty to the defense.
The result: The Owls led 40-33 at halftime after hitting 5 of 11 from 3-point range against a defense that held its previous two NCAA Tournament opponents to 5-of-44 shooting from the arc.
“They got extra possessions, and they went on a run”, said FAU’s Nick Boyd who finished with 12 points, after hitting three early 3s. “That was really the turning point of the game.”
Alijah Martin, who had 19 points in the second half, seemingly answered every move of the Aztecs and kept them at bay in the second half.
HOUSTON — Nobody was guarding UConn’s best player. Adama Sanogo spun the ball to get his hands just right, then he moved his feet behind the 3-point line to make the shot. He did it again less than a minute later.
It was a basketball clinic and all of it perfectly suited the team that has steamrollered through the NCAA tournament, winning their pool and now progressing to the Sweet 16.
Against fifth-seeded Miami, they were the best team on the court from beginning to end. The first three shots of the game went to Sanogo, with one jumper from Hawkins and two more shots from him.
The Huskies shook off this long streak of underperforming from the very first game of this tournament. They won their first two games by an average scoring margin of 19.5 points, before demolishing No. 3 seed Gonzaga by 28 points in the Elite Eight.
“They are one of the best teams in the country,” said Dan Hurley of the Aztecs. “And I think it’s fitting that both of us kind of earned our way into this title game.”
They were only 4th in the seeding for March due to the cold stretch. Now, the number that the University of Connecticut is thinking about is five if it can keep this up for one more game.
The Hurricanes were led by Wong who scored 15 points on 4-for-10 shooting. Harassed constantly by Sanogo, 7-foot-2 Donovan Clingan and the rest of Connecticut’s long-armed, rangy perimeter players, Miami, which came in with the nation’s fifth-best offense, shot 25% in the first half and 33.3% for the game.
“Obviously what we tried to do not only didn’t work, I couldn’t even recognize it,” Miami coach Jim Larranaga said. “Offensively we were out of sync, but defensively we were too.”
The UConn men’s basketball championship game is coming to an end: An all-around effort from the Huskies after their last NCAA tournament
Not that UConn was all boring. The University of Washington had a 13-point lead at halftime and were able to break it in the form of a 3 from Alex Karaban.
They built it to 20 before the start of the second half. By then, Jim Nantz, calling his last Final Four, could start saving his voice for Monday.
Nijel Pack missed about five minutes after managers had trouble finding a substitute for a broken shoe. Pack finished with eight points, and Jordan Miller, who hit all 20 shots he took from the floor and the line in Miami’s Elite Eight win, went 4 for 10 for 11 points. A player from Miami made more than half his shots.
“I’m a defensive guy first and foremost,” Hurley said. I love the way we guarded them. They are one of the best offenses in the country, and we were able to disrupt them.
UConn had five blocks, including two from Sanogo, and 19 assists, led by eight from Tristen Newton — both signs of the sort 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-eight-games stretch that halted their momentum.
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.
The team that is the higher ranked has something to do with it. 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.
But, if the final matchup is somewhat of a surprise for all those filling out their brackets before the tournament, it is the culmination of an impressive month for both the No.4 UConn and No.5 San Diego State.
The Sun in the Dark: Adama Sanogo at the UConn vs. the San Diego Aztecs in the Final Four
“It means a lot to us. It means everything to Adama Sanogo, the star forward. “The work has paid off, and still going and keep working and be able to go Monday night.”
One of the guys said that the UConn felt like they were the best defense in the nation. We think people don’t play teams like us very often. 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. In the first half, what Tristen was able to do in his floor game.
In the Final Four, the San Diego Aztecs’ defense limited FAU to eight shots in the second half, which was reminiscent of the one Connecticut will face against them.
Source: https://www.cnn.com/2023/04/03/sport/march-madness-championship-game-final-preview-spt-intl/index.html
How to Pull a Shot off a Coutinho in the Breakup of a Los Alamos-Zero Maeda
He told me to go downhill, and after seven seconds I got something at the rim. They did a good job of keeping me out. Once I looked up, it was two seconds left, I knew I had to make a shot. I got to a shot I’m comfortable with. Went to a pull-up; glad it went in.”
A controversial foul call at the end of the game cost the Aztecs a victory in the Elite Eight.
