Unbeatable Huskies Head to Final Four
The Story: Dan Hurley has the No. 4 seed UConn men in the Final Four for the sixth time, and they are looking like an unstoppable juggernaut after an 82-54 demolition of No. 3 seed Gonzaga in the Elite Eight on Saturday in Las Vegas.
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW: UConn’s lived up to advance billing as one of the best teams in the country and is picking up steam heading into the Final Four, where it will take on Miami, the No. 5 seed in the Midwest, in Houston on Saturday night. UConn demolished Gonzaga so completely that it left fans, social media commenters and even talking heads speechless.
• UConn turned the West Region into a replay of the old Connecticut Mutual Classic by winning games by 23 and 28 points. It’s back in the Final Four for the first time since 2014.
• The Huskies have won their four NCAA Tournament games by 15 points or more. That’s the first time anyone has done that since Gonzaga in 2021, and it’s beating teams by 22.5 points per game. UConn’s run is reminiscent, to us, of the run to the 2004 national title, which only featured one competitive game — the Final Four win over Duke.
• Jordan Hawkins scored 20 points, Alex Karaban had 12 points and Adama Sanogo had 10 points, 10 rebounds and four assists.
DEFENSE SUFFOCATES GONZAGA: UConn entered the NCAA Tournament with a top-20 defense and dismantled Gonzaga’s offense, which scored a Division I-leading 89 points per game and was ranked No. 1 by most metrics and many eye tests.
• Bulldogs center Drew Timme had 12 points and 10 rebounds, a far cry from his 36 points against UCLA, and went 4-for-15 while limited by foul trouble. The Zags shot 33 percent, including 2-for-20 from 3-point range, as they were held to nearly 30 points below their season average.
• UConn’s once again the top team in the country according to KenPom.com as it has the No. 3 offense and now the No. 11 defense.
• How do the other Final Four teams stack up? San Diego State is 75th in offense and fourth in defense, Florida Atlantic is 24th in offense and 29th in defense, and Miami is fifth in offense and 104th in defense.
CRACKING THE CODE: Hurley said he figured out how to prevent opponents from ignoring Andre Jackson on the perimeter, which happened often in the Huskies’ January struggles.
• Hurley went into the coaching vault and worked on teaching Jackson how to react and combat that kind of defense. Jackson didn’t take the bait against Gonzaga and finished with eight points, nine rebounds and 10 assists with zero turnovers.
• Jackson has become a dangerous cutter to the basket and is lethal on the offensive boards. He also has become one of the major facilitators on offense to go with his elite defense.
WHAT DID HURLEY SAY? “We just kind of got back to the team we were early in the season, The Big East is the best conference in the country and we went through some struggles. But once we got out of that league and started playing nonconference teams again, we were OK.”
MIAMI AWAITS: Old foe Jim Larranaga has guided Miami to its first Final Four after the Hurricanes recovered from a 13-point deficit with 13:22 to play and outscored No. 2 seed Texas 37-17 down the stretch to claim an 88-81 victory yesterday afternoon in Kansas City.
• San Diego State will face Florida Atlantic at 6 p.m. on Saturday, with UConn and Miami to follow.
SHOUT OUT TO GAFFNEY: The world is a funny place. Jalen Gaffney left UConn for more playing time and a new start. He has found important minutes at Florida Atlantic and also finds himself in the Final Four, with his former teammates on the opposite side of the bracket.
— John Silver
Auriemma’s Nightmare Is Over
The Story: The most difficult season Geno Auriemma faced in his 38 years at UConn came to a surprising end Saturday in Seattle when the No. 2 seed Huskies lost to No. 3 seed Ohio State 73-61 in the Sweet 16.
OUT WITH A WHIMPER: The Huskies (31-6) failed to reach the Elite Eight for the first time since 2005 and had their streak of 14 consecutive Final Four appearances snapped with the defeat.
• The biggest culprit was the turnovers — a problem that plagued UConn all season. Ohio State, which will face No. 1 seed Virginia Tech tonight, used a suffocating full-court press to force the Huskies into 25 turnovers, including 18 in the first half and 16 on the 32 possessions in which the Buckeyes pressed, according to ESPN Stats & Information.
• UConn had a turnover on its first eight possessions of the second quarter, meaning a 17-15 lead after 10 minutes devolved into a 26-17 deficit by the time Azzi Fudd made a shot with 5:27 left until halftime — the first the Huskies took in the quarter. All told, UConn shot 5-for-13 on possessions in which it was pressed but didn’t commit a turnover.
• Everyone who played more than a minute had at least two turnovers. Nika Muhl tied a career high with seven and Fudd had four.
• Ohio State scored 23 points off turnovers, tied for the second most a team has had against UConn all season.
WHAT ELSE HAPPENED? Lou Lopez Senechal, who parlayed four quality years at Fairfield into a likely WNBA Draft selection during her season at UConn, had a game-high 25 points on 9-for-13 shooting. Fudd had 14 points and notably went 2-for-9 from 3-point range, and Dorka Juhasz, playing against her former team, had 13 points and 10 rebounds.
• UConn shot 45.3 percent and held Ohio State to 38.3 percent, and it had a 38-34 edge in rebounding. That just goes to show how much the turnovers were a factor.
• Aaliyah Edwards, limited to 18 minutes because of foul trouble, was held to four points on four shots but had seven rebounds.
• Lopez Senechal missed the last six minutes of the first half after her right knee buckled, meaning the Huskies were forced to play without her or Edwards, two of their leading scorers, during that stretch.
• The Huskies uncharacteristically went just 7-for-15 from the free throw line, with Juhasz and Aubrey Griffin going just 1-for-4.
• Ohio State was led by freshman Cotie McMahon, who had 23 points, and Jacy Sheldon, who made all 10 free throws she took on her way to 17 points.
TRYING TIMES END: It was literally an exhausting season for the Huskies, who lost Paige Bueckers and top recruit Ice Brady to season-ending injuries during the summer, withstood several other injuries that forced them at times to give it a go with only seven healthy players, and wore down from such a heavy workload during the season.
• UConn lost consecutive games for the first time since March 1993 — an incredible streak of 1,083 games — and had multiple conference defeats for the first time since the 2013-14 season. Every time a streak like these ends, it’s a reminder of just how dominant the Huskies have been. We’ll never again see anything like it.
• There’s no doubt that the Huskies will be back. Just ask one of their biggest detractors, South Carolina coach Dawn Staley. “UConn is going to continue to be UConn,” Staley said at a press conference yesterday. “They’re going to reload. If you see their roster that’s coming in and who they’re bringing back next year, they’ll reload. They’ll start a new streak.”
WHAT DID GENO SAY? “Unfortunately for us, after we got off to a great start and … we were in pretty good shape, I think Ohio State just outplayed us and took us out of a bunch of stuff that we want to do. Again, it’s unfortunate that we chose tonight to play the way we did, but I think Ohio State had so much to do with that. I thought [the Buckeyes were] really, really good and really well prepared. They knew exactly what they wanted to do and what to take away from us. We lost our balance and we lost our equilibrium a little bit and I don’t think we ever got it back.”
WHAT’S NEXT? We’ll delve into this a bit more in the next few days, but the Huskies’ offseason plans will come into focus.
• They’ll lose just Juhasz and Lopez Senechal, both of whom figure to be drafted, and there’s always a transfer or two that happens.
• UConn will welcome a three-player freshman class, and though it will be heavy with upperclassmen next season, it wouldn’t be shocking if Geno dipped into the transfer portal yet again, perhaps to add another experienced player to the frontcourt. We’ll see how that develops.
— Zac Boyer
Morning Reads
• Ben Huber‘s walk-off three-run home run helped the baseball team complete a three-game sweep against Rutgers with a 9-7 home victory yesterday afternoon. (UConnHuskies.com)
• The softball team couldn’t finish off its own sweep yesterday afternoon as it lost 5-2 to Georgetown. (UConnHuskies.com)
• The Sabres’ Tage Thompson is in line to become the tallest player to ever finish a season with 50 goals and/or 100 points. (ESPN)
Top photo: Joey Calcaterra and Adama Sanogo celebrate during the win against Georgetown. (Ian Bethune for The UConn Daily)
