HOUSTON — The Connecticut men’s basketball team has endured many trials in recent weeks. The Huskies checked into dirty hotel rooms when they arrived in Las Vegas for their first NCAA Tournament games. Their bus was broken into while they were at training. And Jordan Hawkins, their star guard, was curled up on the floor of his hotel room Friday, sick and complaining about some calamari.
As for the difficulties on the basketball court?
Those were minor things for the Huskies, who, after clawing their way to the tournament championship, showed they also had a tough chin and a cool hand to turn back San Diego State, 76-59, to win the their fifth title in the last 25 years.
This wasn’t another free-throw game, but a gritty effort in which the Huskies relied on their defense to take control before making several plays down the stretch — and they’re nearly perfect at the free-throw line, going 21-of-23 in the second. halftime – to stave off the game but scattered the Aztecs.
Tristen Newton scored 19 points and grabbed 10 rebounds to lead Connecticut, which also got 17 points and 10 rebounds from Adama Sanogo, who was named the Final Four’s Most Outstanding Player. Hawkins added 16 points – including a crucial 3-pointer that stymied San Diego State.
With 30 seconds left, coach Dan Hurley removed his starters, greeting each with a hug as they returned to the bench. When the final buzzer sounded, Newton jumped off the edge of the elevated court and into the arms of family members wearing his No. 2 jersey.
San Diego State, which had never advanced past the round of 16, was looking to repeat what Kansas did a year ago, rallying from 15 points down in the second half to claim a championship. But the Aztecs just didn’t have enough offense, shooting 32.2 percent from the field and missing 14 straight shots in the first half when the Huskies took control.
The Huskies looked nothing like a team that finished fourth in the Big East Conference during the regular season. On their way to the national championship, they won their six tournament games by 24, 15, 23, 28, 13 and 17 points.
“The group had a lot of confidence in how we played most of the season,” Hurley said on the court after the game. “We knew we were the best team in the tournament going in and we just had to play like that.”
While Newton contributed the most points and Hawkins the biggest bucket, the Huskies on both ends of the court revolved — as they have all tournament — around Sanogo, who observes the Muslim holy month of Ramadan and does not eat or drink. water from dawn to dusk.
After the sun goes down, he eats meals of protein, hibachi steak and chicken with fruit, and gets up around 5 a.m. to eat another meal before going back to sleep. On game nights, he survives on lighter fare: coconut water and fruit.
“I just want to say that anything is possible,” said Sanogo, who grew up in Mali, and whose ambition was to continue his education in France until an uncle living in the United States suggested he was old enough to come to basketball.
The win was viewed in the UConn locker room as restoring the program to its rightful place in the college basketball world. Since the last title nine years ago, Kevin Ollie, a former Husky, was fired and then sued to win back pay, receiving $14.9 million through an arbitration award and settlement with the university. And until last month, Connecticut had not won a tournament game since 2016.
Many of the players spoke of their desire to maintain the standard that comes at the entrance to the basketball facility, where the first thing you see are the 11 women’s championship trophies and, as of Monday, the four won by the men.
There’s also All-American memorabilia and high draft picks.
“Those are big shoes to fill,” said Andre Jackson Jr., the team’s leader, nodding toward the other side of the locker room, where former Connecticut stars Ray Allen, Emeka Okafor and Rudy Gay were holding court with reporters. “As a basketball player, if you don’t go in there and feel inspired by that, I don’t know what will.”
The title also served as validation for Hurley, who spent his basketball life in the shadow of his older brother, Bobby, a star at Duke when Dan was a role player at Seton Hall, and his father, Bob, a decorated high school . coach at St. Anthony in Jersey City, NJ
A little more than a decade ago, Dan Hurley coached the St. Benedict’s Prep in his home state.
As profane and flammable as he can be along the sidelines, biting his lip so hard when he screamed about a foul against Gonzaga that he drew blood, he wasn’t afraid to expose his vulnerabilities during the tournament. He said he was “hooked” when he first started high school coaching and revealed he had taken up painting at the suggestion of his wife, while acknowledging he’s no Picasso.
The seeds of Connecticut’s celebration were planted last March after the Huskies were upset in the first round of the tournament by 12th-ranked New Mexico State. Hurley assembled his three cornerstones — Sanogo, Jackson and Hawkins — and promised them he would put a better roster around them, peppered with perimeter shooters who won’t shrink in big moments. Among them was Newton, who played the last three years at East Carolina.
Basketball observers were not impressed. The Huskies started the season unranked.
By winning their first 14 games, including one at Alabama, the Huskies had a touchstone to fall back on. And fittingly enough, they did it once again late Monday.
After Joey Calcaterra buried a 3-pointer to put Connecticut ahead, 56-41, the Aztecs attempted one last attack. Jaedon LeDee, a chiseled forward playing in his hometown, scored a pair of baskets in the lane that led to a Huskies timeout.
Hawkins laid short, Keshad Johnson hit a 3-pointer from the wing, Darrion Trammell followed with a steal and a layup, and San Diego State fans roared into life in the cavernous arena, trailing 56-50.
The Aztecs – who had shown their potential in the tournament, trailing Alabama by 9, Creighton by 8 and Florida Atlantic by 14 en route to the title game – envisioned the Huskies entering.
“It was that March feeling — wow, this is happening,” said Trammell, whose free throw with 1.2 seconds left had beaten Creighton in the South Conference final. “We’re going to be that team to overcome another deficit and we can come out and win this game.”
The Aztecs would get within 60-55 with less than six minutes left, but Hawkins, reeling from a series of screens near the top of the arc, unleashed his silky shot, swiping in a 3-pointer that kept San Diego at bay starting a 9-run streak. -0.
“Great shot by a great player,” Trammell said, grimacing at the thought.
Hurley said: “I thought the team were a bit disappointed that we hadn’t put them away and they focused on execution.”
It was a neat finale to this unpredictable, huggable tournament.
Three newcomers reached the Final Four, including Florida Atlantic, which plays in a single-gym complex and came within a hair’s breadth of being the lowest seed — at No. 9 — to play in the championship game.
Fairleigh Dickinson had a major moment when it became just the second No. 16 to win a first-round game, upsetting Purdue. The other No. 1 seeds – Kansas, Houston and Alabama – all made it to the regional finals, which had never happened before. Alabama was trying to win its first national title while the team was in the middle of a murder investigation.
Instead, standing at the end was a team that fully expected to be here — even if few others did.
As Harley stood in a hallway outside the locker room, having changed clothes and wearing a fishnet around his neck, he was with a degree of satisfaction.
“It’s all about being able to honor what you said you were going to do,” Hurley said, recalling a promise he made to the administration leaders who hired him five years ago. “The program was in bad shape and they needed someone who could come in here and prove that he is a top coach and bring the program back to that level. It’s nice to fulfill what you said you were going to do.”
