UConn Dominates March Madness with 76-59 Smothering of SDSU

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The UConn Huskies from Storrs Connecticut have had an extraordinary run in the March Madness tournament. After six games and 240 minutes of dominance, they finally won their fifth national title on Monday night with a 76-59 victory over San Diego State. Nothing could stop them except for the final buzzer!

“We knew we were the strongest team in the tournament, so we just had to show it,” explained Dan Hurley, who made UConn the third team to win a championship title.

Adama Sanogo, UConn’s tall forward, was given Most Outstanding Player award for his tremendous performance during the final game with 17 points and 10 rebounds. Tristen Newton also did great with 19 points and 10 rebounds!

The Huskies (31-8) have done something special: they’ve won every single game in the NCAA Tournament by at least 10 points – a really impressive feat! On average, they won each game by 20 points, which is just a little less than another famous team that swept their way to a championship back in 2009.

UConn had a very big lead at the end of the first half, but the Aztecs (32-7) were able to cut it down to only 5 points with 5:19 left. Jordan Hawkins (16 points), whose cousin Angel Reese was given the award for MVP when LSU won the women’s championship title, then made a 3 pointer that started a 9 point streak.

Hawkins said that “it’s awesome both of us get this chance” and that the family reunion will be really fun.

Keshad Johnson scored 14 points for San Diego State in the Final Four, but his team was one win away from victory. Darrion Trammell and Lamont Butler also both scored 13 points each, which included a buzzer-beater from Butlers in the semifinal match against Florida Atlantic.

The San Diego State coach Brian Dutcher had been an assistant with Michigan back when they made it to the final two years in a row as one of the ‘Fab Five’. The current Wolverines coach Juwan Howard, who himself was part of the Fab Five, offered his consolation to former coach Brian after their loss.

“We tried our best, but it wasn’t enough,” Dutcher said. “UConn, who was the favorite team and seeded as number four for this tournament of underdogs, made it hard for us with how tall and long their players were.” During an 11-minute stretch of the first half, we were unable to make any baskets since UConn was blocking us from shooting in all directions. We missed 14 consecutive shots during this time.

At first, they were winning by 4 points but then turned the tides and lost by 11. Whenever they took a shot, Alex Karaban and Sanogo had them blocked or changed, which meant that the team was out of energy after their 72-71 victory just two nights ago.

Bill Murray, a big fan of UConn and father to one of the Huskies’ assistant coaches, was among the few famous people present when they won their fifth championship. Jim Nantz said goodbye to the Final Four after 37 years commentating on the events. He shared words of advice: “Through all this, I learned that everyone has dreams and stories to tell. Always be kind.”

He has been telling UConn stories for a while, but this was definitely not the most exciting one. Even though there were some tense moments in the middle of the second half, UConn never gave San Diego State (who had already fought back to win their semifinal game after going 14 points behind) any chance to be part of another nail-biting finish.

Coach Hurley and the UConn team had to rebuild their roster in 2023 after losing 2 tournament games in a row. Despite that, they were still considered as important by the AP poll at the start of the year even though they weren’t officially ranked.

All this made them more motivated because people wouldn’t expect them to do well. As Coach Hurley said about it: “We had a chip on our shoulder knowing we can still play well even when faced with tough times”.

The Huskies were playing in an old-fashioned way at the start. They hardly shot any 3 points until 13 minutes into the game, instead they passed towards Sanogo who was on the post and slowly gaining points to increase their lead.

The Aztecs were having a good game, and they nearly won because their defense was aggressive. But they only made 32% of their shots.

“We almost won it”, said Dutcher. “People probably thought we could do it, but we faced a really strong team.”

UConn’s most recent accomplishment means coach Hurley is the third coach to bring a victory trophy back to Storrs. The two previous victorious coaches are Calhoun and Ollie.

Adama Sanogo is one of the legendary UConn players, in the same category as Kemba Walker, Rip Hamilton, and Emeka Okafor. During the tournament, Sanogo scored 19.7 points and had an impressive 9.8 rebounds per game.

Once the cheering and celebration was over, Sanogo remembered a visit from Okafor before the season started. He told them that they were a special team. After UConn showed off their impressive skills during March Madness, everybody could see it too!

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