A year ago, when Connecticut was knocked out of the NCAA tournament, losing to 12th seed New Mexico State in the opening round, Coach Dan Hurley was back in his office at 7 a.m. next Monday at 7 a.m. to meet his staff and players.
He’s been at Storrs, Conn., for four years and hasn’t won a game post-season. He didn’t need time to think.
“The other coaches didn’t want me to do that,” Hurley said of the meetings. “They thought I was too emotional to make a decision, but I knew exactly where we needed to go.”
Hurley laid out his plan for that day. He will remake the squad, bringing in players to build around his three-man core of defender Adama Sanogo, forward Andre Jackson Jr. and defender Jordan Hawkins. The additions have two main qualities: They can hit the ball hard and don’t back down in key moments.
The seeds of that cold March morning a year ago sent Connecticut to a place in the national championship after a 72-59 defeat to Miami on Saturday night. The Huskies on Monday night will play San Diego State, which ruined the night for another South Florida team when Lamont Butler Jr.’s jump. won 72-71 against Florida Atlantic.
The Huskies were able to restore order to a tumultuous tournament with the most important win, which would be their fifth championship in 25 years – something no other men’s show other than UCLA and Duke has achieved. Okay.
They reached the final with another resounding victory over the UConn royal parade – Kemba Walker, Ray Allen, Emeka Okafor and Richard Hamilton among them. The Huskies’ only uncomfortable moments were due to the turns that prompted Miami’s transition to be interrupted after they had taken a 20-point lead in the second half.
Hurley said after UConn’s last game in the tournament: “There’s no place where we’re weak as a team, and we’re going deep. “So we can take our opponents down and continue to assemble quality assets on both ends.”
He added: “It has a cumulative effect. It was able to break the opponent.
The catalyst for the Huskies on Saturday night was Sanogo, a senior from Mali, who was happy to play with his sleeping cap because he observed Ramadan, the Muslim holy month in which he has been fasting since sunrise to sunset.
“If I get my coconut water and fruit, I’ll be fine,” said Sanogo, who enjoyed the tiny storms, contributing 21 points, 10 rebounds and two saves.
Huskies also emerged thanks to Hawkins, who had 13 points.
It was not clear until shortly before kick-off whether Hawkins, UConn’s sharp sophomore wing, would compete. He missed Friday’s practice because of an upset stomach after a steak and squid dinner on Thursday night worried the team doctors so much that they isolated Hawkins from his teammates at the guest house. their downtown Houston hotel.
But Hawkins, who “felt dead for the last two days,” according to Hurley, was in the lineup and quickly signaled his belly was steady, swinging a long 3-pointer from the back 14 seconds of the match.
When striker Alex Karaban sank a 3-pointer at the half-time whistle, keeping a gunman’s gooseneck for effect, the Huskies skipped the dressing room with a 37-24 lead even when Jackson only Play a little over four minutes after picking up two quick errors.
That’s not a good sign for storms. The Huskies, throughout this tournament, got here primarily by toying with their opponents in the first half before overwhelming them with an attack in the second half. They lead Iona after halftime and lead St. Mary’s one point and Gonzaga seven points after halftime. Only against Arkansas will they be comfortable at the front.
That second half against Iona could be the deal for the Huskies.
Sanogo says it’s natural to think about last season’s defeat.
“I feel the pressure myself,” Sanogo said of entering the dressing room before Iona. “I was like, ‘Damn, why are we against Iona?’ But after thinking about it, our studies were not good. We figured it out, changed the defense a little bit and we were able to fly.”
The Huskies viewed the league as the same team that started the season with 14 convincing wins, including knocking out Alabama, which would end the regular season as the nation’s top team. But after that hot start, the Huskies veered off course, losing six out of eight, before settling down before the tournament.
At the time of the national semi-final, Connecticut introduced storms that were perhaps the most fearsome of those present in Houston.
One of the questions Miami faces is how Norchad Omier, a 6-foot-7, 240-pound striker posing as center, will stand up to the Huskies’ spinning towers: the chiseled Sanogo and The towering Donovan Clingan, 7- 2 freshmen.
Omier, who grew up in Nicaragua, wanted to play in the major leagues until his basketball prospects were high enough so he moved to Miami for his senior year of high school, which could hold up against Sanogo a bit and not contribute much to it. offense. He didn’t score in his first basket until two minutes into the second half, when Miami took a 17 lead.
In the rare instances where Connecticut’s freestyle attack got bogged down, the Huskies could only pitch for Sanogo, who made nine of his 11 shots – including a pair of three. Clingan has only 4 points, but his counter-attacks and swings have repeatedly stopped Miami.
The storm has taken the most difficult route to Houston.
They led Drake late before scoring the final 10 points in a first-round win. They beat 4th seed Indiana, beat 1st seed Houston, and beat 2nd seed Texas to win the Midwest Regional Championship.
The game against Connecticut brought back fond memories for Jim Larrañaga, Miami’s emerging 73-year-old coach. His previous trip to Round 4 of the Finals came in 2006 with the George Mason-in-sneakers Cinderella team knocking out top seed Connecticut in a regional final.
This time there will be no such memorable moments for Larrañaga.
In fact, when Miami defender Nijel Pack was stuck on the bench for several minutes in the second half after he punctured a shoe, it could be a sign. It takes the gear manager a few trips to the locker room to find a shoe that fits.
Turns out, so does a glass slipper.
