Huskies head to 1st Final Four in 9 years
Jordan Hawkins scored 20 points and UConn blew past its fourth straight NCAA Tournament opponent, earning its first trip to the Final Four in nine years with an 82-54 blowout of Gonzaga on Saturday night.
The Huskies (29-8) have felt right at home in their first extended March Madness run since winning the 2014 national championship, playing their best basketball of what had been an up-and-down season.
UConn controlled the usually efficient Bulldogs at both ends in the West Region final, building a 23-point lead early in the second half to waltz right into the final section of the bracket.
The Huskies’ two NCAA Tournament first-round exits under coach Dan Hurley are now well in the rearview mirror.
These elite Huskies did what the UConn women couldn’t for once and are headed to Houston, where they will play either Texas or Miami. The Bulldogs (31-6) didn’t have the same second-half magic they had in a last-second win over UCLA in the Elite Eight.
Gonzaga allowed UConn to go on a late run to lead by seven at half and fell completely apart after All-American Drew Timme went to the bench with his fourth foul early in the second half.
Seniors lift Aztecs to new heights:
San Diego State’s recruiting pitch to Darrion Trammell certainly sounded intriguing.
Coach Brian Dutcher asked the former Seattle University guard to come to Southern California and play in a Final Four.
What Trammell found was a mature, talented group of players with two NCAA Tournament appearances — a team that convinced him it was possible. Now, after matching his season high with 21 points in Friday’s 71-64 win over No. 1 seed Alabama, Trammell and his teammates are one win away from fulfilling their goal.
“I felt like we were going to a make deep run, so yeah, I did believe it,” Trammell said Saturday. “I felt as a team, we were the only people to believe that, but that’s ultimately what matters is the confidence and the belief that we have in our own team.”
The fifth-seeded Aztecs (30-6) don’t look like many other teams.
Seven of its 12 players, including Trammell, are seniors. Five have only played at one school and everyone was sold on the same Final Four pledge. To Dutcher, the son of a former Big Ten coach who’s in his 24th season at San Diego State and sixth as the head coach, it was more than a dream. It was a quest. And now this veteran lineup, which endured everything from a canceled postseason to a tournament bubble to last March’s excruciating 72-69 firstround overtime loss to Creighton, can earn its ticket to Houston.
Those who have followed the Aztecs — or listened to Dutcher — are not surprised.
“I said before the year our plan is to make it to a Final Four, to win a national championship, so we can’t act surprised we’re sitting up here,” Dutcher said. “This is what the goal has been.”