Sanogo, Timme are centers of attention with Final Four on line

LAS VEGAS – After the final buzzer sounded and the Uconn men’s basketball team secured a spot in the Elite Eight, head coach Dan Hurley was sure to embrace the moment. Running off the court after the rest of the team, Hurley made sure to stop and greet his family sitting opposite the team’s bench.

“I love you,” he exclaimed as he leaned over the courtside tables and locked hands with his wife, Andrea.

Before that, the fifth-year Uconn head coach and basketball lifer advancing further in the tournament than he ever has before had an emotional embrace with his son, Andrew, a walk-on whose role usually doesn’t extend further than providing energy from the end of the bench. But Andrew got to play for a minute and 23 seconds in garbage time of the 88-65 rout of the Razorbacks and got on the stat sheet with a rebound.

Hurley didn’t look like a head coach who just guided his team through 40 minutes of an NCAA Tournament game. He was loose, joking around after the game — and for good reason. After Uconn scored the first points on Thursday, the Huskies ran away in dominant fashion, building a 17-point lead at halftime and extending it to as many as 29 in the second half.

Now Hurley has a chance to follow in the legendary footsteps of Jim Calhoun, who beat Gonzaga in the 1999 West Regional Final to advance to his first Final Four, eventually winning his first national title that year.

Zags head coach Mark Few was an assistant on that ’99 Gonzaga staff, but says he doesn’t remember the game.

“That was like 77 dog years ago or something when you do this coaching stuff. Maybe 125 dog years or something,” Few said after beating No. 2 seed

UCLA on a last-second shot attempt from the center court March Madness logo for Julian Strawther, a Las Vegas native.

Few, in his 24th season as head coach, has led Gonzaga to the NCAA Tournament every year at the helm. Gonzaga made the Final Four twice, in 2017 and 2021, but has never won the title.

Hurley hopes to add Few to the list of great coaches he’s beaten so far in the tournament, which already includes Hall of Famer Rick Pitino, Randy Bennett and Eric Musselman. The headline matchup, however, isn’t Hurley versus Few.

Saturday’s game features one of the most exciting frontcourt matchups of the tournament: Adama Sanogo versus Drew Timme.

Sanogo, 6 feet 9, has had a dominant tournament so far, combining for 70 points and 29 rebounds while shooting an incredibly efficient 33 of 44 from the field. The 6-10 Timme, who climbed to No. 11 on the NCAA Tournament all-time scoring list with a 36-point performance against UCLA Thursday, has combined for 85 points (36 of 58) and 27 rebounds through three games in this year’s dance.

“It’s going to be a battle,” Timme said. “They have two great bigs looking at the matchup. They’re both forces. They’re both equally good. It’s going to be a battle. We’ll have to play hard and gritty and we’re going to have to get dirty and nasty, do whatever it takes to win because they have a hell of a duo, big-man punch. It’s going to be a war.”

Timme, of course, is referring to 7-2 Donovan Clingan who Hurley brings off the bench as a ball screen pickand-roll lob-threat and a menace contesting shots at the rim. Clingan combined for 21 points while shooting

9 of 11 from the field with 18 rebounds and six blocks over just 38 minutes in three tournament games.

“Uconn’s a hard one-day prep, man. They run a lot of great stuff. They’re not a simple team to guard. They have multiple players that can really hurt you. So we’ll be up all night tonight and burning it at both ends to get these guys ready. We’ll have to play extremely good to be able to beat a team as good as Uconn, the way they’re playing,” Few said Thursday night.

Uconn, of course, also has the multitalented Andre Jackson, who can fly around the court and grab rebounds from the sky, almost always knowing his next move and finding an open teammate.

“He’s maybe the most exciting player in college in a long time that doesn’t average double-figure points,” Hurley said. “You can’t take your eyes off him, getting you extra possessions on the offensive glass that leads to open 3s, because those are sometimes the best 3s you get. And what he does in transition when he takes it off the defensive glass, and he’s our best post feeder. And we’ve got two dominant big guys.”

A confident Jackson said, “I really just go out there and do whatever is necessary to win the game. I’m a winner first.”