UConn men are focused on not letting up
Defending champs are a win away from title game
– Talk of winning another national championship started shortly after raising the program's fifth title banner last spring.
UConn wasn't satisfied despite its success.
And the Huskies are still not satisfied after advancing to the Final Four in consecutive years for the first time in program history to set up a national championship semifinal date with fourth-seeded Alabama (25-11). Game time is 8:49 p.m. today at State Farm Stadium.
None of their program-record setting success and winning an NCAA record 10 straight tournament games by double digits will really matter much to them if they fall short of their goal of becoming the first team since Florida in 2007 to repeat.
“Coming into the year, I don't think people on the outside expected us to play this well,” coach Dan Hurley said on Friday. “I don't know if you stuck a lie detector on me if I thought we'd play this well, especially in a tournament that's so hard. It's so hard to advance in this tournament and get to a Final Four.
“The best programs historically have a hard time getting to a Final Four in recent history. I get it. We've played great. The thing about this tournament, none of that matters tonight. We're going to have a two-hour game versus Alabama. If we're not on point, we won't play on Monday.”
Favored to win
Odds heavily favor that if top-seeded UConn (35-3) plays at its usual elite level, it will advance to Monday's title game for a matchup with either Purdue or North Carolina State.
Only three teams have found a way to defeat UConn this season. The Huskies have lost just one game since late December and racked up dominating win after dominating win.
“When we're on, this is an extremely amazing team,” senior guard Hassan Diarra said.
In recent weeks, some media members began referring to this tournament as the UConn Invitational.
That should sound familiar to UConn fans. The 1999 NCAA tournament was called the Duke Invitational, but the heavily-favored Blue Devils lost to the Huskies, 77-74, in the title game.
Alabama is looking to pull off the upset in the program's first Final Four appearance. The Crimson Tide knocked off No. 1 seed North Carolina during their impressive March Madness run.
“We've been the underdogs through this tournament,” Alabama coach Nate Oats said. “Nobody expected us to be here at this point. Last year we had the No. 1 overall seed. … It's a one-game elimination tournament. The best team doesn't always win. That happened last year.
“We've been able to make a run now and we're going to get our team ready for Saturday night. We know we have a daunting task ahead of us.”
UConn's daunting task is trying to contain a high-powered, uptempo Alabama, which averages 90.6 points per game and regularly bombs away from 3-point range, sinking an average of 11 per game. Senior Mark Sears, an All-American guard, leads a potent attack with 21.5 points per game.
“That's probably one of the most important things that we have to do is limit their threes,” redshirt sophomore Alex Karaban said. “If they get hot from three, it's a dangerous game for us and that's something that we don't want to get into
with them, a scoring battle.
“... It's hard playing those types of teams that just run up and down and look for threes.”
The Huskies don't want to make it a perimeter shooting contest. They've struggled from beyond the arc during the postseason, converting just 28 percent in four tournament games.
But they can do something that Alabama can't, and that's play lockdown defense. The Huskies are allowing a stingy 53.5 points in the last four games and the Crimson
Tide 81.5 points.
UConn has an edge in another area, and that's experience of playing and succeeding on the Final Four stage.
The Huskies own an NCAA record 10-1 all-time in Final Four games.
“Hopefully, history repeats itself,” said graduate transfer Cam Spencer, whose birthday is Saturday.
“The fact of the matter is, we have to do what we've done well all year. That's what has gotten us to this point.
“We're focused on Alabama and doing the things we need to do in that game to take care of business and hopefully get our first win.”
Freshman Stephon Castle, who's been UConn's defensive stopper, is ready for his first Final Four game.
His older teammates and coaching staff drove home the message about the program's national championship standard the moment he first stepped on Storrs campus.
“I feel we belong in the Final Four,” Castle said.
“I feel like they set that standard last year and we're kind of upholding it.”