The men’s NCAA Tournament concludes Monday night as the San Diego State Aztecs and the UConn Huskies meet in the national championship game at Houston’s NRG Stadium.
San Diego State is in the national championship game for the first time in program history after completing a big comeback against Florida Atlantic on Saturday night.
The Aztecs trailed by as many as 14 in the second half but managed to tie the game with 4:26 left. Florida Atlantic answered with a few made shots, but Lamont Butler took a pass the length of the court off a Johnell Davis miss and hit a mid-range jumper as the clock expired, sending San Diego State into the championship game.
“If it was to win the title, it might be the greatest ever,” head coach Brian Dutcher said of the shot as he met with the media on Sunday. “What an incredible shot. It put us in the championship game. But at the end of the day people are going to talk about who won the national championship. People in San Diego will always remember Lamont’s shot. But if we win a title, then they’re really going to remember that shot.”
San Diego State — the No.5 seed in the South region — has won 19 of its last 21 games and became the first school from the Mountain West Conference to reach the Elite Eight and the Final Four after wins over top-seeded Alabama and Creighton.
The Aztecs pride themselves on defense, holding eight of their last nine opponents under 40% shooting and each of their first four opponents in the NCAA Tournament to 64 points or less and ranking third in the country in defensive efficiency.
“I mean, they’re physical. They defend,” UConn head coach Dan Hurley told the media during a press conference Sunday. “They play really, really hard. The good thing for us is we do that every single day. Like we practice really, really hard. We come from a really, really hard-playing league. I think it’s just going to come down to obviously who outplays the other.”
UConn was the No.4 seed in the West region and is attempting to win its fifth NCAA Tournament since 1999 and its first since 2014. The Huskies have a 9-1 record in Final Four games after beating Miami on Saturday and have never lost in the championship game.
UConn is on a tear, beating its first five NCAA Tournament opponents by an average of 20.6 points. Center Adama Sanogo is averaging 20.2 points and 9.8 rebounds during the current run, while guard Jordan Hawkins is averaging 16.4 points.
“We have to do a good job in the low post on Sanogo,” Dutcher said. “He’s strong and tough. And Hawkins is an NBA guard. So we have to make sure we concentrate on him. And it’s just a lot of things. A lot of things that we’ll try to get done in 48 hours to be ready for our opportunity tomorrow.”
Despite its success in the NCAA Tournament, UConn is not taking San Diego State lightly.
“The heavy favorites haven’t fared very well in this one. So we’re just going to try to ignore that tag,” Hurley acknowledged.
“We know that if we get away from our identity for a tick, we become very vulnerable. We obviously, with the experience and the physicality and the age and just how well-coached the San Diego State team is and the teams they’ve beaten to get here, we expect a much different type of game, much more of a fight.”
San Diego State (32-6) and UConn (30-8) will face off at 8:20 p.m. CT Monday.
UConn won the only previous meeting in the 2011 Sweet 16.
