The road is finally ending, and it is crazy to think March has already come and gone. But here we are, preparing for yet another college basketball season coming to a close. In a familiar place for a Final Four, we return to NRG Stadium in Houston.
SDSU 72 FAU 71
Add this game to the all-time Final Four and NCAA tournament games list. In what was already expected to be a wacky Final Four was given a gift of an opening act on Saturday. The miracle run opened up with Purdue falling to FDU, and the Owls of FAU had fans saying, "Who?" when seeing who was making noise in this March Madness tournament. Basketball is and will forever be a game of runs, it will be said repeatedly. To open the game, the Aztecs would see a lead of 14-5 after the Owls scored the first five points. But FAU would fight right back, and before you could blink, the score was 16-15 in a split second. Matt Bradley would provide a significant amount of the early scoring for 11 of the first 16 SDSU points. The game would fall into a back-and-forth stage for the following minutes until FAU gained some control. FAU would go up 36-28 later in the half and enter the locker room with a 40-33 halftime lead. Floyd would lead first-half scoring for the Owls with nine, and Bradley had 11 for the Aztecs.
The first half of the second stanza of the play belonged to Florida Atlantic. The Owls grew the most significant lead of the game when they went up 56-42 with just over 13 minutes left. After that seemed to be when the pressure grew, and San Deigo State found themselves on offense, Bradley and Parrish would spark a run a few moments later to make the score 60-58 by the nine-minute mark. From there, it was on, and the game slowed down. The game wound down in the final minute in a mess of missed throws and offensive rebounds. The score is 71-68 FAU with 46 seconds left. SDSU would find its way to a layup, forcing a stop, and take a rebound the other way. Lamont Butler would spin as time expired down just one point and take the Aztecs to the title game! An instant classic to send the Aztecs to their first title game.
UCONN 72 Miami 59
We moved to the nightcap, and this ended up being the snoozer of the night. It was clear this tournament that UConn had what it took to win the title, and they have put that on display. Just dominating everyone they have run into the last two weekends. While it was always a significant margin in the first half, by the end of the first 20 minutes, the game began to draft to how the Huskies had played all tournament. The game's first nine points belonged to the Huskies, and Sanogo was a part of it. That didn't deter the Hurricanes, as after falling behind 14-4, they could get back to a 19-19 game following a Pack three. However, that would be short lasted as UConn then put up eight straight points and helped advance their way to a 37-24 halftime lead. The shooting percentages could tell the story as it was not Miami's night to shine. It took almost 30 minutes to get over 30% from the field. Meanwhile, UConn was living comfortably from over 50% most of the time to this point. Sanogo had 13 first-half points and would have four of the first seven points of the second half for UConn.
The Huskies then looked to take complete control just a moment into the second half and were up by 20 points, 46-26, at the 16:36 mark of game time left. With their backs on the wall, Miami worked their way back to within 11 points before the next break, 51-40, after a Beverly three. Miami tried again to climb back into the game but would be forced to call another timeout when they fell behind by 15 again, 60-45. From there, UConn seemed to hold control, and rolling into the final break of the game, the Huskies lead was 12, 66-54. The Huskies would go on to close this game out thanks to Sanogo's 21 points to the tally. Dan Hurley becomes the third head coach since 2010 to take UConn to the title game.