UCONN 60, MICHIGAN STATE 54
There's no place like a home away from home.
It's only fitting that in the first NCAA Tournament games at Madison Square Garden in 53 years, a school that used the building as its personal playground for seven Big East titles over the last 25 years conquered the vaunted floor once again on Sunday. The reward is an unexpected trip to the Final Four.
The seventh-seeded Huskies, whose campus is just three hours away in Storrs, used their electric quickness and stifling defense to upset fourth-seeded Michigan State, 60-54, in the East Region final, much to the delight of the overwhelmingly partisan crowd of 19,499.
This marks UConn's fifth trip to the Final Four in 15 years and the first for coach Kevin Ollie, the former Huskies guard who in his second season is adding to the legacy formulated by mentor and coach Jim Calhoun.
'We come here and we plant a lot of seeds here. And our fans come here and as we always say, it's like our third home,' said UConn senior guard Shabazz Napier, who scored a game-high 25 points - including 9-for-9 from the foul line - to earn the regional's Most Outstanding Player award. 'I'm glad we were not too far away from Madison Square Garden, the mecca of basketball.'
The Huskies will play No. 1 overall seed Florida on Saturday in a national semifinal in North Texas. UConn handed the Gators one of their two losses this season, 65-64, on a Napier buzzer-beater on Dec. 2. After a humbling 81-48 defeat at Louisville in the regular-season finale, a screening of the tape of that Florida game reminded the Huskies of what they were capable of. After losing by 10 to Louisville in the American Athletic Conference title game, the Huskies defeated conference champions at every NCAA stop - St. Joseph (Atlantic 10), Villanova (Big East regular season), Iowa State (Big 12) and Michigan State (Big Ten).
'Coach showed us the tape before we started winning these games. We got back together (on defense) and that tape is crazy,' said Ryan Boatright, who had 11 points and four steals, and along with fellow seniors Napier, Niels Giffey and Tyler Olander, became the first players in program history to play in two Final Fours (2011). That was their reward for sticking with the Huskies (30-8) through last season, when the team was ineligible for the Big Dance due to a failure to meet academic standards. 'We were everywhere, we were helping each other, we were closing out right and we were rebounding the basketball,' Boatright said.
That description befitted the Huskies on Sunday, especially in the low post where DeAndre Daniels (12 points, eight rebounds) denied dynamic forward Branden Dawson at every turn, limiting him to 1-for-3 from the field and five points. UConn big men Phillip Nolan and Amida Brimah contained senior forward Adreian Payne (13 points) and the Huskies forced Michigan State into 16 turnovers, which they converted into 18 points.
Riding the energy of the 'home' crowd, the Huskies jumped out to a 12-2 lead with five points from Daniels and four from Boatright.
Two 3-pointers by Payne at the midway mark helped Michigan State (29-9)reverse the momentum and two more by Gary Harris (22 points) put it in front late in the first half as a 16-2 run spanning both halves gave the Spartans a 32-23 lead.
The Huskies then recaptured their early defensive spark, taking Michigan State completely out of the game for a 10-minute period in turning that deficit into a 49-39 lead with 6:29 to play.
'They got off to that great start and we looked like we were walking in quicksand there for a while,' Michigan State coach Tom Izzo said. 'We came back and did a lot of good things, but the biggest key to the whole day is we turned the ball over. ... And then in the second half to have a nine-point lead and we just did not execute. And give them credit - they did.'
The Spartans rallied to make it a one-possession game twice in the final minutes. Down 53-51, Keith Appling fouled Napier on a 3-point attempt with 30.6 seconds left. Napier sank all three and the Huskies did not look back.
Only forward, to another Final Four.
Posted by Unknown on Sunday, March 30, 2014 - Rating: 4.5
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