UConn Looks To Graduate Into a Dynasty With Back-to-Back National Championships

The head men’s basketball coach at the University of Connecticut, Dan Hurley, has experienced ample success. He won a national championship last year and has advanced to the Final Four this year. Mr. Hurley, though, remembers riding what he called “a mini cheese bus” to prep school, which is why he won’t continue complaining about mechanical issues that caused an eight-hour delay in their trip across the country.“We’re in the Final Four with a chance to advance to repeat as National Champions and make history,” Mr. Hurley said at Glendale. “We’re way past” that stuff.Purdue, the top seed in the Midwest Region, faces North Carolina State, an 11th-seed from the South Region, on Saturday before the top-seeded Huskies from the East meet Alabama, the fourth seed in the West Region. The winners advance to the national championship game on Monday.UConn hopes to join Florida (2006-07) and Duke (1991-92) as the only schools to win back-to-back national titles since UCLA’s dominance between 1964 and 1973. They triumphed every year in that stretch apart from 1966. The rarity of going back-to-back is something Mr. Hurley has preached to his team members all season, telling them that they “have a chance to make history in a place that is impossible to make history.”That focus has helped the Huskies compile a 35-3 record and blow away every opponent in this year’s NCAA Tournament. Despite losing standouts like Adama Sanogo, Jordan Hawkins, and Andre Jackson Jr. from last year’s team, UConn reloaded this year and stormed its way to the Big East Tournament championship and has won its four games in the NCAA Tournament by an average of 27.7 points.Traveling to Arizona was a much tougher process than winning the games to get there. A 91-52 victory over Stetson was followed by a 75-58 triumph over Northwestern to reach the Sweet 16. An 82-52 beat-down of San Diego State was accompanied by a surprisingly easy 77-52 whipping of Illinois to reach the Final Four.“This tournament is the hardest thing to do,” Mr. Hurley explains. “Schools with the best resources and biggest brands have a hard time getting here. We’ve made an incredibly hard tournament look a lot easier than it really is.”Mr. Hurley rebuilt his team in what is now an unusual manner. He added only one significant player from the transfer portal, graduate student Cam Spencer, who played at Rutgers last season and Loyola-Maryland before that. One of four freshmen on the roster, Stephon Castle, earned a spot in the starting lineup along with guard Tristen Newton, center Donovan Clingan, and swing guard Alex Karaban.“It’s a special group of players that have a special combination of talent, humility, and willingness to not make it about themselves and do what’s in the best interest of the team,” Mr. Hurley said.In preparing for this run at back-to-back titles, Mr. Hurley said he talked to Billy Donovan, who coached the Florida Gators to their back-to-back crowns, and his older brother Bobby, who was a star guard on the Duke teams that won two straight titles in the ’90s.Mr. Hurley said that he “called Billy Donovan a week after the season ended last year after the emotional crush after the euphoria disappeared quickly. But Coach [Mike Krzyzewski] and Billy Donovan returned their entire dominant teams. At UConn, we lost five of our top seven [players] and took only one through the portal. But this is a special group.”Alabama (29-11) has no plans to be an easy out. The Crimson Tide began the tournament as the fourth seed from the West Region. Wins over Charleston (109-96) and Grand Canyon (72-61) led to an upset of top-seeded North Carolina (89-87) in the Sweet 16. Alabama then edged Clemson 89-82 to punch their ticket to the school’s first-ever Final Four. The Crimson Tide is a three-point shooting team that needs to convert from the perimeter to contend.“It’ll be the best offense we guarded this year,” Mr. Hurley said of Alabama. “As good as Illinois was, this team is better. They’re deeper; they’re more athletic and they have more guards that can break you down. If we’re not on our identity, we’re vulnerable like everybody else is. But if we play elite offense and elite defense and beat you on the backboard we’re tough to beat.”Alabama’s head coach, Nate Oates, who got into college coaching with the help of Bobby Hurley, had nothing but praise for UConn. “It would be nice if I wasn’t having to play against Danny’s team because it’s a pretty good team,” Mr. Oates said at Glendale, adding, “We know we have a daunting task in front us, but our guys will be ready.”

UConn Looks To Graduate Into a Dynasty With Back-to-Back National Championships

UConn Looks To Graduate Into a Dynasty With Back-to-Back National Championships

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