If San Diego State’s victory over Miami earlier in the night was epic in its outcome, this second semi-final between Connecticut And Miami was, on the other hand, clearly less compelling.
Because for the fifth time in as many games in this “March Madness” 2023, the Huskies left their opponents no chance and won with more than 10 points difference (72-59). Their average gap in these five victories is 20.6 points! A huge domination, punctuated by a logical and deserved qualification in the final. The fifth in program history, which has won its four previous finals.
Under the eyes of former glories of the program such as Kemba Walker, Rip Hamilton or even Ben Gordon, present in Houston for the occasion, Dan Hurley’s men thus succeeded where Drake, Indiana, Houston and Texas had failed at the four previous rounds: slow down Miami’s attack, limited to 32% in shots…
” Not only what we tried to put in place did not work, but in addition I did not recognize us in the identity » underlined Jim Larranaga, the Miami coach, stunned but proud of his troops. ” Offensively we never found any rhythm, and defensively we were overwhelmed. »
At the same time, the Huskies’ attack, led by a Adama Sanogo dominating in particular (21 points at 9/11 on shots and 10 rebounds), in fact broke little by little the little “momentum” that the Hurricanes managed to accumulate in this meeting (49% on shots, 19 assists for 28 shots scored) .
” When we play harder than the opposing team, when we dominate the rebounds with a big defense and a fluid and varied attack, we know how to beat our opponents launched Dan Hurley, the coach of this pack of ruthless Huskies. ” And I am a defensive coach at heart. So I loved our defense. It was one of the best offenses in the country, and we derailed them. »
Best team of this tournament by far, Connecticut is therefore logically in the final, where one last big piece awaits the Huskies: the Aztecs and their huge defense, the fifth best in the whole country.
