With the Elite Eight games over and the Final Four less than a week away, no one in the world picked the Final Four teams in their bracket. The East region of the bracket featured top teams in the country like Virginia, Michigan State, and Villanova, but everyone overlooked the UConn Huskies. We have certainly seen the Huskies in the Final Four before, and winning in Madison Square Garden for them is not an unfamiliar scene for college basketball fans, but this year it did not seem they had enough to get by the loaded East region.
Shabazz Napier, who has been the star of the entire season for the Huskies, clinched the victory over Michigan State with three free throws after he was fouled by the Spartans’ Keith Appling with 30.8 seconds remaining. Like Kemba Walker just a few years ago, the Huskies are led by their star guard to the Final Four.
With the win, UConn became the second No. 7 seed to advance to the Final Four. The 1984 Virginia Cavaliers were the only other team to do so and they fell to Houston in the national semifinals. If they want another taste at national prominence, they will have to get by the tournament favorite and number one overall seed Florida Gators.
This year’s run is even more surprising than the 2010-2011 team that won the national championship because UConn failed to win their conference regular season or conference tourney. Also this is the first year UConn is playing in the American Athletic Conference (AAC), which has less competition than the “old Big East” the Huskies used to play with before conference realignment. Even the tournament committee showed their disapproval for the AAC when the conference winner Louisville only was awarded a four seed, when many experts picked them as a possible two.
Even though UConn is playing their best basketball all season, and Napier is showing the world why he is one of the best talents college basketball has to offer, UConn’s Cinderella season will likely come to an end. The Gators are arguably the most complete team in the country, when UConn leans heavily on Napier’s production. In order to beat Florida they will have to score far more than 60 points, and I cannot see the UConn offense being able to do that. They simply do not have enough weapons to withstand the Florida offensive onslaught.
James Belluscio can be reached at james.belluscio@spartans.ut.edu.