UConn basketball coach Hurley on program's March Madness triumph: 'We just had to play to our level'

What turned out to be arguably the most unpredictable National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I men's basketball tournament in the event’s 84-year history concluded in Houston on Monday with a “blue blood” program cutting down the nets.

The just-concluded Final Four didn’t tout a top seed or even a player destined for the National Basketball Association (NBA), but the aptly familiar fourth-seeded University of Connecticut (UConn) Huskies played the type of game typical of a No. 1 team by defeating this year’s Cinderella, fifth-seeded San Diego State University (SDSU), 76-59 to win the national championship.

According to an Associated Press (AP) article that was run by Houston CBS affiliate KHOU, junior forward Adama Sanogo turned in a 17-point, 10-rebound night to lead the Huskies to their fifth overall title and earn Most Outstanding Player (MOP) honors for himself. 

Senior guard Tristen Newton, an El Paso native, complemented the Mali-born Sanogo’s effort with a double-double of his own, chipping in 19 points and 10 boards, the AP reported. 

Entering the game, the Huskies never trailed for more than 47 seconds throughout the entire tournament, enduring a scoring burst from the Aztecs immediately following tip-off before taking control the rest of the way.

UConn, which began the 2022-2023 season unranked, stormed through March Madness handing double-digit defeats to Iona University, Saint Mary's College of California, the University of Arkansas, Gonzaga University, the University of Miami (FL) and lastly, SDSU.

“We knew we were the best team in the tournament going in, and we just had to play to our level,” head coach Dan Hurley said, per the AP.

It’s the third time the Huskies, who finished their championship run with a 31-8 overall record, ended up the last one standing in the Big Dance when the Final Four was held in Texas.

Jim Calhoun won the team’s third crown at the same venue in Houston in 2011 while his protégé and successor, Kevin Ollie, secured the fourth in Arlington in 2014.

Former UConn star and Houston native Emeka Okafor told ESPN that his alma mater’s latest championship helps its case to join the likes of Duke University and the University of North Carolina (UNC) as the game’s storied teams.

"We have one in every decade for the past four decades,” Okafor, the leader of the 2004 Huskies program that delivered the second championship to Storrs, Connecticut, said. “I don't know how you would deny a school who has the most championships in the past 25 years. This will definitely end the debate, if there was any." 

The game capped CBS broadcaster Jim Nantz’s longtime association with the Big Dance. 

“Thank you for being my friend,” Nantz, who also has roots in the Houston area, said at the end of the broadcast referencing his famous catchphrase of "Hello, friends." 

Nantz isn’t retiring as he’ll shift his focus more toward the Masters Tournament and the National Football League (NFL).