POSTSEASON CENTRAL
UConn played with the heart of a champion all week.
The fifth-seeded Huskies defeated two teams -- Cincinnati and Temple-- that had swept them during the regular season, then cruised to a 72-58 victory over sixth seed Memphis Sunday afternoon at the Amway Center to capture the American Athletic Conference title.
The Huskies' reward was an automatic bid to the NCAA Championship, where they were a No. 9 seed and will play eighth-seeded Colorado from the Pac-12 Thursday in Des Moines, Iowa. The winner will likely draw top-seeded Kansas Saturday in the second round.
In a year where conference giant SMU was ineligible for postseason play, three other American teams-- Cincinnat, Temple and Tulsa -- also received bids. Cincinnati received a No. 9 seed and will play Atlantic-10 champion Saint Joseph's Friday in a first-round game in Spokane, Washington. If the Bearcats win, they figure to draw top-seeded Pac-12 tournament champion Oregon Sunday.
Temple received a No. 10 seed and will play Iowa from the Big Ten in the first round Friday in Brooklyn. If the Owls win, there is a possibility of a Philadelphia City Series rematch against No. 2-seeded Villanova from the Big East in the second round Sunday.
Tulsa was the last at-large team selected to the tournament as the NCAA committee recognized the Golden Hurricane’s quantity of top-25 and top-100 victories, including a road win at SMU that might be one of the more impressive results of any team nationally. The Golden Hurricane fell to Michigan, 67-62, Wednesday as part of the First Four in Dayton, Ohio.
The four NCAA selections marked a notable departure from the way that The American was perceived in the past two seasons, when SMU (in 2014) and Temple (in 2015) narrowly missed the field.
“The last two years, I didn't have much to smile about because I felt we had a team left out that could have been in,” American commissioner Mike Aresco said. “I am a lot happier today.
“When I saw Temple pop up on the board early, I felt a little more relaxed because they were our regular season champion but had been left out last year. Tulsa had eight wins over top-100 teams, a big win over Wichita State. They challenged themselves with games against Oregon State and Little Rock.”
In Orlando, it was UConn’s day to celebrate. Head coach Kevin Ollie got a chance to give Shabazz Napier, the star of his team's 2014 national championship run, a huge hug after the game. Napier took the Huskies on a magical tournament run and was selected Most Oustanding Player of the NCAA tournament when the Huskies upset Kentucky in the national championship game.
Forward Shonn Miller and guard Sterling Gibbs led the balanced Huskies with 13 points apiece against Memphis in Sunday’s final. Forward Daniel Hamilton, the tournament's Most Outstanding Player, and guard Rodney Purvis both had 12 as UConn won its first American tournament after three straight trips to the final.
Freshman forward Dedric Lawson, the conference's Rookie of the Year, had 21 points and 11 rebounds for the Tigers (19-15), recording his 17th double-double of the season.
UConn (24-10) has always had the potential to be this kind of team once they found their focus.
“I think we're just playing our best basketball right now,” Ollie said. “We're playing great defense. Guys are stepping up and making good shots. That 2014 team, they really started to understand their roles at the end and it took a game like Louisville (a loss in the conference final) for them to understand that. “And everybody just fell into their roles this week.”
The Huskies have waited an entire year for redemption. Last year, they had an average season by UConn standards, but still reached the finals of the conference tournament before losing to SMU on Selection Sunday, An hour later, they were exiled to the NIT.
“I've been fortunate to be part of two national championships in five years and this is real special to win this conference tournament,” said Ollie. “We have been maligned a lot for not doing well in the conference. But our conference is very, very difficult. There's a lot of travel. I'm not making excuses, but our conference is tough.”
The conference tournament could have been equally disappointing if Jalen Adams had not hit a 62-foot banker at the buzzer to force a fourth overtime during a win over Cincinnati in the quarterfinals, a play that immediately joins Kemba Walker’s ankle-breaker against Pittsburgh in the 2011 Big East tournament or Ray Allen’s off-balance floater in 1996 against Georgetown to lock up the conference title.
“Last year we came here (to the conference tournament) and we came up short,” Hamilton said. “So this year we wanted to come in and make sure we won it. Especially, we wanted to emphasize today, make sure we came in and were focused. We came out with a lot of intensity and we came out with a victory.”
The combination of magic moments and intense focus has worked well for UConn in the past. The Huskies have won four NCAA titles since 1999, more than any other school in that time. Based on what we saw in Orlando, it would surprise no one if the Huskies had one more postseason run in them this year.