March Madness: UConn stamps itself as title favorite with thorough beatdown of Gonzaga

Don’t let the absence of all four No. 1 seeds give off the false impression that next weekend’s Final Four is wide open.

The way UConn bulldozed through what was considered to be the NCAA tournament’s strongest region, the Huskies have emerged as unassailable title favorites.

UConn blew past a fourth straight opponent on Saturday night, securing its first trip to the Final Four in nine years with an 82-54 demolition of previously surging Gonzaga at the West regional final in Las Vegas. In what was hyped as a matchup of two of the best teams remaining in the field, the Huskies built a seven-point halftime lead, tripled that in the opening five-plus minutes of the second half and extended that to as many as 33 before mercifully pulling their starters.

"What a performance by the boys," UConn coach Dan Hurley said. "To do what we did to a team of that caliber, a program of that caliber, obviously we were just playing at a super high level."

Any chance Gonzaga had to remain competitive evaporated in the opening three minutes of the second half when former national player of the year Drew Timme picked up his third foul barreling into Tristen Newton and his fourth battling for position with Andre Jackson. The NCAA tournament's leading scorer managed only 12 points and 10 rebounds as UConn dealt Gonzaga its most one-sided loss in nearly 13 years.

The long, athletic Huskies are one of only two teams since 2004 to win their first four NCAA tournament games by at least 15 points. They surround two elite big men with an array of talented perimeter players who can defend and shoot, a formula that has enabled them to outclass Iona by 24, stiff-arm Saint Mary's by 15 and overwhelm Arkansas by 23.

"I saw them in November [at the PK85 tournament], and I just thought they were such a complete team there," Gonzaga coach Mark Few said. "They've got great size. They have depth. Their bigs are different. So they bring different qualities.

"It's a lot. It's a lot."

To basketball fans of a certain age, UConn swaggering into the Final Four must feel just like old times. The brash, bold Huskies of the 1990s and 2000s punched up in weight class until they were among college basketball’s top programs and then captured national titles at a rate that not even those blue bloods could match.

But basketball fans of a younger generation have never heard of the 1990 “Dream Season” and didn’t experience the heyday of Donyell, Ray, Rip and Ben. They’ve only read about ‘99 UConn toppling an indomitable Duke team. They weren’t yet in high school when Kemba Walker put the Huskies on his back in 2011 or when Shabazz Napier duplicated that three years later.

After that 2014 championship, UConn lost its way. The Huskies reached the NCAA tournament only once in the next six years while stranded in the mishmash American Athletic Conference. They got hit with NCAA sanctions. They endured a messy breakup with former coach Kevin Ollie, a one-time UConn standout and Jim Calhoun’s hand-picked successor.

The 2018 hire of Dan Hurley helped spark UConn’s gradual return to relevance. So did the Huskies’ long-overdue return to the Big East a couple years later. And yet while UConn returned to the NCAA tournament in 2021 and 2022, the program hadn’t yet come close to recapturing the dominance and intimidation factor of the bygone era.

That much was obvious in February 2022 when UConn notched its first victory of the Hurley era over Villanova. Fans at the XL Center responded by storming the court, a celebration that felt beneath a program of UConn’s stature.

UConn took a massive leap forward this season thanks to the development of multifaceted big man Adama Sanogo, catch-and-shoot specialist Jordan Hawkins and do-it-all wing Andre Jackson. Hurley also added key complementary pieces to that core, acquiring point guard Tristen Newton and sharpshooter Joey Calcaterra via the transfer portal and signing freshmen Donovan Clingan and Alex Karaban.

That core has turned UConn into UConn again. That was obvious on Saturday night with every Hawkins 3-pointer, every Sanogo pass out of a double team, every Jackson hustle play. Hawkins even emphasized it by flexing the UConn across the front of his jersey after a late step-back 3-pointer.

"UConn's back!" he said after the game.

"Back!" Jackson echoed. "Back, but we never left."

Awaiting UConn in Houston will be a trio of fellow survivors of this upset-riddled NCAA tournament bracket. The Huskies' national semifinal opponent will be the winner of Sunday’s Midwest regional final between No. 2 Texas and No. 5 Miami. Looming on the other side of the bracket is Florida Atlantic, San Diego State and Creighton.

Can any of those teams push UConn for longer than its four West region opponents did? It won't be easy.

"We got a lot to prove," Jackson said. "We still have a chip on our shoulder."