GLENDALE, Ariz. — The Final Four this week delivers the last entry in college basketball’s heartwarming yearbook, an annual assortment of legendary longshots, coaches looking for hugs and magic oozing from every corner of the bracket.
Only problem with the 2024 version: UConn doesn’t believe in magic.
The only thing that has come close to stopping the Huskies on their march to a second straight title so far has been an uncooperative airliner. Coach Dan Hurley and his players, who have won their four tournament games by an average of 27.8 points, finally arrived in Phoenix at 3:15 a.m. Thursday after a nightmare mix of mechanical issues and bad weather left them hanging in the terminal for hours.
Awaiting UConn - nothing but feel-good stories.
-Purdue, led by 7-foot-4 Zach Edey, is back at the Final Four for the first time since 1980, trying to win a title a season after becoming only the second team in history to be bounced in the first round as a No. 1 seed.
-Alabama, which plays UConn on Saturday, is in the program’s first Final Four after a complete rebuild of a roster that was supposed to make a deep run last season, then lost nine players to the pros, the transfer portal and graduation.
-And then there’s North Carolina State. The Wolfpack is back in a reboot of 1983, only instead of coach Jim Valvano rushing the court, looking for someone to hug after winning the title, this year’s mascot is 6-foot-9, 275-pound DJ Burns Jr., the center with the mile-wide smile and, some say, potential in both the NFL and the NBA.
“We expected to be here. I know people don’t believe that,” coach Kevin Keatts said. “But in our mind as a team, this is not a fluke.”
The Wolfpack did the same as the ‘83 squad, staring down a weekend’s worth of must-win games in the ACC Tournament simply to qualify for the NCAAs. That ‘83 squad might have been the first to inscribe “Cinderella” into the March Madness dictionary, though it’s hardly the only team that rode momentum and dreams en route to a championship no one saw coming.
Some might say Alabama fits the same mold. Crimson Tide coach Nate Oats had only three players returning from last year’s top-seeded team, which went out in the Sweet 16.
“We turned to the transfer portal,” Oats said.
In came Grant Nelson (North Dakota State), Latrell Wrightsell Jr. (Cal State Fullerton) and Aaron Estrada (from Hofstra, via Oregon and St. Peter’s). By the time March rolled around, Alabama was getting it together - taking a football school to a place it has never been in basketball.
Purdue has the reigning Player of the Year in Edey, but a year ago, that couldn’t prevent the Boilermakers from joining the 2018 Virginia team as only the second No. 1 seed to exit in the first round. A lot of teams might have rebuilt. Purdue mostly decided to stand pat.
“I’ve always dove into what we’re doing and tried to pick at what we’re doing to make improvements,” coach Matt Painter said. “When you get beat in the first round of the NCAA Tournament by a 16 seed, that doesn’t change anything.”
Great as all these stories are, the stark reality is that nothing - other than the airplane - has been making much of a dent in UConn this year. The Huskies are 35-3. They have won their last 10 tournament games, dating to last season, by 13 points or more. They have had at least a 30-point lead in all four March Madness games this year.
Even with the short night’s rest on the way in, they are an 11 1/2-point favorite against the Crimson Tide on Saturday and a heavy favorite (minus-185) to win it all.
Hurley has been fairly blunt about acknowledging that if his team plays the way it’s supposed to, the Huskies will be hard to beat.
And besides, he said before last week’s 25-point thumping of Illinois, “we suck at winning close games, so you have to go with the alternative.”
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