It has been quite the NCAA Tournament so far. We have officially made it to the 2023 National Championship where we get an interesting matchup between a four-seed in the UConn Huskies and a five-seed in the San Diego State Aztecs. It’s not the blue blood matchup we had in North Carolina and Kansas which gave us a memorable comeback and an excellent finish but nonetheless, this game has some interesting aspects to it. We’ve got one final game of the season where whoever wins will see their coach win his first national championship and cement his place in history. So let’s dive into what happened and recap it all.
2023 National Championship
Coming into this game there was a belief that it could be an ugly slog of a game. San Diego State tends to muck up most games with their defense and offensively they aren’t the most electric offense. That wasn’t the case though as both teams came out knocking down jumpers and scoring with ease. Eventually, UConn was able to speed up the pace and get things rolling and the Aztecs eventually went about 10 minutes without making a field goal. One couldn’t help but think that UConn should have been up much more, including Danny Hurley himself who believed they could have been up 20 in his halftime interview. UConn had a bit of foul trouble and turnovers kept them from truly breaking the game open in the first half.
The Huskies were having fun out there in the first half ? @UConnMBB #MarchMadness #NationalChampionship pic.twitter.com/q12CdAJJhc
— NCAA March Madness (@MarchMadnessMBB) April 4, 2023
The second half for a bit looked like UConn may cruise to their fifth national title in a matter of 25 years. But just like Saturday night vs FAU, San Diego State refused to go quietly. A nine-to-nothing run in a matter of two minutes brought the Aztecs back to within single digits, a place they hadn’t been since the score was in the teens. The Aztecs just couldn’t seem to climb that final hurdle and make it a one-possession game though as the Huskies continued to answer with big shots or at the free throw line. The Huskies being in the bonus with 13 minutes to go was a major issue for San Diego State as they weren’t allowed to play overly physical tonight, especially when grabbing at cutters.
HERE COME THE AZTECS ?#MarchMadness @Aztec_MBB pic.twitter.com/3T5vyLG5Yd
— NCAA March Madness (@MarchMadnessMBB) April 4, 2023
UConn showed great poise down the stretch and continued to get great shots allowing them to stretch things out a bit. They dominated coming out of the under-four timeout and never let San Diego State make any sort of run. With that, they captured their fifth national title in a matter of 25 years under three different coaches. It’s an incredible achievement and well deserved as they were the most dominant team in the entire tournament. With that, UConn are national champions doing so by winning every game by double-digits. Adama Sanogo was named the Final Four Most Outstanding Player and helps cement UConn as a true Blue Blood of the sport.
