UConn heads to 9th straight Final Four after beating Texas

Associated PressMar 28, 2016, 11:48 PM EDT

AP Photo

BRIDGEPORT, Conn. (AP) UConn’s headed back to the Final Four again thanks to its stellar senior class of Breanna Stewart, Morgan Tuck and Moriah Jefferson.

The All-American trio took over when Texas was making a run in the third quarter to help UConn to the 86-65 victory Monday night, sending the Huskies to the national semifinals.

“We’re the seniors, and we’ve got to make big plays in big moments,” said Jefferson, who had 11 points and nine assists. “They were on a run, and we really needed to step up.”

Tuck scored 22 points and Stewart added 21 points and 13 rebounds for UConn, which is headed to the Final Four for the ninth straight time. The Huskies will be trying for a record fourth consecutive national championship.

“Nine times is a lot of Final Fours,” UConn coach Geno Auriemma said. “That’s a lot. That’s a lot of players over a lot of years. It’s not easy to do.”

The victory, UConn’s 73rd straight overall, was also the school’s 22nd consecutive one in the postseason, breaking a tie with Tennessee for the most in a row. Two more victories will give Auriemma an 11th title, moving him past vaunted UCLA men’s coach John Wooden for most all-time in college basketball history.

“We’re really excited to go to the Final Four,” said Stewart, who was selected as the Most Outstanding Player of the regional. “I think that any time you go, it’s a lot of fun, there’s a lot going on. … This is our last trip with this team. Last time to be with this team. And I think we’re just going to enjoy it. Especially as seniors. Last time it’s going to be like this.”

The Huskies will join Final Four newcomers Syracuse and Washington in Indianapolis this weekend.

UConn will play Oregon State in the national semifinals Sunday night.

Making the Final Four seemed like a foregone conclusion the way UConn has played this season, winning every game by double digits. The Huskies even stepped up their play in the regionals. They shattered their record when they routed Mississippi State in the Sweet 16 by an NCAA-best 60 points.

This was the second straight year that the Huskies (36-0) ended the Longhorns’ season. UConn beat Texas (31-5) by a then-record 51 points last season in the Sweet 16. Texas made it one step further this season before falling to the Huskies again.

Unlike that game which was basically over by the half, the Longhorns hung around with the Huskies on Monday night.

“I can’t say enough about how proud I am of our basketball team,” Texas coach Karen Aston said. “It’s a tough night for us, lots of seniors, lots of tears, lots of people that didn’t want it to end. It’s a significantly different looking team and different locker room than it was last year, we played our last game.”

They only trailed 30-25 with 7:21 left in the second quarter before Stewart started a 12-1 run that blew the game open. Freshman Naphessa Collier was big in the game-changing spurt, scoring five straight points. Her classmate Katie Lou Samuelson hit a 3-pointer to cap the burst.

The Huskies led by 15 at the half and extended the advantage to 21 early in the third quarter, but the Longhorns hit three straight 3s to come within 54-42. That’s as close as they would get as UConn scored 10 of the next 13 points to put the game away. The Huskies’ big three combined for all 10 points.

Stewart and Jefferson, who were first-team All-Americans, and second-teamer Tuck scored all but two of the Huskies’ points the rest of the way until they left to a loud ovation from the sellout crowd with 1:38 left in the game.

“It was me, Morgan and Moriah saying, all right, we have to do this, we have to take over, we have to take control,” Stewart said. “We’re the most experienced and we’re the ones that should do it.”

And they did.

Ariel Atkins and Lashann Higgs scored 19 points each to lead the Longhorns.

CARE TO MAKE A WAGER?: So much talk over the past 24 hours has been centered on UConn’s dominance in the sport and whether it’s good for the game. Well that dominance has carried over to Vegas where the Huskies were such a prohibitive money line favorite that bettors had to wager $63,000 just to return $100 on the game, according to gambling odds website Pregame.com. A money line win on Texas would mean $21,000 for a bettor wagering $100. The line was even more lopsided when it opened, meaning some bettors were taking the long shot Longhorns.

TIP-INS:

Texas: The Longhorns fell to 0-7 against the Huskies, including four losses in the NCAA Tournament. … Imani Boyette finished her stellar career as the only player in school history to have more than 1,000 points, 1,000 rebounds and 200 blocks.

UConn: Auriemma has 107 NCAA Tournament victories which puts him five behind Pat Summitt for most all time by any coach in women’s or men’s basketball. … The Huskies’ senior class is one victory behind matching Maya Moore and Lorin Dixon for most victories all time. The class of 2011 had 150 wins.

2023 March Madness: When is Selection Sunday?

By Mary OmatigaMar 12, 2023, 1:00 PM EDT

The 2023 March Madness action tips off on Tuesday, March 14 through Monday, April 3 for the men, while the Women’s Tournament begins on Wednesday, March 15 and runs through Tuesday, April 2. 68 teams will go head-to-head for a chance to be crowned national champions. It all starts off with Selection Sunday where seeds and matchups for the men’s and women’s events will be revealed. See below for additional information on how to watch the event.

When is Selection Sunday?

Selection Sunday takes place this Sunday, March 12. Teams and seeds for the Men’s Tournament will be revealed at 6 PM ET (CBS). The women’s full tournament bracket will be revealed at 8 PM ET (ESPN).

How can I watch the Men’s 2023 March Madness Tournament?

Games for the Men’s Tournament will be available on the networks of TBS, TNT, TruTV, and CBS. Viewers can also live stream the 2023 March Madness tournament on the NCAA’s website.

How can I watch the Women’s Tournament?

The Women’s Tournament will be available on ESPN. See below for the full schedule of events.

2023 March Madness Schedule:

Men’s Tournament:

Selection Sunday: Sunday, March 12
First Four: March 14-15
First Round: March 16-17
Second Round: March 18-19
Sweet 16: March 23-24
Elite Eight: March 25-26
Final Four: April 1
NCAA Championship Game: April 3

Women’s Tournament:

First Four: March 15-16
First Round: March 17-18
Second Round: March 19-20
Sweet 16: March 24-25
Elite Eight: March 26-27
Final Four: Friday, March 31 (7 PM and 9:30 PM ET/ ESPN)
Women’s NCAA Championship Game: Sunday, April 2 (3 PM ET/ ABC)

With Boeheim’s Departure, A College Basketball Coaching Era Nears its End

By Tim LaydenMar 10, 2023, 11:00 AM EST

Late Wednesday afternoon in Greensboro, North Carolina, Jim Boeheim’s tenure as head coach of basketball at Syracuse came to a befuddling and resoundingly ignominious finish. Or it came to the most appropriate end imaginable, depending on your perspective and home address. Confusing, because it remains uncertain whether Boeheim retired, was retired or forced out, parted ways or was effectively fired. (This may remain a mystery). Fitting, because his last public appearance, in the postgame press conference after a 77-74 loss to Wake Forest in the ACC Tournament, was prickly and cryptic in a way that many will see as classically Boeheimian – giving no quarter and revealing little, stubborn and borderline immature (no small feat at the age of 78), almost funny, but not quite. (It was appropriate that all of this happened in Greensboro, a place where neither Syracuse nor Boeheim ever belonged, in a conference with which he won’t be enduringly associated).

Also: The passage of time will render all of these details insignificant, likely sooner than later. They will be replaced by more enduring ones: Boeheim arrived as a walk-on player in Syracuse in 1962, and eventually coached his alma mater for 47 years and 1,557 games. These are preposterous numbers. His teams went to the NCAA Tournament 35 times, reached five Final Fours, won the national championship in 2003 and on two other occasions lost in the championship game. It’s a fool’s errand to rank coaches across eras, but Boeheim is on whatever short list you might construct. He was deservedly elected to the Hall of Fame 18 years ago.

It is worth noting the moment of Boeheim’s departure, not just as a passage of great and unmistakable importance in Syracuse, but as another milepost of broader (and perhaps less obvious) significance in the college game writ large – the passing of a certain type of celebrity coach.

Drawing a timeline of a sport’s relevance is a slippery operation at best, educated guesswork at the vagaries of cultural preferences. There are absolutes in this discussion: The NFL is now king, boxing and horse racing are relics of a distant past, hockey has a ceiling, college football’s religiosity is so intense that it turns a regional game into a national one. After that: You’re on your own to a large degree.

But there are fuzzy truths: College basketball’s modern-era popularity (I’m leaving the UCLA Wooden era just prior) was built on a few things: The explosion of the NCAA Tournament that began in earnest with Bird vs. Magic in 1979 and began evolving into the brackets/buzzer-beaters/upsets extravaganza of today, two years later on the second Saturday in March, when NBC introduced the country en masse to the cutaway moment, three times. (I wrote about this afternoon for Sports Illustrated a decade ago and stand by its relevance, the shoulders upon which everything March Madness-related stands today).

And in that same era, something else: The Cult of the Coach. Maybe it’s fair to argue that it began with Wooden, but his career unfolded in the pre-cable age, with no more than a few regular season UCLA games available for a wide audience (and seemingly most of those against Notre Dame). Wooden’s run – 10 titles in 12 years and seven straight from 1967-’73 – unfolded in the print journalism era. When he appeared on television in horn-rimmed glasses, with a program rolled up in his hand, never calling timeouts, it was akin to seeing Nixon at the supermarket – a figure from the newspaper come to life.

And it’s equally fair to argue that first manifestly famous coach of the television era was Marquette’s Al McGuire, who won his only national title on a Monday night in 1977, cried on the bench, promptly retired and became the sport’s first celebrity announcer, Madden before Madden. (If I have to tell you what an aircraft carrier is, or French pastry, well, we can’t be friends).

The real and true rise of the coach as architect of an unspoken college basketball business and media strategy coincided with the birth of the Big East Conference, a story oft-told and by now enmeshed in cobwebs, but a valuable one nevertheless. The league played on Monday nights on ESPN and despite a deep roster of talent – Patrick Ewing, Chris Mullin, Ed Pinckney, Pearl Washington, Ray Allen, and so many others – the coaches were made the stars. In the first generation there were John Thompson at Georgetown, Lou Carnesecca at St. John’s, Rollie Massimino at Villanova, and of course, Boeheim. They battled each other for recruits, referees’ whistles, and, subtly, TV time. They were the central characters in a recurring drama.

Generations followed: Rick Pitino at Providence and Jim Calhoun at Connecticut, who ultimately won more NCAA titles than anyone else from the league.

The celebrity-making was not limited to the Big East. There were Dean Smith at North Carolina, Jim Valvano at North Carolina State (whose hug-chasing run after winning the ’83 title remains a March highlight staple), and of course, Mike Krzyzewski at Duke. Elsewhere: Bobby Knight at Indiana, Jerry Tarkanian at UNLV, Roy Williams at Kansas and then at North Carolina. In the even more modern era: Billy Donovan at Florida, Tom Izzo at Michigan State, John Calipari at Kentucky, Bill Self at Kansas, and Jay Wright at Villanova, whose reaction to Kris Jenkins’s game-winning three in the 2016 national title game might be both the peak of the Power Coach Era and its last gasp. (Pat Summit, Geno Auriemma, Kim Mulkey, Tara VanDerveer, Muffet McGraw and Dawn Staley belong on this list, too).

Let’s be clear: These were – and are — all excellent coaches, deserving of praise. And their players were excellent. But on game night, they prowled the sideline as if playing Richard III on the London Stage. They commanded massive salaries, giant shoe company deals and ruled small – and not-so-small – kingdoms with impunity. (Yes, football is bigger, but that very scale is what makes the coach oddly smaller, surrounded by the barely contained chaos of a sideline, overwhelmed by cavernous stadiums. Like we don’t see a football player’s face, we don’t see a football coach’s soul, the way we saw Boeheim’s grimace all these years).

Gradually most of them have left, though a diminished Pitino remains at Iona; Calipari, Izzo, Self (with a real chance at another title this year). But inexorably, the game has been returned to the athletes. The coaches still make money (but now, in the NIL era, so do the players). In some ways the change is subtle – Mick Cronin can perform with the best of his forebears, but the evolution of the sport has made him less king, and more partner. Same with Mark Few, Kelvin Sampson and Scott Drew. The game is the thing; it no longer needs to mythologize the coach. We are in the age of athlete empowerment at the college level, a good and fair thing.

The old system both elevated Boeheim and caricatured him. It made him a star, and a foil, wincing and groaning behind his professorial spectacles, and then conducting dismissive, theatrically unrevealing and combative Belichickian pressers. Much of it he brought upon himself, but as with Belichick, a chunk of it was for show. Away from a dais, Boeheim was insightful, frank, funny. And he loves basketball. I interviewed him once as he rode an exercise bike and talked about his days hooping in the Eastern Professional League for the Scranton Miners. “Once I drove back to Syracuse from Scranton,” Boeheim told me, “And it was snowing so hard I had to open the door and follow the guardrails to see where I saw going.”

He liked good players and kept his rotation tight to keep those good players on the floor. “Dean Smith used to have his ‘blue team,’” Boeheim told me, referring to the full-five subs Smith once employed. “I loved when he put those guys in, because there’s a reason they aren’t starting.” (As an aside, a small piece of my spirit will always think of Boeheim as the one counselor at Dolph Schayes’ Basketball Camp in the 1960s who campers did not want to get sideways with, lest they wind up doing pushups on the planks of a bunk floor; but also as a hellacious competitor in pickup games that often included NBA players).

He’ll be known in perpetuity as a guy who loved a cold and cloudy place – Syracuse – that many others only tolerated, or less. He was one with it. In 2003, in what would become his national championship year, I arranged to meet him at his office for an interview; I arrived early and his assistant called Boeheim, who was still at home; 10 minutes later he walked in, tossed his jacket over a chair and sat down to talk. That is a convenient life that he embraced. He did not build Syracuse basketball from scratch, but he made it bigger, and gave it endurance. Adrian Autry has a job ahead of him to sustain it.

Boeheim, meanwhile, exits as one of the last of his kind, part of an era that is nearly gone.

Tim Layden is writer-at-large for NBC Sports. He was previously a senior writer at Sports Illustrated for 25 years.