STORRS – The UConn men’s basketball program earned its first-ever No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament after its 31-3 regular season and dual Big East championships.
The path to back-to-back national titles is set to begin at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, as head coach Dan Hurley manifested before the season, where the Huskies will meet 16-seed Stetson at 2:45 p.m. on Friday (CBS). Should they avoid a first round upset as the top seed in the East Region, the Huskies would meet the winner of 8-seed Florida Atlantic and 9-seed Northwestern with a chance to advance to the Sweet 16 in Boston.
“Once that selection show is over, everything is just meaningless now. It’s matchups, it’s who you’re playing, it’s win that next game,” Hurley said. “Everyone’s just trying to survive and advance, win and advance in this tournament so a lot of extra motivational things that maybe exist during the regular season go out the window when you get to this time of year. Because everyone’s giving their absolute best to keep their season going.”
Iowa State, Illinois and Auburn round out the top four seeds, respectively, in the East Region.
Hurley said the mood, after winning the Big East Tournament and cutting down nets the night before the Selection Show, was much better than it was last year, when the group lost in the Big East semifinal.
“We definitely feel lighter, I think that the staff and the players do. It’s heavy to play at UConn, I’m not even sure if it is a benefit to fly under the radar because if you’re in a program that flies under the radar, eventually you’re going to get to a pressure point in a big game,” he said.
“The benefit of playing and coaching at UConn is the expectations are so high so the pressure’s always on. So going into NCAA Tournament games, I think we wear the pressure well now. And doing what we did last year and having the season we’ve had this year, I think there’s a confidence about us. Obviously we’re vulnerable like any other team in the country when we don’t play to our identity, but I think we’re a more joyful group going into this tournament than we were last year.”
It is the sixth time UConn enters the NCAA Tournament as a 1-seed, including 1999, when it won its first national championship and the first time since 2009, when it lost in the Final Four.
Hurley’s Huskies are looking to become the first back-to-back national champions since Florida in 2006-07 and only the third program to win in consecutive years since UCLA in 1973, when only 25 teams were in the field.
On the back of last year’s national title, UConn enters this year’s tournament in the midst of one of the best seasons in program history. The Huskies have already matched last season’s win total with 31, including a Big East record 18 in conference play that clinched their first outright regular season title in 25 years. Saturday’s Big East Tournament championship was the program’s eighth, which also ties a Big East record.
“Our confidence level is way higher now coming off a win and coming off competing against some of the best teams in the country this past week,” redshirt sophomore Alex Karaban said. “We can’t look too far ahead, we can’t start thinking about other teams, we can’t start thinking about other matchups or else we’re gonna disrespect the other opponent. So we’re really just staying day-by-day and in the moment.”
Stetson (22-12), coached by Donnie Jones, earned its first-ever an automatic bid after winning the Atlantic Sun conference tournament, in which they competed as a 2-seed. The Hatters are led by four players who averaged in double-figure scoring for the season, including guard Jalen Blackmon (21.5) and 6-foot-11 Belgian center Aubin Gateretse, who averages 11.8 points and 7.6 rebounds per game.
The Huskies’ side of the bracket includes three of last year’s Final Four teams with Florida Atlantic and 5-seed San Diego State, who UConn beat in the title game.
“I know I saw a couple teams who we were in the Final Four with last year,” Hurley said. “Stetson’s an excellent offensive team, an excellent 3-point shooting team. Blackmon is one of the better guards that we’ll have played against this year, so they didn’t do us any favors certainly. Every game in this tournament now with Covid extra year, transfer portal, every game in this tournament’s tough.”
Big East only receives three bids for second time ever
Only three Big East teams received NCAA Tournament bids with UConn joined by Marquette, the 2-seed in the South region, and Creighton, 3-seed in the Midwest. Seton Hall, which holds wins over UConn and Marquette, was among the first four out.
It is only the second time (1993) since the Tournament expanded that the Big East received only three bids.
“The whole thing is just kind of a shell game. It just really comes down to what the committee values,” Hurley said. “To me, I just don’t understand how a Providence team could beat Wisconsin in the nonconference, Creighton, Marquette, and have those quality of wins and not get in. How does Seton Hall do what they did in the second-rated conference in the country, win 13 games and not get in? How is St. John’s so far off of the cutline to get in?
“I’ve said this a lot too, though, when we do Big East awards and all those different things, the Big East season starts in November. It doesn’t start when conference play starts. We’ve got to win big nonconference games and everyone across the board, the league up and down has got to be strong.”
Yale the only other Connecticut program in, also in the East
Yale, the 13-seed in the East Region is the only other Connecticut program in the NCAA Tournament and will meet Auburn in the first round. The Bulldogs (22-9) took down Brown on Sunday to win the Ivy League Tournament.
“We’re just excited to play,” coach James Jones said. “ I know Auburn is going to be a very tough opponent. They have a lot of the same players they had when we lost to them a few years back. We’re excited to go out to Spokane and hopefully have a great first round game.”