There was only one part of the network to be cut off. But after the UConn coach reached for the scissors, he stopped and returned them to the owner. Hurley, rather, the thread from the hoop, Raised it like a trophy, He grasped the edge with both hands, Shaking with anger and ecstasy in equal parts.
It was the perfect metaphor for his No. The 4 seed Huskies rampaged through the Western Conference, which began with Saturday’s 82-54 demolition of No. 3 Gonzaga was complete last night, sending UConn to its sixth Final Four next week against the winner of Miami on Sunday. -Texas Midwest Region final

“When we first played, we were very unique with what we had with Adama [Sanogo] and these two wings [Jordan Hawkins and Andre Jackson Jr.], and then you look at [Donovan] Clingan coming in. at 7-2 and directing the bench, Hurley said. “We’re an elite defensive team. We’re a top-five team and we usually beat other teams on the glass.
“And sometimes, when people see us for the first time, it’s overwhelming.”
It was Gonzaga’s first time facing Connecticut since 2015.
Physically tough? Wait.
sane?
Well, if the disruption of the hotel will pass in the arrival and the trouble of disruption in the practice could not rattle the Huskies in their first vacation ever to Las Vegas — not to mention three players, including star forward Sanogo, fast. during the day to observe Ramadan – how does having a Gonzaga team during the day upend UConn at night?
It could not be done.
Consider: UConn’s 28-point victory was the largest in eight games since Cincinnati beat Memphis by 31 points in 1992. The Huskies became the 10th team to win each of their first four NCAA tournament games by at least 15 points, joining 2004. Huskies, who won the title. And UConn is the fifth team since 2000 to have a +90 point differential through the first four games of the tournament, along with 2021 Gonzaga (+96), 2009 UConn (+101), 2009 North Carolina (+90) and 2008 North Carolina (100).
It’s after one of six 3-pointers when Hawkins runs back down the court and pulls on his jersey, showing off the crowd’s letters on the front.
“My emotions all got me,” said Hawkins, who was named the region’s MVP after scoring a game-high 20 points. And just inflect ‘UCONN.’ UConn’s back.”
Jackson, who had a complete game with eight points, nine rebounds and 10 assists, chimed in: “But we never gave up.”
In fact, the Huskies left their footprint all over the regional, the first NCAA tournament ever played in Las Vegas. And they preceded Gonzaga in finishing the career of college All-American Drew Timme, who repeated this week that he would rather enter the NBA draft than perform in the fifth year of the games due to the coVID-19 pandemic.
Timme laid down the worst of the trouble, picking up the third and fourth wickets of 221 in the first innings. Gonzaga is down 10 points on the season. The fourth foul was seen mostly with an inadvertent elbow to Jackson’s head, but Timme went to the bench.
UConn would extend the lead to as much as 33 points with 3:48 to play.
Here we can say: What if? Right?” said Timme, who scored 12 points on just 5-of-14 shooting from the field and grabbed 10 rebounds in 32 minutes.
“What if they didn’t call the foul? But the bottom line was better tonight. They made more shots. They got 50-50 balls. In fact, do we want to say what-ifs, the refs didn’t control that game. They were the better team tonight.”
Timme, whom Hurley called “one of the best big guys to ever play college basketball,” finished his career as the NCAA tournament leader in 10th place history, finishing seven points out of fifth place.
But as Timme and Gonzaga head home, UConn heads to Houston.
“I couldn’t just sit around with three NBA players,” Hurley, in his fifth year at UConn, said as he nodded to Jackson, Sanogo and Hawkins. “We have to go to the final four.”