The National Championship marks the end of a five-month long college basketball season. That's always a little bittersweet because you know there are certain things that you won't see or hear for a while. No drunk Bill Raftery yelling "ONIONS!". No referees taking 10 minutes to decide whether an extra two-tenths of a second should be added to the clock. No Lily from AT&T appearing on your screen every 30 seconds to do some lame ad that she appears to really hate doing herself. (Note: The CBS/TNT guys were brutal on Lily this year. Just openly stating how annoying the ads had become. Poor Lily.)
But there was one thing that was going away forever after Monday night. Jim Nantz was calling it a career as far as calling Final Four games was concerned. Nantz had become the Pat Summerall of March Madness, that soothing voice who guided you through the game as the John Maddens (Billy Packer/Bill Raftery) provided the more animated moments of the broadcast. And just as Nantz would always have a closing phrase lined up as the Masters winner sank his final putt, he would have one ready as the final seconds ticked off the clock in the national championship game every year. But the 2023 national championship was all about a sendoff to the voice of the Final Four, fittingly in his adopted hometown of Houston. He received several standing ovations over the weekend. And the last line of his broadcast was less about the team who won (no spoilers yet!) and more about staying true to himself. The guy who famously welcomes the audience with "hello friends" had a fitting farewell line for himself, hanging up his headset with "thank you for being my friend". Nantz will still be anchoring coverage of the Masters this upcoming weekend and, who knows, maybe he will actually break out the Nantz Dance in a future Capital One commercial with Samuel L Jackson, Spike Lee, and Charles Barkley. But his last college basketball call would be this national title tilt between Connecticut and San Diego State.
Would the Aztecs be the first team to give the Huskies a real battle? Early on, it seemed like that might be the case. I had predicted that this would almost certainly be a low-scoring affair, but San Diego State had jumped out to a 10-8 lead before this game hit the first TV timeout. The Aztecs were on pace for 100! Well, at least for 4 minutes they were. After that first TV timeout, San Diego State's shots stopped falling. Part of it was due to the interior intimidation provided by Connecticut's big men. Drives to the lane were rushed and shots were arched much higher than usual to avoid being swatted away by the Huskies giants down low. As those shots began to miss, San Diego State resorted to shooting from beyond the arc, which really wasn't their specialty. Connecticut wasn't exactly putting on a clinic on the offensive end as the Aztecs play pretty stingy D themselves, but they were putting the ball through the hoop occasionally. As for San Diego State, they would go 11 minutes before connecting from the field again. By then, Connecticut's lead was double digits and the Aztecs were in the same kind of trouble that the Huskies' first 5 opponents had found themselves in. And when teams got desperate against Connecticut, they simply ended up digging a deeper hole for themselves.
No sequence was more emblematic of this than the one that occurred with just over 3 minutes left in the first half. San Diego State had just hit a three pointer to trim the lead from 16 to 13. And now they had knocked the ball away out on the perimeter to generate an easy fast break opportunity. Darrion Trammell, the Aztec who had saved them in their nail-biting win over Creighton, had no one in front of him and could cruise in for an easy layup. But he saw a Connecticut player chasing after him. Rather than take the gimme 2, he decided there was an opportunity to get 3 points on this play. He slowed up and tried to lure the defender into fouling him as he laid the ball into the hoop. Except he didn't get fouled. And he missed the layup. Connecticut's Joey Calcaterra grabbed the rebound, pushed the ball up court and passed it to teammate Andre Jackson Jr. near the three point line. Jackson caught the ball and deftly dropped behind his back while simultaneously facing the hoop and setting a pick on an Aztec defender. Calcaterra was ready for this slick pass, rose up, and drained an open 3 to re-establish the lead to 16 points. It was a 5 point play that went against San Diego State and killed off any momentum they may have been building.
The lead was 12 at halftime, but Connecticut's super power in this tournament has been running away and hiding in the first few minutes of the second half of every game. But give the Aztecs credit as they didn't allow that to happen. San Diego State wasn't doing much to cut into the lead, but they had renewed energy on the defensive end, which is where they excelled. In essence, they were buying time. The Huskies were used to having the game put away with 12 minutes to go, but the Aztecs were hanging around in that 10-12 points down range. After another Calcaterra three increased Connecticut's lead to 15, San Diego State finally found an offensive rhythm. They would score the next 9 points to creep within 6. And with just over 5 minutes to go, they would draw within 5 points at 60-55.
Despite the Aztec run, Connecticut never looked truly fazed. There was no panic. There was no real change in how they ran their offense. It was simply a look of "keep doing what got us here and we'll be fine". And they were. After San Diego State got within 5, the Huskies came down the floor and drained a three pointer to increase the lead back to 8. And despite there being about five minutes to play, that shot felt like the dagger. It was the moment where Connecticut seemed to let the Aztecs know that they weren't going to get close enough to make a last second play to win as they had done in their previous two games. The Huskies would end the game on a 16-4 run to win the national title by a score of 76-59. It was one of the most dominant runs we've seen in this tournament and almost certainly the most dominant run of a team that wasn't a top seed. Congratulations to Connecticut as they win their 5th national championship!
Other champions crowned on Monday night included Christopher, who didn't have to worry about 166 total points in the title game once San Diego State quit playing offense for 11 minutes of the first half. He gets the crown in the Main Pool, where I finished second and Fred Alcaro finished third. As for the Gamblers Pool, I will always be mystified how I came in first despite picking my beloved Wolfpack and watching them bow out in round 1. I guess if there is enough chaos, any outcome can kinda/sorta make sense. Christopher gets the runner-up spot in that pool with Natalie Schweitzer rounding out the podium.
The final standings can be found here.
I hope all of you enjoyed this year's epic version of March Madness where absolutely no team was safe. Well, unless your team's gym is located in Storrs, Connecticut. I want to thank you all for playing, thank you all for reading (or at least pretending to read), and thank you all for laughing (obviously pretending to laugh). It means a lot to me that so many people look forward to this pool as their connection to March Madness, my favorite sporting event of the year.
So until next year, it's time to sign off. Goodbye friends.
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