LAS VEGAS – One by one, they climbed the steps of the ladder, the final steps to the plateau to which they had all promised to reach, came to UConn to reach.
With each step, UConn players and coaches thought about what got them into the Final Four, the motivation, the pressure to succeed. Coach Dan Hurley, the basketball lifer from the basketball family, thought about the players who have come through UConn these past five years, and his father, the legendary high school coach, who has been in attendance at each of the last 30 or so Final Fours.
“There was a lot of internal pressure,” he said. “My Dad’s getting older, he’s had some health things. I felt some pressure to have my Dad go to a Final Four and watch his son.”
Donovan Clingan, the freshman from Bristol, thought about his mother, Stacey, who was lost to breast cancer five years ago.
“I want to make my Mom proud and I know she was smiling down,” he said. “I was thinking, ‘we really did this,’ but in the back of my head, I know we’re not done yet.”Others thought of all the times they watched this March ritual on TV and imagined themselves ascending the steps and snipping down the net a piece at a time.
“Man, it was something I never felt before,” said Jordan Hawkins, the Most Outstanding Player in the Huskies’ romp through the NCAA’s West Regional, which ended with an 82-54 victory over Gonzaga on Saturday night. “Watching it on TV, seeing guys do it. This was my first time cutting down a net. My family being here to see it was extra special.”
Climbing to the Final Four and cutting down net is expected to be an annual occurrence for the players and coaches who represent the durable, resilient UConn basketball brand. The women’s team, bidding for a 15th straight trip to the Final Four, came up short earlier in the day, losing to Ohio State in the Round of 16. The men, who last made it this far in 2014, when both won the championship, assured the nation that there would not be a Final Four staged without UConn colors.
“These are the biggest shoes in the country to fill, playing for UConn,” Andre Jackson Jr. said. “That moment (on the ladder), I looked up, and I was like, ‘Yo. We’re going to the Final Four.’ But I’m also hungry for more.”
Again, this is the plateau, the national stage every team strives to reach. The next ladder leads to the sport’s very peak, and that will be contested in Houston, where UConn will play either Miami or Texas in the semifinal next Saturday night.
The UConn men’s program has reached college basketball’s biggest weekend six times, coming home with the national championship in 1999, 2004, 2011 and 2014. Hurley was hired in 2018, after the program’s first losing seasons in 30 years, and steadily restored it. He led the Huskies back to the tournament in 2021 and ’22, but they lost in the Round of 64.
This season, UConn was unheralded, or at least unranked, going in, but won its first 14 games, including three impressive wins in the Phil Knight Invitational in Portland in November, establishing that something like this was possible.
When they lost six of eight in January, and came up short in the Big East Tournament March 10, there were questions. Did this team have the inner iron of its predecessors? Could Hurley get through a tournament without his emotions getting the better of him, and his team?
Now, the Huskies (29-8) have proven themselves under the most intense conditions, winning their first four tournament games by margins of 24, 15, 23 and 28 points. It’s supposed to get harder as a team goes deeper into March Madness, but the Huskies, a No. 4 seed, have made it look easier each step of the way.
When they gathered before the Elite Eight game, Clingan said, there was not a word spoken as players got dressed. “You could see on everyone’s face, we were just locked in,” he said.
As Hurley spelled out the scouting report one last time, his voice cracked and Jackson saw a tear when they made eye contact. This was the moment.
“I love coaching this team,” Hurley said. “I’ve gotten emotional. Andre saw me crying before the game, I think, right, in there, because I just can’t think about coaching this group for the last time.”
Gonzaga, the No.3 seed in the West and perennial title contender, were rendered utterly hapless, scoring 33 points below their best-in-the-nation average of 87. The Huskies delivered the knock-out blow in the early minutes of the second half.
Not even the best of UConn’s past teams has ever gotten this far this easily.
“We just rise to the occasion,” freshman Alex Karaban said. “We’re such a special group, we have a personality that we just live for those bright lights. We knew this was a big-time game, we knew what Gonzaga was capable of, and I can’t believe what we did out there. To hold Gonzaga to 54 points is unheard of.”
When Hurley reached the top of the ladder, he picked up the scissors, then put it down and ripped the net off the rim, the perfect metaphor for the way his team ripped away the West Regional.
“He deserves it, man,” Hawkins said. “He turned this program all the way around and brought UConn back to the standard. I’m very proud of him, and I love him to death.”
It’s not the end. There is one more ladder to climb, one more net to cut down, the one that comes with reaching the very top, but for those who invest so much of their life in pursuit, this moment was a validation that cannot be taken away.
“We made it to the Final Four, and I can’t wait,” Jackson said. “I can’t wait. I can’t wait to play. This is not going to take away from our hunger. We’re playing for a coach that’s ruthless. He’s going to go with us to the end.”
