The UConn men’s basketball program has only faced San Diego State twice in its history. Both times have come in high-stakes games in the NCAA Tournament.
The Huskies and Aztecs will get together for a third time on Thursday, once again with the season on the line as they tangle in the Sweet 16 in Boston.
Here’s a look back at The Courant’s accounts of the first two matchups.
2023- National Championship Game
(4) UConn 76, (5) San Diego State
HOUSTON – Take the poster board trophy off the easel and make it three-dimensional.
In the Space City, UConn men’s basketball is back on top of the world.
The Huskies capped off their magical tournament mission with a 76-59 victory over San Diego State in Monday’s national championship game and are bringing their fifth real, gold-detailed walnut prize back to Storrs.
Adama Sanogo and point guard Tristen Newton each came up huge for UConn down the stretch in the second half, both finishing the game with double-doubles. Newton scored 19 points with 10 rebounds and four assists while Sanogo added 17 points and 10 rebounds.
Jordan Hawkins added 15 points as the Huskies secured a sixth-straight tournament win by double-digits, then shared long embraces as head coach Dan Hurley emptied his bench for the sixth-straight game.
“It feels great to come through on promises made by me to all the great people of Connecticut and then with these guys. This was our vision. This was our dream,” Hurley said. “This is what we talked about when we recruited these guys, that we could get together and do something big like this.”
Sanogo was named the Final Four’s Most Outstanding Player after averaging 19.7 points and 9.8 rebounds over the Huskies’ six tournament games. Newton and Hawkins, in addition to Sanogo, were named to the Final Four All-Tournament Team.
Both teams made four of their first five shots to start the game in front of a fairly split crowd of 72,423 at NRG Stadium. Tough shots falling everywhere, San Diego State had a 10-6 advantage but UConn’s defense tightened up and forced 14-straight missed field goals from the Aztecs over more than 11 minutes. The Huskies capitalized with a 20-7 run that gave them a 26-17 lead with about five minutes left in the first half.
Then Newton erupted. The junior transfer scored seven straight points capped off by a 3-pointer that caused pandemonium inside the packed NFL stadium. Fan favorite Joey Calcaterra followed it up with a 3-pointer in transition that extended UConn’s lead to 16 points, 36-20.
Hurley and his associate head coach Kimani Young had to jump the team after a fairly careless start to the second half – they each stomped on the sideline and roared: “WAKE UP.”
After San Diego State cut its deficit to 10, Hurley drew up a play for Alex Karaban on the wing that worked to perfection. With a quick release, Karaban’s first 3 of the game stopped the momentum slide.
The Aztecs’ defensive physicality kept UConn without a made field goal for six minutes after Karaban’s shot. Still, UConn was able to stave off the Aztecs and get up 15 thanks to 10 consecutive made free throws, four each from Newton and Sanogo and a pair from Alleyne.
Jaedon Ledee and the Aztecs stormed back with a 9-0 run with just under eight minutes left that brought UConn’s lead down to just six. UConn got it back up to nine but a pair of buckets from SDSU cut it back down to five as the Huskies struggled to get anything to fall from the field.
Then, Hawkins came off a screen and pulled up over two defenders from the top of the key, rattling home a 3-point shot that shifted the momentum right to left and allowed UConn Nation to take a collective deep breath. The Huskies used a 9-0 run over three minutes, highlighted by Newton and Sanogo, to get up 14 points with just over two minutes to go.
“Coach drew something up for me. I know he trusted me to make that shot, I had to make it,” Hawkins said. “Easy part. All credit to my teammates for getting me open on those screens and Coach for trusting me.”
Down five the UConn bench stood together, Donovan Clingan with a towel over his head, leaning back with anxious pain, watching the clock tick down. Joey Calcaterra and Andrew Hurley stood with their arms around each other’s shoulders and just over a minute left, Clingan waved his arms, Hawkins was fouled and egged on the Husky faithful before icing the game at the line.
“Coach has that (trophy printout) in the practice facility every single day,” said Alleyne. “I mean, he brings that with us just to remind us what the main mission is. He did that for every every trophy – the PK85, the regular season, the Big East tournament and the West Regional one – but we already knew this was the main one. The main goal. I mean everything else was side missions.”
UConn’s five national championships since 1999 (1999, 2004, 2011, 2014, 2023) are the most of any program over that span.
“We’re all champions and we worked for it and that’s never gonna go away, that’s what Coach said, ‘This immortalizes you,’” said Andre Jackson, who was a key reason for the team’s togetherness as co-captain. “No matter when I go, I mean, I’m always gonna be somewhere in UConn history and so are all these guys, we’re all gonna be remembered for what we did. And I feel like Coach Hurley is one of the best coaches in college basketball. A young and hungry dude with a great coaching staff so I wouldn’t be surprised if we make it back here. He’s a guy that’s gonna work his tail off to get back here, he’s not satisfied with this.”
2011- West Regional Semifinals
(3) UConn 74, (2) San Diego State 67
Kemba Walker, the spellbinding star who otherwise owned a two-hour period UConn fans will always cherish, would actually miss early and miss late.
Yes, what became one of the most impressive individual performances in UConn’s storied NCAA Tournament history was bookended with Walker’s tacit demands for some assistance in allowing this captivating season to live on.
That help came mostly from Jeremy Lamb, who eased the burden in the first half and rose above the pressure-packed moments down the stretch.
Walker so dominated this game that San Diego State players afterward essentially called him unstoppable, but the Huskies couldn’t exhale until Lamb’s clutch plays sealed a stirring 74-67 victory in the West Regional semifinals on Thursday night before 17,890 at the Honda Center.
“I don’t remember being through anything quite like this,” Calhoun said of this postseason magic carpet ride, which is now one victory from the Final Four. “This is a team that truly plays together. I hate to say this, but they’re an old-fashioned team. Kemba and Jeremy, they’re old-fashioned kids, which gives you pleasure, because you aren’t coaching egos.”
The third-seeded Huskies (29-9) are onto the Elite Eight, where two days after silencing thousands of fans who made the 90-minute drive to support the third-seeded Aztecs, they will put on their white jerseys and try to navigate a 40-minute marathon to Houston. Fifth-seeded Arizona defeated top-seeded and defending national champion Duke 93-77 in the other West semifinal.
“We won five games in five days in the Big East tournament, and everybody said we were going to be tired,” said Walker, who made 12 of 25 shots but missed his first four and his final three. “After that, everybody said it was going to affect us, and it hasn’t yet. We’re playing great basketball as a team. We have something huge in front of us. We have a huge goal, and we’re not going to let fatigue beat us. We’re going to overcome it. We have a team that is extremely mentally tough, and that’s going to get us over the hump.”
UConn led by nine at halftime and by nine after Walker capped a 16-3 run with a three-pointer to make it 65-56 with 4:49 left. San Diego State, which had its own magical season end at 34-3, raced back with eight consecutive points, and its sea of fans bounced and cheered as it had since well before tip-off.
After Lamb leaped high to intercept a pass by D.J. Gay, he got the ball back from Shabazz Napier and waltzed in alone for a dunk to push the UConn lead to six with 23 seconds left, and when Lamb dunked again with three seconds left for the final points, the building was silenced and the Huskies went skipping off the court, closer to their basketball dreams.
Lamb tied a career high with 24 points, making 9 of 11 shots and all three of his three-pointers. His performance was needed support for Walker, who scored 36 to tie Ben Gordon (2004 vs. Alabama) and Ray Allen (1995 vs. UCLA) for the most points scored by a UConn player in an NCAA game.
“He’s just an amazing player,” said Billy White, one of a few Aztecs who tried to guard Walker. “Almost impossible to stop.”
The Huskies had trouble with a hulking frontline, but held their own on the backboards (out-rebounded 37-35), shot 50 percent in the second half and made 8 of 16 three-pointers.
Gay, a guard, scored 16 points, all in the second half, for the Aztecs, who couldn’t make free throws (6-for-13), were whistled for two key technicals and couldn’t match Walker, whose assault on the UConn record books — and dreams of opponents — continued. He scored 30-plus for the 10th time, a UConn record he already held. A handful of players tried to defend Walker, big and small.
“It didn’t matter who was guarding him,” coach Steve Fisher said.
Said Lamb: “I’m still amazed by stuff he does, but I’m not surprised.”
Lamb hit a couple early threes as Walker started 0-for-4. He hit another three with 1:41 left for a four-point lead, refusing to let the opportunity get away as Walker began to miss.
In between? Walker put on a show. Before Calhoun even left the court he was talking about the greatness of his junior guard. A couple of ill-advised technicals, particularly one on Jamaal Franklin for knocking Walker to the ground after San Diego State led by four with about nine minutes left, helped change momentum.
Still, as UConn continues to show — like Walker — it doesn’t need all that much help.
“Right before your eyes,” said Calhoun, who has the Huskies in the Elite Eight in search of his third national title, “you’re seeing a bunch of young guys who truly believe in each other.”