UConn rides the wave to an unlikely Final Four: 'I can't believe that this is actually happening'

As UConn prepared for the Elite Eight, Geno Auriemma had already made peace about the season ending. The Huskies were down six players to season-ending injuries and had to rely on a rotation that relied on four freshmen — two of whom started. The team that they went through the entire preseason with was gone, since rebuilt and re-shaped on the fly through struggles in November and December.

If UConn went down fighting against top-seeded USC, it would’ve been impossible for Auriemma to find any fault.

“I just feel like I actually would have been okay if they ran out of gas today and there was nothing left. I would have been like, ‘Hey listen, we did about as much as we could do,’” he said. “Sometimes that happens and you're okay with that.”

Yet while the head coach took a glass-half-empty viewpoint, two of his assistants looked at it another way. The fact that the Huskies were even in the Elite Eight was improbable. At that point, may as well see how far they can go.

“Jamelle (Elliott), Tanya (Cardoza) kept saying that it's possible (to reach the Final Four),” Auriemma relayed. “Jamelle just kept saying ‘Let’s ride the wave and when it crashes, it crashes. That's it.’”

On Monday night, UConn kept on riding with an 80-73 win over USC that punched its ticket to the Final Four. The 3-seed Huskies took down the top-seeded Trojans to claim a spot in Cleveland.

“They earned their way to a Final Four,” USC coach Lindsay Gottlieb said. “I don't think we gave it to them. I think they earned it.”

That they did.

UConn started slow — it opened 3-11 from the field, allowed six offensive rebounds before it finally grabbed a defensive board and trailed by as many as nine in the first quarter. Yet it quickly turned into the cliche game of runs.

The Huskies answered with a 9-0 run to pull even, used an 8-0 run in the second quarter to build a six point lead but then let USC score the last six points of the half to send the teams into the locker room even at 33. In the third quarter, UConn went up 12 before the Trojans responded to tie the game at 59 all with 7:32 left.

That prompted a timeout from UConn. Just like that, the preceding 32:28 were rendered meaningless. Whoever made enough plays the rest of the way would come out on top.

Auriemma knew his team needed to regroup.

“They play so many minutes that any chance that I get that I can give them a breather, I want to do that,” he said. “Then I wanted to make sure that we got the right shot by the right person. We would come out of the timeout, take the lead, settle things back down again. Last thing we wanted was not call a timeout, they take the lead, now we're in a little bit of a rush or a little bit of a panic situation.”

The timeout proved to be a microcosm of UConn’s season. The focus wasn’t so much on the X’s and O’s — though the Huskies did make a few tweaks — but making sure they were in the right place mentally.

“I think our entire coaching staff probably worked harder at keeping it together — not so much what offense, what defense, all that other stuff,” Auriemma said. “Just keeping the whole thing together, not letting us kind of get frayed by all the things that have happened.”

After the break, UConn scored back-to-back baskets to go up by four. It led the rest of the way. Still, USC didn’t just fold and got back within one thanks to four straight points from star freshman JuJu Watkins.

Then the Huskies delivered the kill shot. They went on an 11-0 run that spanned nearly four minutes and gave them a 76-64 lead with 1:25 remaining. The Trojans never recovered.

“That's deflating for them. ‘Hey, we're feeling great. We tied it up. Let's go. We got them,’” Auriemma said. “Then we come out with a 10-nothing run.”

That’s easier to say in hindsight, though. UConn made the final moments much more difficult than they needed to be by missing seven consecutive free throws in the last minute which allowed USC to cut the gap to five points with 17 seconds left.

Finally, Nika Mühl made a pair from the line and after the Trojans scored again on the other end, Aaliyah Edwards iced it with two more free throws.

When the final buzzer sounded, UConn erupted in a euphoric celebration at center court. The Huskies might be heading to their 23rd Final Four overall and only experienced a “drought” of one season, but none of that mattered in the moment. This team had never been there.

This team — the same one that dropped the program’s lowest rank in the AP Poll since 1993-94 at No. 17, got off to its worst start since Auriemma’s first season at 4-3 and failed to be a one or two seed for just the second time since 1994 — is now just one of four teams still standing.

“This has been probably the most rewarding one. It felt different,” Mühl said. “This group is very special. We overcame so much and learned from it, not just overcame it. Although a lot of people didn't believe we were ever going to do this, we did.”

Even their often-cynical head coach is starting to buy in.

“They believe in themselves and they're making me believe in them even more,” Auriemma said.

After UConn beat Duke to advance to the Elite Eight, Auriemma called it a miracle akin to childbirth. So how does a win over USC to earn a spot in the Final Four feel?

“Honest to god, man,” he began, “I can't believe that this is actually happening.”