For the first time in three years, there will be a new men’s basketball national champion.
The UConn men’s basketball team’s hopes for a near-unprecedented third straight national title were thwarted on Sunday afternoon in a 77-75 loss to Florida at Lenovo Center.
The Huskies led for the first 17 minutes of the latter half, but the top-seeded Gators utilized an 8-0 run to pull ahead for good and advance to the West Region semifinals, where they’ll face either Maryland or Colorado State on Thursday.
UConn finishes at 24-11. More to the point, its hopes of becoming the only team besides John Wooden’s UCLA teams of 1967-1973 to win three straight titles came to an end.
It was there for the taking. A ticket to San Francisco seemed not only possible, but probable. The game was tied at halftime, and UConn led for much of the second half, though never by more than six points, never quite able to pull away. More here