The college basketball season ends on Monday night with the NCAA Men’s Basketball National Championship. And it’s one of the more unlikely matchups as No. 5 seed San Diego State will face No. 4 seed UConn (University of Connecticut). The game, which will be played at NRG Stadium in Houston, will tip-off at 9:20 p.m. ET and air on CBS while streaming on Paramount+.
San Diego State comes into the game with a 32-6 record and has not lost a game since Feb. 28. The Aztecs won the Mountain West Tournament before defeating College of Charleston, Furman, Alabama, Creighton and FAU (Florida Atlantic University) in the NCAA Tournament. The Alabama win was huge as the Crimson Tide were the No. 1 overall seed and favorite to win it all. The team is led by Matt Bradley who is averaging 12.7 points per game. Lamont Butler is another player to watch as he hit the game-winning shot against FAU on Saturday. This is the first time that San Diego State has reached the Final Four and the championship game.
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“The plan was just to get downhill, they cut me off a little bit, I looked up and there was two seconds left,” Butler said after the game, per 247Sports. “I just had to get a shot off. So I hit it. It’s unbelievable. I’m glad the shot went in, I’m just happy for my team right now.”
UConn comes into the game as the favorite since the national title game is nothing new to them. The Huskies have appeared in the Final Four six times and have won four national titles (1999, 2004, 2011, 2014). Dan Hurley took over as UConn’s head coach in 2018 and has led the team to the tournament the last three years. In the tournament this year, the Huskies defeated Iona, Saint Mary’s College of California, Arkansas, Gonzaga and Miami to play in the national title game.
“I think when you play or coach here, you starting believing in that UConn magic,” Hurley said, per the New Haven Register. “Some of that tradition. Obviously, Coach Calhoun’s pep talk we heard the other day. Having Rip around … it just gives our guys a lot of confidence.”
