UConn basketball takes on San Diego State in a rematch of last season’s title game.
The Selection Committee wrote the perfect script in the East Region and it all played out according to plan. Putting Auburn as the four seed and orchestrating the Yale upset in order to throw us off and ensure that SDSU had an easier path to get to the second weekend was an especially devious move. The NCAA Tournament feeds off of storylines and this Sweet 16 matchup is certainly not short of those.
All jokes aside, SDSU has earned their way to back-to-back Sweet 16 appearances and them playing Connecticut is a historic rematch. There have previously been three title game rematches in the following year’s tournament (1961-2 Cincinnati-Ohio State, 1990-1 UNLV-Duke, 2006-07 Florida-UCLA) with the team seeking revenge coming out victorious just once when Duke beat UNLV in the 1991 Final Four.
This is a small enough sample size that neither team has a historical advantage over the other, but also this small sample size emphasizes how great of programs both UConn and SDSU have been recently.
Thursday night. Boston. Let’s run it back.#MadeForMarch | #MixForSix pic.twitter.com/CVvnEt57Te
— UConn Men’s Basketball (@UConnMBB) March 25, 2024
San Diego State Aztecs
San Diego State University have been calling themselves the “Aztecs” since 1925 when their student body voted on the name. In 2000, the university had internal discussions about whether it was time to retire the Aztec name as a portion of the student body found it insensitive. In the end, all parties agreed that updating their logos and mascot to be culturally appropriate and historically accurate was the right solution. Now, SDSU supports the Aztec Culture Project which educates their student body about the history and culture of the Aztec people.
While the decision surrounding their mascot reached an amicable ending, last year’s tournament did not as SDSU lost to UConn 76-59 in the title game. Of the notable Aztecs to return for this ’23-24 season are Jadeon LeDee, Lamont Butler, and Darion Trammell who combined for 33 points in that title game. Notable absences from that list are ’22-23 leading scorer Matt Bradley and Keshad Johnson, who had 14 points in the title match. During the off-season, Bradley moved on to play professionally in Europe and Johnson transferred to Arizona after playing four seasons for the Aztecs.
SDSU is led by Head Coach Brian Dutcher who’s previous claim to fame was being an assistant at Michigan during their 1989 championship and playing a crucial role in recruiting the Fab Five. Now Dutcher’s claim to fame is being the Head Coach of a Final Four team as he led the Aztecs to not only the program’s first Final Four appearance, but the first such appearance in Mountain West Conference history.
This season has been the Jadeon LeDee show as he was voted onto the AP All-American Third Team and led the Aztecs in scoring with 21.5 points per game. LeDee is playing some of his best basketball right now too as he has failed to score 20+ points just one time since February 9th and averaged 27 points per game in the Mountain West Conference Tournament.
San Diego State has previously made the Sweet 16 three times and in those previous 3 seasons (2011, 2014, 2023) UConn has gone on to win the national title. Now reaching the second weekend for the 4th time, the Aztecs are going to give it their all on Thursday night to break that trend.
UConn Huskies
Now let’s take a look at what the returning Huskies did in their previous bout with the Aztecs. Tristen Newton led the way with 19 points, 10 rebounds, and 4 assists in his sensational championship performance. Alex Karaban had 5 points, 5 rebounds and Donovan Clingan had 4 points, 3 rebounds off the bench.
UConn basketball also lost their fair share of star power in the off-season to both the NBA draft and graduation. There are certainly some familiar faces who returned, but overall this team looks completely different than the one the Aztecs played just 360 days ago. Cam Spencer and Stephon Castle add such a dynamic edge to this offense nevermind the leaps that Newton, Karaban, and Clingan all took over the off-season.
One similarity from the Aztecs perspective is that they are playing a red hot Huskies squad. UConn basketball will have won nine games in a row heading into Thursday’s regional semi-final and will look to win their 9th straight NCAA tournament game as well. Everyone knows the Huskies are going to bring their best to the table and leave it all out on the court.
Will Andrew Hurley get the opportunity to dribble the clock out again against SDSU or will the Aztecs get the revenge that they’ve been waiting a whole year for?