ARLINGTON, Texas — Overall top seed Florida enters this weekend’s Final Four as winners of 30 straight games, the prohibitive favorite to cut down the nets Monday night and win its third national championship in eight years.
Standing in the Gators’ way is a seven-seed — not just any seven-seed, though. UConn beat Florida back on Dec. 2 and may have the best player on the floor in senior point guard Shabazz Napier, whose buzzer-beater was the difference in the first meeting.
“Like [coach] Kevin Ollie said, we’ve been planting the seeds since last year,” junior forward DeAndre Daniels said, referring to the Huskies’ 20-win campaign a season ago despite a diminished roster because of a postseason ban. “Now we’re finally here. Now it’s time to take care of business and bring a national championship back to Storrs.
“We feel like nobody can beat us if we play the right type of basketball.”
Connecticut (30-8) arrived in Texas a big underdog, a 6 ¹/₂-point longshot against Florida, which has won its four tournament games by an average of 12.2 points. The Gators (36-2) aren’t peaking — they’ve been at this level since that December loss, when they were without freshmen Chris Walker and Kasey Hill, and senior point guard Scottie Wilbekin — just as dynamic in this tournament as Napier — missed the final minutes with a sprained right ankle.
“It’s going to be a challenge for us,” Connecticut coach Kevin Ollie said. “We have to play our ‘A’ game.”
UConn feels anything is possible after its remarkable run to the Final Four behind the 6-foot Napier’s phenomenal play. It could have ended in the Huskies’ first game, a roller-coaster overtime win over St. Joseph’s, and they trailed Michigan State by as many as nine points in the East Regional final before Napier took over late.
“Napier is a terrific player because he doesn’t do it only scoring. He also creates opportunities for the other guys, too,” Florida coach Billy Donovan said.
Napier, who is averaging 23.2 points and 4.5 assists in the NCAA Tournament, is very much the face of UConn, right there along with Ollie. He would have had a plethora of suitors had he opted to transfer following his sophomore year, after Jim Calhoun retired and four teammates either departed for the NBA or transferred.
Napier said he stayed because he felt he owed the school after his disappointing season. He returned this year to get his diploma, as he promised his mother he would, and has become every bit the leader and linchpin Kemba Walker was four years ago when he guided UConn to the title.
“We call it, ‘under the waterline,’ a lot of things that a lot of people don’t see,” Ollie said. “The big word that we use in our program is ownership. He’s taken ownership of his team.
“He knows when to get on guys, but then he knows when to back off of guys, too. I think that’s the evolution of him as a leader.”
UConn is far from a one-man team. When Napier was in foul trouble in the third-round upset of second-seeded Villanova, shooting guard Ryan Boatright took over. Daniels, shaking off an inconsistent season, has displayed the variety that made him a top-10 recruit out of high school, averaging 17 points and 6.7 rebounds in four games.
Said Ollie: “We have a more complete team than a lot of people give us credit for.”