ARLINGTON, Texas — Kevin Ollie insisted Connecticut was a complete team, repeating the point over and over as the Shabazz Napier questions kept on coming Friday, one after another, reporters asking the second-year coach to wax poetic about his senior point guard.
A day later, his players hammered his point home for him.
With Napier serving as game manager rather than superstar, the Huskies’ complimentary pieces took center stage at AT&T Stadium.
DeAndre Daniels, Ryan Boatright and the Husky defense were the UConn stars Saturday night, overwhelming overall top seed Florida, 63-53, in the first national semifinal Saturday night, snapping the Gators’ 30-game winning streak that began after UConn’s first win over Florida on Dec. 2.
“We have been saying all year that we have got a complete team,” Boatright said. “It’s not a one-man team, it’s not a two-man team. We got a complete team. They were double-teaming Shabazz a lot, and the unselfish player that he is, he was just giving it up, making plays for his teammates and everybody stepped up.”
There was Daniels continuing to shed his enigmatic label, enjoying yet another all-encompassing performance at both ends of the floor with 20 points and 10 rebounds. Boatright shut down Florida star point guard Scottie Wilbekin while scoring 13 points of his own. Forward Niels Giffey, bouncing back from a up-and-down tournament, added 11 points and four rebounds. Most of all, it was the UConn defense that bottled up Florida the same way it shut down Michigan State, Iowa State and Villanova in its previous three upset victories.
“The biggest difference in UConn’s team, in my opinion from seeing them in December and then watching them on tape, is they have turned into a great defensive team,” Florida coach Billy Donovan said after the Gators were held to 53 points, tied for their fewest of the season, and shot just 38 percent from the field. “They have really been able to defend at a high level.”
UConn (31-8), a No. 7-seed out of the East Region, will meet the No. 8-seed Wildcats out of the Midwest Region on Monday night, the highest combination of seeds to ever meet in the final. No seventh seed ever has been to the national championship. UConn will play for its fourth title in 15 years less than a month after a 33-point loss to Louisville.
“We feel like we have been doubted the whole season, definitely heading into the tournament when people didn’t have us winning the first game,” Daniels said, referring to the overtime victory over St. Joseph’s. “But that’s what drives us and everybody just is going out there. When people say that, we like to go out and try to prove people wrong and let them know that UConn’s back on top.”
It was Daniels who woke the Huskies from their early slumber, scoring six points during an 11-0 run after Florida (36-3) got out to a 16-4 lead during the first 11:09. It would mushroom to a 27-6 run early in the second half after a Napier 3-pointer, with Florida managing just six points in 11:40 of action, a stunning drought for a team used to suffocating the opposition’s offense, not witnessing its own wilt.
Wilbekin, clutch throughout the tournament, suffered through a nightmarish performance, scoring just four points on 2-of-9 shooting while committing three turnovers. As a team, Florida had just three assists and 11 turnovers.
“That’s a direct reflection of your guards,” Donovan said. “The difference in the game was our back court guys could not get into the lane at the rate that Boatright and Napier could.”