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MITCH BLATT

SHANE SMITH

My last article discussed the very real reality of losing the Big East as a whole, but really the only thing anyone would really miss out on would be the amazingly competitive basketball of this conference.

While the ACC or Big 12 may try to claim the rights as the best basketball conference in the nation, they aren’t: plain and simple. The Big East has a total of 15 teams with Final Four appearances and a combined 11 national champions. The Big East set the conference record for teams entering the NCAA Men’s Tournament in 2006 with 8 selections. They then broke their own record with 11 this past season. The Big East is not only a farm system for countless lottery picks, but it is also home to some of the best and most exciting unsung heroes in basketball.

It’s not the loss of seeing future NBA players playing college ball that will be sad to see when the Big East starts to fade.  It will be the loss of seeing ultra competitive programs beat those future millionaires with toughness, heart, and precision (see Jeremy McNamara, Scotty Reynolds, Khalid El-Amin, etc).

So what is the solution after losing Pittsburgh, Syracuse, West Virginia, and probably UConn?

Create a new league that is solely comprised of smaller sized Christian colleges throughout the country. No, this is not intended to be some religious segregation ideal, but a reason to unite some of the most exciting and successful college basketball teams in the country. The level of Division 1 play by Christian schools is top-notch. They do not have the funding of the Kentuckys or Kansas’ of the world, but they still put together teams that not only compete, but succeed at every facet of the game.

In this hypothetical scenario the Big East retains all current teams except Rutgers (who has also been in talks with other conferences about leaving), Louisville (the only team that I’d be sad to see go), Cincinnati, and South Florida. The Big East would no longer exist as the Big East. Those defections would leave the conference with eight basketball schools:

1)       DePaul
2)      Georgetown
3)      Marquette
4)      Notre Dame
5)      Providence
6)      St. John’s
7)      Seton Hall
8)      Villanova

Those 8 schools would keep the heart of the Big East alive. Teams like Georgetown, Notre Dame, and Villanova would continue to be a powerhouse for future NBA players, while teams like St. John’s, Providence, and Marquette hope to rebuild the talent repertoire they once supplied on draft night.

To fill out the conference we would then look across the country at the nation’s top religiously affiliated basketball programs.  Just like that, there’d be no trouble in creating a powerhouse basketball conference once again:

9)     Gonzaga
10)   Saint Mary’s College
11)    BYU
12)   Xavier
13)   Temple
14)   Creighton

This idea may be far-fetched, and may be unrealistic, but wouldn’t it be interesting to bring back the days when the best fights on the hardwood could be found at the local catholic high school. The days when the Patrick Ewings of the world chose Georgetown because that’s where the highest level of competitive play was. The spirit of the basketball world is at its purest right now in the Big East and with the inevitable causality of Big East basketball inching closer everyday, it couldn’t hurt to explore this possibility.

Personally, I’d love to to see those 14 schools battle it out every season.

Photo: AP

SHANE SMITH

The official start of college basketball is still a few weeks away, but with the recent release of the ESPN/USA Today Coaches Poll now seems like a better time than ever to speculate about the 2011-12 front runners.

There is no doubt that UNC and Kentucky will be great this year. Both teams have outstanding freshman recruits and decent retention of last year’s core talent. However, it is hard to look at this poll and see the UConn Huskies with not ONE  vote for the number 1 ranking.

Lots of sports analysts want to knock the Huskies going into this year since they lost Kemba Walker. How often does a championship team only lose one key player and not even be in consideration for the top preseason ranking? It’s understood that Kemba was the glue to last year’s team and carried them through chunks of the season, but it was the team around Kemba that made the Huskies champions, not just the man himself.

Jeremy Lamb, Shabazz Napier, Alex Oriakhi, Roscoe Smith, and Tyler Olander were all crucial parts to the Huskies title run last year. Shabazz emerged as an elite PG by the end of the season and Lamb emerged as a potential top 10 pick for the 2012 NBA draft. Oriakhi, Smith, and Olander all showed signs that they could carry the team when need be and all look like future NBA players as well. Many will try to knock Oriakhi for his inconsistency, Smith for his boneheaded shot against Texas, and Olander for his softness around the rim, but these guys brought it when it mattered and have developed so much since the beginning of last season that it is scary to think that this core is all the same.

Not only do the Huskies retain 4 of their starting 5, and 2 key role players, but they bring in arguably the best big man recruit of the 2011 class, Andre Drummond. Drummond is a big man that will put Husky greats like Emeka Okafor and Hasheem Thabeet to shame (maybe not to shame, but he will be an overall better player). Drummond can play big around the rim, he can pass, he is athletic as all hell and he’s only 18!

The progress he will show from day 1 will be amazing and it’s a safe bet to say that he will emerge as the Freshman of the Year and a Big East first team all conference member before conference play even begins.  Drummond gets the benefit of superstar talent with no expectation of carrying a team in his first year. Drummond can ease his growing pains under tutelage of Oriakhi and Olander and can let his game come to him on his own time. So often super recruit freshmen are expected to come in and carry a team from day 1, but Drummond gets the luxury of playing with guys who have already won as a unit. He will develop on his own time and what UConn fans will see throughout this year will be nothing short of brilliance.

Drummond isn’t the only major addition to the Huskies this year. Freshmen sparkplug Ryan Boatright will let his name be known to the Big East when they witness his explosive speed and first step:  just wait until he throws down on his first big man and for a moment UConn fans will say, “Kemba 2.0”. While Boatright may not have Kemba’s scoring prowess yet, his athleticism is equal to if not better than what Kemba brought to the table his freshmen year, and after a full year of Shabazz learning under Walker this backcourt is going to be a nightmare again for every opponent this season.

It may be just the preseason coaches’ poll, and yes the Huskies are still ranked 4^th, but there is no doubt that the Huskies will be the top team in the Big East and undoubtedly will impress the entire college basketball nation this season with their success. Husky fans, don’t fear a season minus Kemba, embrace the beginning of a new Husky dynasty.

Photo: Getty

SCOTT JACOBS

It’s a unique opportunity when you get a chance to meet and chat with someone a few years before they turn pro.  I had the opportunity to profile Chris Singleton back in November 2009 when he was a sophomore at Florida State.  Now, Singleton is with the Washington Wizards, after the new look Wiz tabbed him to be their defensive stopper and hustle guy with the 18th pick of the 2011 NBA Draft.

He is a quiet, low-key, down to earth guy who goes about his business, and continues to improve every day.  A McDonalds All American in high school, Singleton was high recruited by a number of big schools before he ultimately settled on FSU.  After a Cinderella run to the Sweet 16 this past March — where he helped lead the defensive minded Noles within a point of beating VCU — the rangy small forward opted to take his talents to the draft.  He may not be able to guard everyone in the NBA, but Singleton will be a tough match up on anyone he is assigned to guard.   If he can develop a consistent shot he could have a long NBA career in front of him. But that’s for later…

In my conversation with Chris he discusses why he wears headbands, why he originally chose FSU, what it takes to make the most of god-given talent, and what he hopes his legacy will be.  Washington may not be getting the best player in this draft, but rest assured, they’re getting a guy who will bust his butt to make a name for himself in the league.  Here in it’s entirety is my 2009 conversation with Chris.

Photo: Getty

SCOTT JACOBS

The hats may read NO 1 if you look at them quickly, but it’s UConn that’s number 1 in all of college hoops for the third time after winning maybe the worst NCAA Championship game ever played.

There was nothing storybook about UConn’s grand finale, but for the team that refused to be eliminated all season long, it didn’t matter.  A championship is a championship, even if this one will forever be spelled U-G-L-Y.  For U-C-O-N-N it’s the hardware that comes after that hard work, and they are the only ones who can proclaim themselves basketball champs for 2011, even if this game looked like a dogfight between two chumps.

In basketball if you score more points, you win.  UConn’s 53 weren’t a lot, but they were 12 more than Butler’s embarrassing performance (more on that in a second), and one more than the number of shots the Bulldogs missed (52).  Yup, the Cinderella story all grown up got shunned at midnight again, devoured by the Huskies ferocious inside defense and shooting that abandoned them and headed for the hills.

Even though the game was by all accounts, a trainwreck, I’ve never seen a championship banner raised to the rafters with the final score (or the stats for that matter) and this one will be no exception.  But for a Huskies team that finished 9-9 in the Big East in the regular season, yet swept through two one and you’re done elimination tournaments to get to the NCAA tournament, their third tourney win of the season equaled an even more tasty third national championship.

Woof woof. For 2011 UConn proved that when the games mattered most, they had the biggest bark.  And bite.

“It’s one game and you’re done,” a composed Kemba Walker, the Final Four’s Most Outstanding Player (a surprise to no one) said after the game.  “Nobody wants to lose another.”

And UConn didn’t.  From Maui to NYC all the way to Anaheim and finally their championship landing spot, Houston, the Huskies were relentless in pursuit of the title no one thought they could win when this season first kicked off.

This is the same Huskies team that was unranked to start the season.

You know the expression, it’s not where you start, it’s how you finish?  Something tells me UConn has that down pat.

From none to number one, what a remarkable story.

“This group has taken me on one of the great special journeys,” said a calm, but incredibly grateful Jim Calhoun, after possibly his last game.  “I needed this team.  I know coaches don’t say that very often, but it’s the truth.”

Say what you want about the allegations, and Calhoun’s suspension (assuming he does come back for another year), but what the man did with this team was astounding.  At 68 years old, he’s the oldest coach ever to get his One Shining Moment: just times that by three.  With the win, Calhoun became just the fifth coach ever in the annals of college basketball history to win three titles.  The others: Adolph Rupp, John Wooden, Bobby  Knight, and Mike Krzyzewski.  Not bad company for the notoriously grumpy New Englander.

Butler’s historically bad shooting night didn’t hurt either.  Shooting just 18.8% for the game, Butler made tournament lore for all the wrong reasons: the capper to a run that before that made the underdog in all of us feel good for all the right reasons.

It was bad.  Make that awful.  No, atrocious.  Okay I’m done.  And so is Butler, the team that got back to the championship game with gritty hard fought play and clutch shooting when it mattered most.  The hard nosed defense was there, and Butler scrapped and clawed for every loose ball, but the shooting was nowhere to be found on this night.

With a championship on the line, and leading by 3 at the break, Butler just didn’t have any magic left to beat the bigger, stronger destined for greatness Huskies.  Butler scored just 19 points (UConn’s first half total), went 2-18 from the field, 4-19 from 3 point range, and they were outscored by 15.  With those stats, to say they lost by just 12 is almost an accomplishment in itself.

“Tonight we had a lot of frustrating moments because we couldn’t score,” said classy Butler coach Brad Stevens, whose team fell just short in its quest for their own storybook ending. “It’s really hard, but I told them I don’t care if we make shots… I won’t love them any less.”

Call them the Minnesota Vikings of the 70’s, the Buffalo Bills of the early 90’s, or even Stanford’s women’s basketball team (which has now reached 4 consecutive Final Fours without winning one), but what Butler did this year was incredible.

On this night, unfortunately for them, they were anything but.

“Feels good to know that hard work pays off,” said Jeremy Lamb, who scored 12 points (the final deficit) in the second half.

“It was right,” said Walker.  “We unstoppable.  Best team in the country.”

Most importantly for UConn, they were the best team out of the final two on a bad shooting night.  That gets you the championship.

“Maybe the happiest day in my life,” said Calhoun.

We’ll deal with next year, later.

Photo: Getty

SCOTT JACOBS

Someone emailed this to me yesterday.  It’s a song written and produced by VCU students Torin Ortiga and DJ Fili embracing their school’s Shaka-ing run to the Final Four.  Will it end tonight?  That’s why they play the games.  But win or lose the song is worth a listen.  Afterall, VCU fans might as well enjoy this: the odds of it happening again anytime soon are slim to none, VCU!

VCU (Final Four song) by DJ Fili

And while we’re at it: here’s my Final Four predictions.  The only thing we know for sure is we’ll have a championship matchup of tourney tested versus tourney team that turned the tournament upside down.

VCU 71 Butler 69
It’s hard to bet against either one of these teams right now, but there’s something magical in the air right now going for the Rams.  I don’t get the argument that VCU hasn’t faced a defense like Butler, because FSU’s defense was the best in the nation.  VCU has thrived off of being the underdog and everyone seems to be in love with Butler. I’m riding with the Rams for one more night.

UConn 68 Kentucky 61
This is Kemba’s show.  This Huskies team is destined to win.  There’s just no other logic to it.  UConn just refuses to lose tournament games, and how fitting would it be if they got VCU an 11 seed in the title game. Consider: It was CAA cinderella George Mason that stunned UConn in 2006 with a Final Four berth on the line.  Could they get a psuedo-rematch with another CAA cinderella for the national championship?  That would be something.

Photo: AP

JOSH MASER

Alright, so let’s get this out of the way.  Nobody, not even the most die-hard VCU fan, could have seriously considered the Rams as a Final Four team.  It is one of the most unprecedented final four teams in history.  It even trumps George Mason in 2006, because that Patriots team did not have to play in an opening round game (First Four, whatever you want to call it) and then play in the opening round of the tournament less than two days later.

What makes this even more unprecedented is the scrutiny that came from the Rams even being in the tournament to begin with. VCU did not win the Colonial Athletic Association conference tournament (losing out to George Mason: read into that all you want) and many thought that this would be the end of the line for the Rams and that a NIT berth would be coming soon. But selection Sunday came, and Virginia Commonwealth was slotted to play against Southern Cal in a First Four Matchup.

What followed could generously be described as hysteria from the basketball community.  People were outraged at the very thought that VCU was even considered over teams like Colorado, Virginia Tech, or even Harvard.  People said they were unworthy, and that the Selection Committee was out of its mind.

Well now, these “experts” and even the causal sports fans are giving all the credit in the world to the Rams; apologizing left and right, some even picking them to win it all.

My question is, why? Or more specifically, why them? They didn’t even give themselves a chance to get into the tournament.  They were not even gathered on selection
Sunday to see if they made it into the field as an at-large team.

That is how convinced they were that they didn’t make it.  If they didn’t think they deserved it, why should anybody else?

These apologies should be going to the NCAA selection committee for selecting a Final Four team with one of the marginal at large bids they had to offer.

The selection process may not be perfect, and they
may make mistakes with one or two teams every year, but they normally get it right, and they got this one right.

On selection Sunday the head of the committee was asked why VCU was selected, and he said simply that “they’re a good ball club.” Now this might have not been sufficient enough an explanation for those who obsessed over RPI, strength of schedule, wins vs. the RPI top 100 etc, but none of those
talking heads have sat in on a selection meeting (for the most part).

The bottom line is that the selection committee knows what they are talking about and can decide which teams truly are the best in the available field (Virginia tech and Harvard didn’t even make it out of the NIT second round).  I think that we owe them an apology.

Photo: AP

SCOTT JACOBS

This isn’t the Final Four you predicted.  It’s not the Final Four the bigwigs at CBS and Turner dreamed of.  When the casual fan knows more about the coaches of our last four remaining than the players, something is  a bit off.  When half the coaches have run as much scandal amok their programs as they have greatness you can’t help but raise an eyebrow.  When the other two coaches are so young that some people confuse them for players and maybe even interns, you know the whole system has been thrown upside down.

In one corner we have the heavyweights and the coaches riddled with sanctions and problems.  In the other, a pair of upstarts (one that was just here last year), the other a team most of America didn’t think should even get into the First Four.

But here they are. In the Final Four, a collective pairing so odd, it has more faces to it then Geico’s 300 campaigns simultaneously running together.  “In the 15 minutes it took to make this commercial gamblers could have saved hundreds by not betting a penny on this NCAA Tournament.” Seriously.  Now it’s Sexy Grandpa time.

Just kidding.

But this Final Four is real.  You can’t make this stuff up.  For the 2 people in ESPN’s Bracket Challenge out of 5.9 million that got their Final Four exact, I’m pretty sure they started drinking heavy before they filled it out.  Or maybe they knew nothing whatsoever about college hoops.

The people who do know a thing about college hoops know that these are not the best 4 teams. Not even close. UConn was 9th in the Big East (there’s 16 teams in the league), Kentucky was a relative afterthought this year after their Elite Eight team lost just about everybody.  Butler lost Gordon Hayward to the Utah Jazz and had to win their conference tournament just to confirm their spot. VCU, well we all know their story.

Let’s take a look at the Final AP Top 25, which came out right before the tourney pairings did.

09. UConn
11. Kentucky

This is what I wrote before the tourney, which in hindsight sounds kinda, sorta brilliant. Unfortunately I thought this would be the year a six seed might break through and win it all, not an EIGHT or ELEVEN!

“And that’s precisely what makes the Tournament so interesting every year.  It’s a crapshoot. This year more than ever, I could forsee a lower seed getting hot and shocking the masses all the way to that One Shining Moment.  But who?  Logic says teams in the top 15 are generally your target base for picking a champion.

That leaves: Ohio State, Kansas, Duke, Pitt, Notre Dame, San Diego State, North Carolina, Texas, UConn, BYU, Kentucky, Syracuse, Purdue, Louisville and Florida.  We’re talking 4 seeds and higher folks.”

Well, using that logic I was able to peg 50% of the Final Four’s possible participants.  That’s like picking almost 25% of the field and still missing two.

Going into the Tourney Butler wasn’t even good enough to garner 20 top 25 votes, and VCU wasn’t even in the conversation.

And now they’re playing each other for a trip to the National Championship. Houston, this whole thing’s confusing.

Richard Deitsch of Sports Illustrated tweeted yesterday: “Butler-VCU will rate very high. And Kentucky-Butler final will top last year’s numbers. Book it.”

But would it?  / Will it?

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And that’s exactly my feeling.  I don’t think America is ready for Cinderella on Cinderella crime.  Morehead State beating Louisville, that’s cool.  Richmond beating Vanderbilt. Cool.  Richmond playing Morehead State, that’s blah.  That’s not sexy.  That’s not fun.  There’s no selling point when you’re trying to spice up that matchup for the casual sports fan.

I’ve said this for years and I’ll re-iterate it.  We the sports watching public like numbers.  However biased or unfair they may potentially be, we love our rankings.  Rankings sell.  The Preseason Top 25 means diddly squat in basketball, but UConn can still say that it beat #2 Michigan State in November. So what if the Spartans turned out to be a joke! Which brings me back to Deitsch’s comments that “Butler-VCU will rate very high.”

No it won’t.  You know why?  Because 8 versus 11 isn’t sexy.  America isn’t in love with Butler, we just enjoy their grittiness.  That makes for a great movie, but when they’re the headliner act, well, that’s just plain unappealing.  Butler wins, but I’ve never watched one of their games and been entranced by their style of play.  They slug games out. They do what it takes and they never quit. But are their games hot sells if you take out the big programs they have to beat and replace them with no name ones?  No.

Admit it, casual sports fan X. You probably didn’t follow Butler at all this year after they quietly slipped out of the national rankings and out of our national conscience.  You may not even have followed them in their conference tourney. UW-Milwaukee?  Green Bay?  Those matchups aren’t sexy. That’s blue collar on blue collar basketball, and blue collar on blue collar basketball doesn’t sell.  If it did, CBS would show more games like BYU-San Diego State.  But instead of blue collar, we love our blue bloods. Sprinkle in that so called “team of destiny” and you’ve got yourself a matchup.

Which is why Monday’s title game is so intriguing.  We’re guaranteed blue blood versus blood collar.  The public will tune in. Kemba or Kentucky versus Butler or VCU?  That’s the classic David versus Goliath.  VCU’s sports radio station is so far under the radar that their website is on Wordpress (like us).  Kentucky’s almost looks like a regular station.  VCU hasn’t even added the radio call of their Elite Eight win to their radio website.  We’re talking night and day folks (though I advise you to listen to the Robby Robinson’’s call for FSU-VCU, it may send Gus-Johnson sized goosebumps through your body. Did he block it)?

We love feel good stories, but two feel good stories on one court just feels boring.  To the sports fan whose watched this tourney through and through (such as myself) this is an intriguing matchup:  Butler’s slug it out, wear you down, play good defense and do the little things style of play versus VCU’s bury you in threes, press you till you have no legs, and use the doubters to fuel one performance more impressive than the other approach.  Both teams have talent.  Butler has a stud guard in Shelvin Mack, who has proven to be one of the top 10 players in this tournament and whose NBA stock is rising quickly.  Matt Howard has done everything asked of him and then some.  VCU has Jamie Skeen and Joey Rodriguez and a host of other guys who have proven they can hold their own against anyone in the country.

But most of America doesn’t know this. Much of America probably doesn’t care.  The bigger story may be that three of the four schools in this Final Four may not be able to sell out their Final Four allotment of tickets to Houston (obviously Kentucky will).

But none of that matters, because most of these kids will go pro in something other than sports.  They don’t care about rankings.  They don’t care that their coaches are bigger commodities right now than their players (Shaka Smart and Brad Edwards).  None of that matters.

What matters is that they’re here.  That they overcame 6 conference losses in the CAA (VCU) and 5 in the Horizon (Butler).  Most fans probably don’t know what the CAA even stands for (Colonial Athletic Association) or that Drexel actually finished with more wins in conference than VCU.

VCU beat two BCS Conference schools in the regular season and one of those included a win over lowly Wake Forest.  In the tournament they’ve chalked up 5, including their latest and greatest triumph, an emphatic win over Kansas.

Cleveland State had the same record as Butler, both overall and in conference, but chances are you can’t name a single player on their team.  For that matter do you even know their school nickname? (Answer: Vikings).  But none of that matters.  Just like it doesn’t matter that Butler lost 3 games in a row back in January to Milwaukee, Valparaiso, and Youngstown State.

Jay Bilas summed it up by saying that in the middle of the season you wouldn’t have considered any of these Final Four teams Final Four caliber.

UConn had a stretch that began in late January in which they lost 7 of 11 games.  Kansas, the team now going home after VCU shocked them, lost 2 all regular season!

As for Kentucky, did anyone even mention them in Final Four talk the whole season?  After they won the SEC Tournament people took notice, but before then, they were afterthoughts to most hoops fans.

And that’s your Final Four. 1 from the First Four, 1 from Last year’s Final Four, 1 from last year’s N.I.T., and one that lost half it’s team to the NBA Draft the year before.

It’s goofy, it’s odd, and it even smells a little funky, but one of these teams is going to leave Houston a champion.

VCU?  The same team that finished 4th in the CAA, the champion of college hoops?  Yeah, it’s been one whacky tournament.  To say the least.

Graphic: Scott Jacobs

SCOTT JACOBS

Four months ago, UConn was unranked, coming off a disappointing year, in which they missed the NCAA Tournament altogether, and then bowed out quietly in a forgettable N.I.T, and expectations were so low that Andy Katz not only didn’t have them in his preseason Top 25, he didn’t even have the Huskies as one of his ten teams on the cusp.

Whoops.

After surviving a furious late Arizona rally which included two would be game winners, the Huskies are heading to the Final Four, a remarkable feat in an even more remarkable year.  Possibly Jim Calhoun’s finest coaching feat yet in a career chalk full of accomplishments.

And Kemba and friends are far from done.  Yup, the same team that Big East coaches prognosticated to finish 10th in a 16 team Big East is now off to Houston, where they’ll look to culminate an impressive comeback season with another national championship.

Tourney tough?  How about Mission Impossible tough.

First UConn ran the gauntlet on the Maui Invitational winning 3 games in Hawaii, crushing Kentucky in the championship game.  That started Kemba mania, and the Kemba Express hasn’t slowed down a tinge since. One Big East tournament rampage later (a 5 game in 5 night extravaganza) and UConn was all over the national radar.  But most people thought they’d be worn out and that the Big East team which finished  9th and barely squeaked out a .500 conference record would eventually hit a snag and get knocked out.

But like the Energizer Bunny, they’re still going.

Their latest conquest, a Wildcats team coming off a pasting of number 1 seed Duke is just another one to add to an ever-growing resume.

A resume that includes 4 NCAA Tournament wins and counting.

To win one tournament is impressive.  To win two is awesome.  Three?  How many teams can say they’ve done that?

“This is no time to be tired,” Walker said. “We’re trying to get as far as possible. We want to win this whole thing.”

The only thing I’m tired of, when it comes to UConn, is doubting them.  After the toughness and resiliency that they’ve shown in winning 9 pressure packed games in a row, doubt them at your own risk. They may not lose another game this year. And after all that talk about the Big East and how it totally flopped in the Dance, UConn did anything but.  Two more wins and they will win this whole thing.

Kemba Walker led the charge as usual with 20 points and once again showed that he’s got the clutch gene down pat.  Showing silky smooth ball handling and a knack for big-time closing moment shots, Walker carried UConn to this stage, but he was not just a one man gang.  Which is why the Huskies keep winning. And winning.  And winning.

Jeremy Lamb had 19 points, Shabazz Napier had 10, and Alex Oriakhi had 7 to anchor the Kemba Express, which shows no signs of slowing down.

After winning the Maui Invitational hosted by Chaminade University UConn was elevated to number 7.  With half the Final Four field set and just 2 more games tomorrow, there’s now only 6 teams left.

And UConn may the best one of them, hitting on all cylinders and playing the best basketball they have all season.

If it’s all about getting hot when the games get their toughest, the Huskies are on fire.  Houston, we have a problem.

Photo: Getty