After Connecticut's 87-71 victory over Alabama on Saturday at America West Arena, one reporter at the postgame press conference described the Huskies' performance as if the team was playing with an "offensive viciousness."
No matter how you describe it, one thing is for certain: UConn is peaking at the right time and is in the driver's seat entering the Final Four.
With the win, the Huskies earned a trip to San Antonio this weekend and a chance at winning their first national championship since 1999. This time, history is on their side. In 1999, UConn also had to go through Phoenix to earn a chance at a title.
"I couldn't have been prouder of our kids," UConn head coach Jim Calhoun said. "There is probably not the jumping around the first time we went to Phoenix five years ago, but them sitting there when I came in -- they just said this is unbelievable."
With Duke's three-point win against Xavier on Sunday, the Blue Devils advanced from the Atlanta Regional and will meet up with UConn on Saturday.
In the first half of UConn's dominating performance, almost everything went the Huskies' way. UConn's dynamic duo of Rashad Anderson and Ben Gordon outscored the entire Alabama team by 11 points.
The Huskies had an assist/turnover ratio of 12:2 and outshot the Crimson Tide 53 percent to 34.3 percent.
Gordon, who was named the regional's most outstanding player, led all scorers with 36 points on 11-of-19 shooting, including 4-of-7 from three-point range.
While the scoring output was just one point shy of his previous career high, set earlier this year against Nevada, it was more impressive considering the Huskies' top player and consensus All-American, Emeka Okafor, missed most of the second half because of a shoulder injury.
"I can't even find an explanation," Gordon said. "I guess God just wanted us both to have really good games today.
"I think it was the 'man upstairs' that gave us the talent to do it today."
Okafor went down with the injury as he drained a second-chance shot with 9:19 remaining in the first half. The free throw that followed the basket was a foot short and found the 6-foot-10 Okafor in obvious pain.
The Big East Conference's Player of the Year came back a minute later, but only scored two points in the opening half. He added seven rebounds and five blocks.
With the game well in hand, Okafor sat the rest of the second half, but is expected to be ready for Saturday's meeting with Duke.
"For the rest of the game, especially on those free throws, my arm just fell asleep," Okafor said. "I couldn't really feel my arm, and every time I got hit it just went from worse to worse."
Anderson set a new career-high with 28 points. While he cooled down in the second half, Anderson was white-hot to open the game, going 6-of-6 from three-point range as he scored 22 points in 17 minutes.
"I thought the basketball goal was really huge," Anderson said. "I just felt like I couldn't miss, and my teammates would find me and feed me the ball in open situations."
Reach the reporter at jeffrey.hoodzow@asu.edu.
