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Tonight’s game could very well be a passing of the torch moment.
The men’s national championship will pit UConn versus San Diego State, a veritable “old school vs. new school” matchup. The Huskies represent the old guard of college basketball (ironic, considering how they were viewed as outsiders during their own rise to glory). A UConn win would give them five national championships since 1999, two more than any other school in that time span. And this year’s run to the title game has been as dominant as we’ve seen in recent years: the Huskies’ comfortable 13-point win against Miami in the national semifinals was actually their smallest margin of victory in the tournament.
If UConn is able to finish off the Aztecs and hang a fifth banner in Storrs, you’d be hard-pressed to give an argument for excluding them from the exclusive “blue blood” ring of college basketball. Heck, their five NCAA titles would be more than Kansas — who has permanent blue blood status — and as many as Duke, the blue blood everyone loves to hate.
So that’s what at stake on one side. On the other, San Diego State is looking to leapfrog Gonzaga as the best non-power conference program in the country. The Aztecs have been contenders for a while, ever since Steve Fisher and Kawhi Leonard got them to a Sweet 16 in 2011. SDSU made another Sweet 16 a few years later and were robbed of a potential No. 1 seed in 2020, when the Aztecs finished 30-2 before the NCAA Tournament was cancelled. Head coach Brian Dutcher is a former Fisher assistant and has guaranteed himself a place on the coaching carousel for years to come. There’s no doubt programs with deeper pockets than San Diego State will come calling this offseason.
An Aztec victory would also be a major boon for the Mountain West Conference, which had been mocked by college basketball fans for being an analytics darling during the regular season but pumpkins in March. That very nearly bore true this year as well, as the Aztecs were the only Mountain West team out of four entrants to win an NCAA Tournament game. And now, SDSU can be the first team in the history of the conference to hoist the trophy (UNLV’s 1990 title came before the league was formed).
Blue bloods versus new bloods. A dynamic offense against a suffocating defense. East versus west. Whatever way you slice it, NRG Stadium in Houston will host a culture war tonight.
Featured image via Associated Press/Godofredo A. Vasquez
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