Cats shoot for ninth NCAA title Monday night
ARLINGTON, Texas -- Julius Randle couldn't sleep.
His Kentucky team had beaten Wisconsin late Saturday night at the Final Four, setting up a Monday meeting with Connecticut for the NCAA title, and the freshman forward was too fired up to wind down.
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"If I really told you when I went to bed," Randle said Sunday, "Coach would probably kill me."
Rather than toss and turn, Randle studied some basketball history. Not for the first time, he watched the ESPN documentary about Michigan's Fab Five, a team with five freshman starters who made it all the way to the NCAA title game and lost.
On Monday, Randle and Kentucky will try to do them one better.
It has been a magical March (and early April) for the Wildcats (29-10), but for all the memories they've made -- the thrilling wins, the Aaron Harrison highlights, the time together off the court -- there's a real sense that their story is unfinished.
To pen the end they all envisioned, the Cats need one more win.
"We've got one more chapter to write," forward Alex Poythress said. "This is the last chapter, the final chapter. I feel like we can do it. The story needs an end. We can write own destiny, write our own history."
It won't come easily, though nothing has in Kentucky's march through Madness.
Since beating Kansas State by the comparably comfortable margin of 56-49 in the Round of 64, the Cats have won four games by a total of 11 points.
Eighth-seeded UK topped previously unbeaten Wichita State, the No. 1 seed in the Midwest Region, 78-76 in the Round of 32. It beat fourth-seeded rival Louisville 74-69 in the Sweet 16 and second-seeded Michigan 75-72 in the Elite Eight. It topped a No. 2 seed in Wisconsin, 74-73 in the Final Four.
Does Kentucky have one more rabbit in the hat, one last bit of last-minute drama to compare to Harrison's clutch three-pointers in each of the last three games?
"I hope not," point guard Andrew Harrison said. "I hope we're in control of the game when the final buzzer ends, but if it comes down to it, we just have to try and win."
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The Cats have been finding ways, and in that they're not alone.
Connecticut (31-8) has had only slightly less drama in getting here. The seventh-seeded Huskies survived an overtime scare from St. Joseph's in the first round, then sprung upsets of Iowa State and two of the tournament favorites, Michigan State and Florida, in reaching Monday's title game.
"We believe because nobody believed in us," UConn guard Terrence Samuel said. "In the first game, they had us losing to St. Joseph's. We just wanted to prove everybody wrong and be bracket busters. I feel like we have done that for the most part. Nobody had us going this far, and we've beaten two of the best teams in the nation during this course of our run. Why stop? Why not keep going and get this championship?"
Few predicted Kentucky to be here either. At least, not at the start of the tournament. In the preseason, the Wildcats were anointed the nation's No. 1 team. By the start of March, they'd fallen out of the Top 25.
"We don't really know what people expected of us," Randle said. "The biggest thing is, this is what we expected of each other. No matter how hard things got, the goal stayed the same."
Kentucky is one win from that goal.
So is Connecticut.
"We didn't come down here to get second, but we know it's gonna be a war, because UConn's an excellent team," Aaron Harrison said. "They just beat a Florida Gators team that's won 30 games in a row."
Either team would cap an improbable run to the NCAA title. Either would be an unexpected and dramatic champ. Either will have earned it.
The Wildcats have taken a long, strange path to Monday. And as with any John Calipari-coached Kentucky team, it faces an uncertain path from there.
Many of the Cats -- including at least Randle, James Young, Willie Cauley-Stein and the Harrison twins -- likely face stay-or-go-pro decisions. Seniors Jon Hood and Jarrod Polson already have graduated and will move on.
Kentucky came together late. It likely won't stay together long.
And so there's an urgency, a need to write a historic finish to a remarkable run.
"There's no better way to write the ending of the story (than) with a win," Cauley-Stein said. "Winning the national championship would be crazy. For this team, for all the stuff we've been through and for guys that are gonna end up leaving and the guys that end up staying, it's never gonna be like this again for us."
Game/Series Information
Game Information
Site: AT&T Stadium (77,122), Arlington, Texas. NCAA Final Four
TV: CBS (Jim Nantz play-by-play, Greg Anthony and Steve Kerr analysts, Tracy Wolfson sideline)
Radio: UK IMG Sports Network (Tom Leach play-by-play, Mike Pratt analyst); Sirius 91/XM 91
Favorite: Kentucky by 2.5
Series Information
Series record: Connecticut leads 3-1
At neutral sites: Connecticut leads 3-1
Coaches' records: Calipari 2-4 vs. Connecticut; Ollie 0-0 vs. Kentucky
Last meeting: Connecticut 56, Kentucky 55 (April 2, 2011, Houston; NCAA National Semifinal)
Tournament hero Kemba Walker scored 18 points and the Huskies held the Wildcats to 33.9 percent shooting in advancing to the NCAA title game, where they would beat Butler two nights later. Kentucky trailed by 10 at the half but rallied behind strong games from Terrence Jones (11 points, 15 rebounds) and Doron Lamb (13 points). Brandon Knight led UK with 17 points but shot just 6 of 23.
Game Storylines
1. Teams of Destiny: Both the Wildcats and Huskies have taken wild paths to the NCAA final, and both look like teams destined to cut down the nets on Monday. In fact, Kentucky forward Julius Randle was asked what he thought of UConn players describing theirs as a team of destiny. " You can say you're a team of destiny, but at the end of the day, you got to get out on the court and play," Randle said. "And we have to do the same thing."
2. Sneaky Good: Most of the praise for Connecticut comes for its backcourt, and Shabazz Napier and Ryan Boatright are among the most dangerous duo in the nation. But it was DeAndre Daniels' 20 points and 10 rebounds against Florida helped key the Huskies' semifinal win. Said UK's Andrew Harrison: " Their guard play is tremendous, but what's really underrated about them is their frontcourt. They can really score the ball and they protect the rim pretty well."
3. Final Fourth?: Connecticut is making its fourth appearance in an NCAA title game, and Kentucky is looking to become the first program to beat UConn in the tournament final. The Huskies have won the championship all three times they've played on the final Monday. Their only loss in a Final Four came to Michigan State in a 2009 semifinal.