Ice, ice, baby. Kentucky’s Aaron Harrison nailed a three pointer with his team down by two and seven seconds remaining against the Wisconsin Badgers on Saturday evening to help propel the eight-seeded Wildcats into the championship game.
Meanwhile, the upstart Connecticut Huskies defeated a Florida Gators team that had not lost since early December to punch their ticket to the title game on Monday evening.
Down by two with seven seconds left, Harrison a freshman from Richmond, Texas, nailed the biggest shot of his life. Harrison was just 2-of-7 shooting for five points prior to making that shot. James Young led the Wildcats in scoring with 17, while another freshman Julius Randle scored 16.
See a theme here?
Kentucky’s entire starting five are in their freshman seasons, bringing up memories of the Michigan Wolverines from a quarter century ago. The Wildcats trailed 40-36 at the half in a game that marks the fourth time this tournament that they have won a game when trailing at the half. Yeah, that’s a record.
Wisconsin was led by Sam Dekker and Ben Brust, who both put in 15. Josh Gasser played all 40 minutes, but was only able to add two points from the center position. He was outplayed by Dakari Johnson, who put in 10 for the Wildcats.
There wasn’t much drama in the earlier game. Florida jumped out to an early 7-0 lead but was trailing 23-22 at the two-minute mark in the first half. That’s the closest Florida would get, as Connecticut took a 25-22 lead into the half. The Huskies would maintain a rather comfortable lead throughout, winning by 10 at the end. It was only Florida’s third loss of the season, and its second to the Huskies.
The championship game will now pit a No. 7 seed against a No. 8 seed, which represents the lowest-seeded championship game in the history of the tournament. If Kentucky is able to pull of the win, it will become the lowest seed to ever win a title.
Sportsnaut will have a full preview of this national title game early Monday morning.
Photo: Bob Donnan, USA Today