The NCAA held the Division I men’s basketball and Division I men’s hockey regional championships over the weekend, and now the fields are set with the Final Four in both sports.
The University of Connecticut is the only school out of the four heading to Houston that has ever played in a Final Four on the men’s basketball side. The #4 Huskies (29-8) outscored Gonzaga on Saturday 43-22 in the second half Saturday in the West Regional Final and rolled to an 82-54 win in the nightcap. The #9 seeded Florida Atlantic Owls (35-3) put four players in double figures to overcome Kansas State 79-76 in the East Final in the first game on Saturday. Darrion Trammell hit 1-2 from the foul line with 1.2 seconds remaining on Sunday to lift #5 San Diego State (31-6) to the South regional championship, 57-56 over Creighton. In the finale of the weekend on Sunday, the #5 Miami Hurriances (29-7) rallied from a 13 point second half deficit to upset #2 seed Texas 88-81 in the Midwest Regional Final. UConn returns to the Final Four for the first time since 2014. They lost that season 60-54 in the national title game to Kentucky. Florida Atlantic and San Diego St. is the first game of the national semifinals at 6:09 p.m. this Saturday, followed by the UConn Huskies and Miami at 8:49. The national title game is scheduled for Monday night with a time to be announced.
In the men’s ice hockey regional finals, the Boston University Terriers will be the lone Hockey East representative heading to Tampa, Florida for the Frozen Four. BU (29-10) defeated Cornell 2-1 in the Manchester Regional Final Saturday at SNHU Arena. They reach their 23rd Frozen Four in school history, and their first appearance in a national semifinal since 2015. In the other game on Saturday, the top team in the country the Minnesota Golden Gophers (28-9-1) topped St. Cloud State 4-1 in the Fargo, North Dakota Regional Final. The #2 team in the land the Quinnipiac Bobcats (32-4-3) are also heading South to Tampa after rolling past Ohio State 4-1 in the Bridgeport, Connecticut Final on Sunday. And in the best game of the round, Michigan (26-11-3) defeated Penn State 2-1 in overtime in the Allentown, Pennsylvania Regional Title game. Quinnipiac is the only team in the Frozen Four not to win a national championship. Minnesota will seek their first since 2003, Boston University 2009, and Michigan 1998. The national semifinal games are a week from this coming Thursday on Thursday, April 6. Boston University will face Minnesota at 5 p.m., followed at 8:30 by Quinnipiac and Michigan. The two winners meet for the national title on Saturday, April 8 at 8 p.m.
Story by Chris Lessner
