HOUSTON — The Connecticut Huskies and Miami Hurricanes will battle it out Saturday for a spot in the national championship game on Monday at NRG Stadium in Houston.
UConn is the only team in the Final Four this year that’s been there before.
What time does UConn vs. Miami actually start?
Tipoff for the game is 8:16 p.m. Central time. (Original time was 7:49 p.m., but pas been pushed back due to length of first game)
How to watch UConn vs. Miami
You can catch the game LIVE on CBS. In Houston, that’s KHOU 11.
What to know about UConn
UConn (29-8) has blitzed its way through the bracket so far, winning each of its four NCAA Tournament games by at least 15 points.
The Huskies turned what was supposed to be a dream Elite Eight game into a nightmare for Gonzaga.
UConn dominated at both ends, beating Zaga 82-54 in the fourth-most lopsided Elite Eight game since the NCAA Tournament expanded to 64 teams in 1985.
That puts the Huskies in the Final Four for the first time since winning the 2014 national title and back on track to once again being an elite program.
The run has been a gratifying one for coach Dan Hurley.
His father, Bob, is one of the few high school coaches to be inducted into the Naismith Hall of Fame, a demanding coach who led St. Anthony High School to 26 New Jersey state titles.
Bobby Hurley, Dan's brother, won two national titles as a player at Duke and led Arizona State to its third NCAA Tournament since 2018 this season.
Dan played at Seton Hall before working his way up the coaching ladder. He spent two years at Wagner before leading Rhode Island to consecutive NCAA Tournaments.
Tasked with returning UConn to national prominence, Hurley gradually rebuilt the program, leading the Huskies to their first NCAA Tournament berth in five years in 2021.
The knock on Hurley: he couldn't win in March. UConn got bounced out of the NCAA Tournament's first round each of the previous two seasons, including to No. 12 seed New Mexico State last year.
The Huskies looked like national title contenders early this season, went through a funk, then started playing their best basketball at the perfect time.
After the win over Gonzaga, Dan now has some bragging rights of his own and celebrated with hugs from his family after clinching a Final Four spot Saturday night along The Strip in Las Vegas.
What to know about Miami
The No. 5 seed Hurricanes (29-7) have a date with No. 4 seed UConn on Saturday night in Houston after knocking off Texas on Sunday in the Elite Eight.
It's the first time since seeding began in 1979 that no team seeded better than No. 4 made the Final Four, so perhaps it is fitting that Miami coach Jim Larrañaga is involved. He took George Mason there as an 11 seed 17 years ago to the day.
Miami was a 10 seed last year when it lost 76-50 to eventual national champion Kansas in a regional final.
“No one wanted to go home,” said Jordan Miller, coincidentally a George Mason transfer, who joined Duke’s Christian Laettner as the only players since 1960 to go 20 for 20 combined from the field and foul line in an NCAA tourney game. “We came together. We stuck together. We showed really good perseverance and the will — the will to just want to get there.”
“You just love when your players accomplish a goal they set out before the season,” Larrañaga said.
atching the Final Four with an antenna? KHOU 11 has upgraded its technology and is broadcasting on both VHF and UHF. Tune in on either 11.1 or 11.11.