UConn Sets Sights on Final Four but has to Face Alabama First

PHOENIX, AZ (March 26) – The second-seeded Connecticut men’s basketball team moved into the NCAA Elite Eight and will match-up against the Cinderella team of the tournament eighth-seeded Alabama on Saturday afternoon at the America West Arena in Phoenix. Game time is set for 4:40 pm (est) and will be televised on CBS.

The Huskies improved to a record of 30-6 with a convincing win over Vanderbilt on Thursday night in the Regional Semifinal in Phoenix. Alabama knocked off defending national champions Syracuse, 80-71, in the night’s other Regional Semifinal and improved to 20-12 on the season.

The game marks the first-ever meeting between Connecticut and Alabama in program history and the game’s winner earns the right to advance to the 2004 NCAA Final Four in San Antonio, TX next week.

UConn has advanced to its seventh NCAA Elite Eight and the sixth under Connecticut head coach Jim Calhoun. The Huskies are in their fifth Elite Eight, second to only Kentucky’s six Elite Eight’s in that ten-year time span. With the Huskies win over Vanderbilt on Thursday, the Huskies improved to 10-1 in NCAA Tournament games played in the Western states in the USA. The wins include three in Phoenix, two in Spokane, WA, two wins in Salt Lake City, UT and a 1-1 record in Oakland, CA.

UConn reached the 30-win season plateau for only the fifth time in school history and all under Calhoun, all achieved since the 1989-90 season. It is the first 30-win season since Connecticut claimed the 1999 National Championship. Calhoun also moved solely into seventh place in the NCAA Division I Winningest Active Coaches list and ahead of Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim after Syracuse fell on Thursday night.

UConn junior All-American Emeka Okafor recorded a double-double against Vanderbilt, his 23rd of the season and the 52nd of his career. He slipped into second place in scoring on the team averaging 17.9 points per game. He does lead the team in rebounds at 11.6 per game and blocked shots at 4.2 per game.

Junior Ben Gordon’s scoring run since the BIG EAST Tournament has moved him back into the top spot as the team’s leading scorer. He is now averaging 18.0 points per game and added 4.7 assists and 4.9 rebounds per game. He passed UConn great Richard Hamilton with career three-pointers having now hit on 238 shots from beyond the arc to become second all-time at UConn. Chris Smith is the all-time leader with 242.

Senior guard Taliek Brown reached his 100th career win at Connecticut in UConn’s defeat over Vanderbilt. He now has a record of 100-35 and is 8-2 in NCAA Tournament play. Brown has a team-leading 236 assists for an average of 6.56 per game.

Alabama is making its first appearance in the men’s basketball program in the NCAA Elite Eight. Alabama is 5-5 against Top 25 teams this season, and knocked off ninth-seeded Illinois, top-seeded Stanford and fifth-seeded Syracuse to advance to the Elite Eight. The Tide hold a record of 19-16 in the NCAA Tournament in 17 appearances

The Tide have won all three of its NCAA Tournament games by a total of 13 points. They beat Illinois by a single point in the First Round and defeated Stanford by three in Second Round action. Alabama then took out Syracuse by nine points in the Regional Semifinal.

Alabama head coach Mark Gottfried is in his sixth season at the helm of Alabama. He owns a record of 119-73 as part of the Crimson Tide and earned his third 20-win season at Alabama with the team’s win over Syracuse. Gottfried was the assistant coach at UCLA when the Bruins took down the Huskies, 102-96 in the Regional Final in Oakland during the 1995 Championship en route to the National Title.

Kennedy Winston leads three Tide players in double-figure scoring in 2003-04. Winston has a team-best 17.0 points plus adds 5.5 rebounds per game. Earnest Shelton averages 16.0 points per game while Chuck Davis connects on 11.2 points per game. Davis also has a team-best 5.8 rebounds per contest.