By tradition, NCAA regional champions stage elaborate net-cutting ceremonies, with everyone from the leading scorer to the student managers climbing a ladder and taking a snip.
Not the Connecticut Huskies - not this time anyway.
After holding off Missouri, 82-75, in the West Regional final Saturday, the Huskies decided to put off the net-cutting for a week. The Huskies plan on bringing scissors to Detroit's Ford Field, site of the Final Four.
"We have another mission," guard Craig Austrie said.
Closing in on its third national title, UConn (31-4) will face Midwest Regional champ Michigan State (30-6) in the national semifinals Saturday. It could be a virtual home game for the Spartans, whose East Lansing campus is 90 miles from Detroit - a big change for a UConn team that has made itself at home in the desert.
This is the third time the Huskies have won Phoenix-area regionals. The first time, in 1999, coach Jim Calhoun wept after they outlasted Gonzaga. The feeling was different five years later, when the favored Huskies blasted Alabama by 16 points to earn a Final Four berth.
This time, the top-seeded Huskies survived against two game opponents - Purdue and Missouri - who posed different challenges.
The Huskies adjusted nicely. They used their tallest player, 7-foot-3-inch center Hasheem Thabeet, to wear down the Boilermakers. Then they used their second-smallest player, 6-1 freshman guard Kemba Walker, to outrun the Tigers. Talk about versatility.
"I don't know what we are this year, but I know we're really, really good," Calhoun said.
Pitt stopped - again
This was the season Pitt did so much more than it had done before.
The Panthers reached No. 1 in the AP college basketball poll for the first time, and did it twice. They beat a No. 1-ranked team for the first time, and did it twice. For the first time since beginning their eight-season run with 20 or more wins in 2002, they finally surpassed a major hurdle by reaching an NCAA regional championship game.
In the so-called Season of the Big East, they were the Big East's beast.
Except at the end where, this time, there were no firsts - and no Final Four. Once again, the Panthers saved their worst for last, in this case a wrenching 78-76 loss to Villanova Saturday at the TD Banknorth Garden.
It's almost impossible to come closer to the Final Four without getting there than this, and there will be no second chances for seniors Sam Young, Levance Fields, and Tyrell Biggs or, possibly, sophomore DeJuan Blair, if he declares for the NBA draft.
