1-Seed UConn Biggest Comeback with 17-0 Run to End Game

The day after 2-seed UConn from 1996 was upset by 18-seed Kansas 2022 in our first Sweet 16 game, it looked like the Elite 8 would not feature a UConn team.

The 16-seed Texas 2023 team that was ranked #1 in www.kenpom.com and #2 in the AP early in the season seemed on their way to a stunningly easy win against the 1-seed and actual champion from that season UConn with a 71-57 lead with 5 minutes (9 possessions) to play in the game.

That would prove to be the largest deficit ever overcome in one of our Value Add Basketball Game - almost 300 games since it was invented. Tristen Newton hit a 3-pointer to cut it to 71-60 but Tyrese Hunter hit a 3-pointer with 3:58 (7 possessions to play to make it 75-63.

From that point on Adama Sanogo (17 points, 13 rebounds) dominated to help UConn close otu teh game on an unprecedented 17-0 run to close out the biggest comeback in our games history for the 80-75 win to advance to the Elite 8.

The top seed will now face the winner of the 9-seed UCLA 2008 team and the biggest surprise, Wes Unseld and his 25-seed Louisville team. The following is the box score and updated bracket. The other team already in the Elite 8 is Kansas 2022, which will face the winner of the game between the Rutgers 1976 team that made it to the Final 4 undefeated, and one of the other biggest surprises in our game - the 2021 Colorado team.

Kansas fans would say we underseeded their 2022 national champs and overseed the 1996 UConn team featuring Ray Allen. However, from the player cards it appeared to us that Kansas won it in a great year of parity with no great teams - while we believe 1996 had several of the greatest teams ever with likely the greatest Kentucky team in history and Calipari's UMass team that was undefeated until the Final - and UConn was ranked behind only those two most of the year. 

in other words we would have predicted that any of the top three teams in 1996 could have beaten any team in 2022 - but Kansas proved us wrong in the game at least.

 

Texas 2023	Pts	3pt	2pt	FT	Att	Reb	Stl	Blk	Fl	Hts	Season Actual
Marcus Carr	19	1	5	6	6	2	2	1	2	6'2	15.9 Pts, 3.0 Reb, 4.1 Ast
Tyrese Hunter	18	3	4	1	2	3	2	0	1	6'0	10.3 Pts, 3.0 Reb, 2.5 Ast
Sir'Jabari Rice	11	2	2	1	2	4	0	0	1	6'4	13.0 Pts, 3.5 Reb, 2.0 Ast
Timmy Allen	6	0	2	2	2	8	3	1	5	6'6	10.5 Pts, 5.6 Reb, 3.5 Ast
Dylan Disu	5	0	2	1	1	7	0	3	3	6'9	8.8 Pts, 4.4 Reb, 1.0 Ast
Dillon Mitchell	4	0	2	0	0	1	1	0	2	6'8	4.3 Pts, 3.9 Reb, 0.4 Ast
Brock Cunningham	4	0	2	0	0	2	0	0	1	6'5	4.6 Pts, 3.4 Reb, 1.4 Ast
Arterio Morris	2	0	1	0	0	1	0	0	1	6'3	4.6 Pts, 1.4 Reb, 0.5 Ast
Christian Bishop	6	0	3	0	0	4	0	0	2	6'7	6.6 Pts, 3.7 Reb, 0.9 Ast
14 Turnovers	75	6	23	11	13	32	8	5	18
UConn 2023	Pts	3pt	2pt	FT	Att	Reb	Stl	Blk	Fl	Hts	Season Actual
Tristen Newton	11	1	4	0	0	2	4	0	3	6'5	10.1 Pts, 4.5 Reb, 4.7 Ast
Andre Jackson	10	2	2	0	0	4	0	0	2	6'6	6.7 Pts, 6.2 Reb, 4.7 Ast
Alex Karaban	4	0	2	0	0	6	1	0	1	6'8	9.3 Pts, 4.5 Reb, 1.7 Ast
Jordan Hawkins	16	1	3	7	7	4	0	1	3	6'5	16.2 Pts, 3.8 Reb, 1.3 Ast
Adama Sanogo	17	0	6	5	5	13	1	2	2	6'9	17.2 Pts, 7.7 Reb, 1.3 Ast
Hassan Diarra	3	1	0	0	0	1	0	0	2	6'2	2.1 Pts, 1.3 Reb, 1.8 Ast
Joey Calcaterra	6	0	2	2	2	2	0	0	1	6'3	5.8 Pts, 1.7 Reb, 1.2 Ast
Nahiem Alleyne	5	1	1	0	0	1	0	0	1	6'4	5.2 Pts, 1.2 Reb, 0.8 Ast
Samson Johnson	4	0	2	0	0	2	1	0	2	6'10	0.9 Pts, 0.8 Reb, 0.1 Ast
Donovan Clingan	4	0	2	0	0	1	1	0	1	7'2	6.9 Pts, 5.6 Reb, 0.5 Ast
14 Turnovers	80	6	24	14	14	36	8	3	18