NCAA MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP - FINAL FOUR: SAN DIEGO STATE VS UCONN

April 3, 2023

Dan Hurley

Adama Sanogo

Jordan Hawkins

Tristen Newton

NRG Stadium

UConn Huskies

Finals Postgame Media Conference

UConn - 76, San Diego State - 59

COACH HURLEY: Obviously, a dream come true for all of us. It was a part of the program -- we sold the vision. I sold the vision to David Benedict and President Herbst and President Radanka and the university that I could put together a special group of people, coaching staff, unbelievable players like this.

So it feels great to come through on promises made by me to all the great people of Connecticut and then with these guys. This was our vision. This was our dream. This is what we talked about when we recruited these guys, that we could get together and do something big like this.

It's just great to come through on promises made to players and to this university, and it was an honor to play against San Diego State today, too.

I've got to tell you, I think it was probably the most physical, one of the toughest teams we played this year, certainly one of the best. And I just got so much admiration and respect for how they play, their culture, and their coach. He's one of the best coaches in the country.

Q. Jordan, can you describe just the 3-pointer that you hit when they had cut the lead to I think it was 60-55, and just what you feel like the team needed at that point to steady itself because you hadn't been in any tight games in the tournament?

JORDAN HAWKINS: Coach drew something up for me. I know he trusted me to make that shot. I had to make it. Easy part. All credit to my teammates for getting me open on those screens and Coach for trusting me.

Q. Adama, I understand that your family still resides in Mali. Just want to ask you how it's been to have their support, even from the other side of the world?

ADAMA SANOGO: Definitely, I think my family is a major part of my success right now. Every time I do something, I think about them. They're the reason I go hard for this.

I know for sure they're watching this game. I know for sure they're proud of me. There's a lot of African players, Malian players in college. I've had a chance to be in Final Four, and I definitely -- I'll remember it forever, and it's something I will never forget in my life.

Q. Adama, way back in September Emeka Okafor came to campus, and one of the things you said then was you wanted to do what he did, which is win a championship, Most Outstanding Player. How does it feel now that you fulfilled on a very lofty goal?

ADAMA SANOGO: I feel great. Like you said, he came in the summer. I talked to him for an hour, got some thoughts from him. And to be able to talk to a champion like him, definitely something that everybody needed.

I told him told -- he told us after he watched our practice, he was like, I see that I can count on you guys, you guys are a special team. And he said like we just got to stay strong, stay connected as a family. Because he said that was one thing we need to do is stay connected as a family.

I think we did that this year, and here we are.

Q. Yesterday, your cousin won a national championship; today you won a national championship. Talk about how special that is, and add on to that how great it is for the DMV?

JORDAN HAWKINS: It's absolutely amazing showing the kids that were our age at the time, we were dreaming about the same thing. We showed that it's possible. We showed that's it's amazing. It's absolutely amazing that we both get this opportunity. The family reunion is going to be crazy. That's all I know.

Q. Tristen, what's this moment mean for you?

TRISTEN NEWTON: Means a lot. Great credit to the coaches and my teammates. The vision we had when I came here was to win a national championship, get to the Final Four and win a national championship. And I came here just to do that. And just real blessed and thankful for these guys around me.

Q. I got a chance to talk to you guys and talk to Angel, and basically a lot of racism inside of sports. Can you guys talk about what it felt like to see what happened to Angel, and what do you want to say to her right now?

JORDAN HAWKINS: Angel, she has the heart of a lion. She's not worried about any of that. She's going to play her game. She's from the dirty streets of Baltimore. She's the toughest of the toughest. So that's not anything to her, yeah.

Q. Jordan, could you describe the 11-minute stretch where you all held them without a field goal, and what do you feel like that did for the overall game?

JORDAN HAWKINS: I mean, we're a great defensive team. When we can get stops like that get out in transmission, that really impacts our game, really impacts the game. Just holding them to that stretch, I think that was really big for us.

Q. Tristen, you had that stretch, scored seven points in a row. Seemed like that's indicative of what this team is all about, that anybody could step up at any time and take a game over. What do you remember about that stretch? What did you see unfolding there?

TRISTEN NEWTON: I mean, before the game started, my coaches told me I need to be aggressive and look to this quarter to win the game. First bucket, the spin move, take advantage of the mismatch because he was a smaller guard. The second one was somebody stole the ball, so credit to them, Andre found me on a 3. Really credit to my teammates and the spacing we had and the coaches for believing in me and telling me to be aggressive today.

Q. You mentioned the dream come true part but also the vision that you sold when you started. This program has obviously had incredible highs, but it's been through a lot in the last five, seven years. What's it mean to you to be on the stage right now as a national champion, knowing what this program went through in those previous years, and what you were able to bring it to with this team this year?

COACH HURLEY: You know what, I'm still thinking about some things, that typical Dan Hurley fashion, the amount of missed layups. Jordan's dunk to start -- we should have been up 18, 20 at halftime. That's just really the way my mind works. I think when I get back to the hotel and we get off the bus and I just get in a room for a little bit I'll be able to kind of decompress a little bit.

I'm just mostly proud of the way we've done it and with the type of people that we've done it, the way we recruit young players, develop young players. We do it without cheating. We do it without lying.

It's truly been building a program and a culture. I'm lucky I have the best coaching staff in the country that attracts these incredible types of players.

Q. Obviously UConn's championships have been defined by stars like Emeka and Shabazz. Another double-double from Adama. What has his run meant to this team's ability to win a championship?

COACH HURLEY: He's obviously cemented himself into the pantheon of greatest, obviously, the greatest big guys with all the production and back-to-back First Team All-League, and now this, to have the national championship just puts him in a position in one of the most storied programs in college basketball. He's an all-time great.

Q. You know what your family means in basketball, in New Jersey. What does it mean to you to add to that name in sport?

COACH HURLEY: I think people -- obviously for me I've had my own path, my own journey. I think a lot of people -- I've probably done it to myself by being such an intense, fiery coach, that people have always focused more on the sideline kind of antiques than my total body of work over the course of my career.

There's not many coaches that were as successful as my teams were at Saint Benedict's, Wagner and Rhode Island. Not many coaches in the country that have won 25 games or more in three different programs and now have a national championship.

So obviously there's a certain level of validation that's going to come from this. But I just feel like my career in coaching, even prior to this, I think most coaches -- maybe I don't do a great job kissing the media's ass and presenting and this image that's incredibly likable, but I am who I am. I'm from Jersey City, and this is how people from Jersey City act.

Q. You emphasized out on the court, you said with some emphasis "We have our own now." Can you expand on what that means that this is your piece of a storied program?

COACH HURLEY: I hope Coach Calhoun, too, he's had his hand in this one as well. I wish he could have been here for it because I know he's been a big part of helping us get here. When you're in that Werth Champions Center and Geno and with everything that Geno's done and what they do on a yearly basis and all their hardware.

And obviously we propped up in recruiting those four national championship trophies in front of these kids. And we had nothing to do with that. And we removed them about 18 months ago when we started feeling like we had put something together that could make a run at getting a fifth.

So we removed those and put them -- got them out of our offices and said we don't want any trophies in here until we've got our own.

And it's just when you're in a place like that, it's a little bit empty until you feel like you can join the club. I feel like now we've held up our end of the bargain that the women's team has been carrying for so long since forever. It seems like. And Coach Calhoun and Kevin Ollie, Geno, it feels good to accomplish what they've done.

Q. Coming into this season, you had not won an NCAA Tournament game at UConn. How much pressure were you feeling as the season unfolded to deliver this result?

COACH HURLEY: Me and Kimani, we talked about it once we got our roster together and knew we had a squad. Me and Kimani and Luke kept saying, the most pressure-packed game that we'll ever coach in or play in was going to be that first-round game. We didn't know who it was going to be. And obviously it was Iona.

And then hysteria started. We were playing the boogie man, Rick Pitino, and that we were in big trouble. We knew we couldn't go out like suckers again in the first weekend. But we also didn't wear that around the players, but we certainly felt it. But, listen, we came into the season unranked. So we had an edge to us to start the year to prove people wrong.

Q. You mentioned being unranked. No 1, 2 or 3 seed was here. 16 beats a 1 again. Is it fitting that you guys were unranked and lost five out of six in January and nobody could touch you here?

COACH HURLEY: I just think it's such a hard tournament to be successful in and navigate. And obviously the last two teams we've played, I mean, Miami beating Houston and Texas back to back in Kansas City, that's a heck of a team. We played Alabama. We know how good they are, beating them. And a Creighton team. This tournament is hard to navigate. It's not a seven-game series. It's not a five-game series. And with the extra COVID year and the NIL and the portal, it's made things even more challenging for the biggest brands and highest seeds to advance because there's so much parity.

Q. A few years back, the Big East decided to realign and put an emphasis on basketball. How much dividends does that pay for this league over the years?

COACH HURLEY: I thought we were the best conference in the country this year. I think year in, year out we are. I felt like our top five, in particular, especially when Providence had it going, it was clearly -- the top four or five was clearly the best. And it showed in the NCAA Tournament.

If Xavier doesn't lose Freemantle, they're very easily in the Final Four. Obviously Creighton was right there. Tough call. Away from maybe playing us tonight here.

And then Shaka Smart, for me, was the best coach in the country. And their season, they were, up until that tough second-round game versus Michigan State, like, they had as good a season as anybody in the country.

And Providence was playing great until they started to struggle late. But the Big East was the best conference in the country this year. We were the most successful in the NCAA Tournament, and we have the national championship. So we were the best league in the country this year. And I don't think that's going to change. With the type of coaches that now have moved around, I don't think we're going anywhere. I know we're not.