UConn wins West, berth in Final Four

ANAHEIM, Calif. - Jim Calhoun could scarcely watch when the most improbable postseason run of his coaching life at Connecticut came down to an open 3-point attempt by Arizona's Jamelle Horne.

The shot clanged off the back rim. The clock hit zeros.

Nine victories in just 19 days. Calhoun has seen just about everything, but nothing like this — and now his Huskies will keep running all the way to Houston.

Kemba Walker scored 20 points, freshman Jeremy Lamb added 19 and UConn earned its second Final Four berth in three years, beating Arizona 65-63 Saturday to win the West regional.

After missing the NCAA tournament entirely last year, Calhoun's tireless team is headed to the Huskies' fourth Final Four, punctuated by an ebullient on-court celebration in a building packed with Arizona fans.

UConn simply hasn't lost since a .500 Big East regular season, winning five games in five days at the conference tournament before this NCAA run. Walker claims he isn't surprised by this sprint through the postseason, while Lamb has nothing to compare it to, leaving Calhoun alone in his grateful disbelief.

"Never did I imagine a team winning nine games in tournament play in 19 days," Calhoun said. "These brothers, these young guys, have just given me a thrill beyond compare. Our march in the past nine games, I haven't experienced anything like this."

UConn also made the Final Four in 1999, 2004 and 2009 — all three times out of the West. In sweet redemption for a program and a veteran coach tarred by scandals over the past year, the Huskies will face the winner of North Carolina's East regional final against Kentucky next Saturday.

Derrick Williams and Horne missed go-ahead 3-pointers in the final seconds for Arizona, allowing the third-seeded Huskies (30-9) to hang on after Lamb scored six key points down the stretch when Walker encouraged the Huskies to run plays for the fearless frosh.

"This is no time to be tired," Walker said. "We're trying to get as far as possible. We want to win this whole thing."

Williams had 20 points while battling foul trouble for the fifth-seeded Wildcats (30-8), who led with 6 minutes to play. After Lamb pushed the Huskies ahead and Walker hit a jumper with 1:13 left, Lamont Jones and Horne then hit late 3-pointers for Arizona, but the Wildcats couldn't convert two good looks in the final seconds.

"The second one, I thought it was definitely going in," Lamb said. "When he missed it, I looked at the clock and saw zero-zero, and I just went, 'Whooooo.' It's the best feeling I've ever had."

The Huskies are the last team standing from the Big East's 11 NCAA entrants. After going 9-9 in regular-season conference play, they've done more than even Calhoun might have expected just three weeks ago.

After the Wildcats missed their final two shots, Walker and Calhoun wrapped each other in a bear hug at center court after the buzzer as Emeka Okafor, Jake Voskuhl and other UConn alums celebrated on the court.

The two-time national champion coach has referred to his group as "an old-fashioned team," a praise of their work ethic and resilience. But they also showed remarkable poise down the stretch in a building firmly in favor of the Wildcats.

A year after Arizona's 25-year streak of NCAA tournament appearances ended, the Wildcats and second-year coach Sean Miller were one 3-pointer away from a return to the Final Four. Williams demolished Duke in the regional semifinals with a career-high 32 points, but three early fouls limited him to 7 minutes in the first half against UConn.

"I've never been prouder of a team, and I've never seen a team come so far as we did in a short period of time," Miller said. "It will probably feel better in a few weeks than it does now."

Tennessee will be better off without the fired Bruce Pearl, but not as good

It took six months longer than it should have.

It took an alleged NCAA violation four days after he cried at a press conference where he admitted to other NCAA violations.

It took an about-face from a university administration that long ago lost the ability to save face.

It took a suspension from the SEC commissioner and a Notice of Allegations from the NCAA and the worst loss of his tenure to close his worst season before Tennessee basketball coach Bruce Pearl finally lost his job.

No surprise there. No matter how often they cross the line or how far they leave it behind, successful coaches usually can keep coaching until they lose an embarrassing number of games or lose a single game in an embarrassing fashion.

Pearl managed to do both.

His 15 losses were the most of his six-year tenure, after starting this season 7-0 and rising to No. 7 in both major polls, and his 30-point loss to Michigan in the NCAA Tournament was the largest margin of defeat he suffered with the Vols.

He lost that game Friday. He lost his job Monday.

Coincidence? Maybe, in this case.

Embattled AD Mike Hamilton signaled a shift in the school's inexplicable support of Pearl in a Knoxville radio interview last week. That interview hinted that this day might come.

Whatever the reason for Pearl's dismissal, Tennessee basketball won't be the same without him. Neither will SEC basketball.

If you believe in law and order, if you believe coaches are teachers who should follow the rules, tell the truth and encourage others to do the same, Monday was a good day for the school and the league. Tennessee fired a coach who admitted that he was guilty of unethical conduct by lying to the NCAA enforcement staff and encouraging a recruit's father to do the same.

That's justice. It's justice delayed, considering that Pearl finally 'fessed up at the start of this academic year, but it's better than justice denied.

It's hard to imagine anyone could disagree with Tennessee's decision, outside of Pearl, his family, UT fans who remember the days of Buzz Peterson and Jim Tressel. But it can't be overstated that the Vols have thrown overboard their best coach of the modern era, one of the better coaches in the SEC and beyond.

Pearl wasn't the best coach in the league. He hasn't led three teams to the national championship game and won two NCAA titles, as Billy Donovan has. But the flop-sweating, chest-painting, carnival-barking Pearl gave Tennessee basketball two things it was lacking and a lot of other SEC programs still need.

Style and substance. And not necessarily in that order.

Pearl won or shared three division titles in the last six years. Only Rick Stansbury has matched that record, but in the weaker SEC West.

Tennessee is the only team in the league to reach the NCAA Tournament the last six years, or every year that Pearl was there. Tennessee and Florida are the only SEC programs to advance to three Sweet 16s in the last six years.

Pearl racked up Tennessee firsts almost as fast as he did impermissible phone calls to prospective student-athletes.

First No. 1 ranking in school history.

First Elite Eight in school history.

First victory over a No. 1 team in Thompson-Boling history.

That kind of success is unlikely to last with the school headed to a hearing before the NCAA Infractions Committee in June. There will be sanctions, and it's hard to predict whether firing Pearl now will lessen the damage.

That uncertainty could limit the pool of interested candidates, at least those that have won the way Pearl did in a power conference like the SEC. So could the cloud over the future of the AD.

So. How badly do such up-and-comers as VCU's Shaka Smart want to coach in the SEC? At Tennessee, someone will have to fill an oversized building and extra-large shoes and do it while on probation.

At least Pearl won't be given the chance to clean up the major mess he made. Tennessee will be better off without him. It just won't be as good.