UConn vs. San Diego State in the 2023 NCAA championship game.

After a wild Saturday in the Final Four, No. 4 UConn will play No. 5 San Diego State on Monday night in Houston (9:20 p.m., CBS) for the 2023 NCAA Tournament Championship.

Teams, coaches, and programmes are affected. San Diego State is fighting for their first men's basketball national championship after never making the Final Four, while UConn is seeking its sixth since 1999 but first since 2014.

UConn's Dan Hurley and San Diego State's Brian Dutcher might win their first national championships as head coaches, while Dutcher won as an assistant with Steve Fisher at Michigan. The five San Diego State players who won 30 games and were headed towards a top-two seed before the 2020 NCAA Tournament was cancelled each have their own objectives.

UConn's mission is to restore glory, but more specifically to honour the upperclassmen who helped get them here. The Huskies returned to the NCAA Tournament in 2021 after five years. Following two straight first-round losses, UConn needed to prove it could survive the first weekend. In 2023, freshman Adama Sanogo and Andre Jackson might take satisfaction in returning the programme to the top.

San Diego State elite clutch

Dutcher's choice not to call timeout and let his players determine the national semifinal in the Aztecs' historic buzzer-beater over FAU on Saturday night will be fascinating. Lamont Butler wanted to go to the rim, but it was closed, so he had to work to the outside and release on one of the most legendary Final Four shots. Dutcher has stressed all tournament how this team's experience has earned his trust, but trustworthiness also comes through this season's close wins.

San Diego State is 10-1 in five-point games this season after beating FAU. Playing a grinder style with slower tempo and strong defence makes it more likely to end up in close games, but the Aztecs consistently win shows their high-level execution on both ends of the floor.

San Diego State's back-to-back one-point Elite Eight and Final Four triumphs put it in rare company among tournament clutch performances. The 2023 Aztecs are the third team to win back-to-back NCAA Tournament games by one point (2018 Loyola, 1981 Saint Josephs) and the second to do so in the final two seconds. In 2011, Butler secured two game-winners from Matt Howard to reach the national championship game, where they lost to... UConn.