Winners and Losers of the 2023 Men's Final Four

The matchup for the 2023 NCAA men's basketball championship game is set following Saturday's Final Four action.

In the first semifinal game of the night, Florida Atlantic built a 14-point lead in the second half, only to see that slowly evaporate into a one-possession game, setting up a nail-biting final five minutes.

San Diego State did not lead in the entire second half until Lamont Butler buried a game-winning jumper at the buzzer to give the Aztecs a thrilling 72-71 victory.

The second game did not provide nearly the same drama, with the UConn Huskies leading the entire game on the way to a 72-59 victory over the Miami Hurricanes to keep their dominant run through the NCAA tournament rolling.

Let's take a quick run through the biggest winners and losers of the day beyond just what the scoreboard showed after the final buzzer sounded.

San Diego State center Nathan Mensah pulled down the biggest rebound of his career off a miss from Florida Atlantic's Johnell Davis with 10 seconds remaining and quickly threw an outlet pass to Lamont Butler.

Despite having one timeout remaining and the fact that leading scorer Matt Bradley (21 points) was sitting on the sidelines, San Diego State coach Brian Dutcher opted to let things play out rather than giving the Florida Atlantic defense a chance to get set.

"I ran out of plays, so I decided not to take a timeout," Dutcher joked during his post-game TV interview.

Butler drove the floor, looked around for an open teammate, and briefly looked like he might not get a shot up at all before pulling up and burying the game-winning jumper just ahead of the buzzer.

With that basket, the Aztecs capped off the fifth-largest comeback in Final Four history, according to the CBS broadcast.

A tip of the cap to No. 9 seed Florida Atlantic on an amazing Cinderella run and a dominant performance for much of this game, but the story here is San Diego State.

They will look to put the finishing touches on a magical run through the NCAA tournament field as a No. 5 seed, grinding through games on the strength of their disruptively slow tempo and stellar defense.

The Aztecs used a 16-4 run capped off by a pair of Matt Bradley free throws to whittle what was once a 14-point Owls lead all the way down to 60-58 with 9:05 left on the clock, setting up a thrilling stretch run of back-and-forth basketball.

On their sixth straight possession with at least one offensive rebound, the Aztecs pulled even at 65-65 with 4:26 to play when Aguek Arop knocked down a short jumper. That basket marked the first time since it was 26-26 with 7:01 remaining in the first half that the score was tied.

The two teams scored just 11 combined points over the next four-plus minutes of action, with the Aztecs pulling within 71-70 with 38 seconds to play on a jumper from Jaedon LeDee.

San Diego State took a timeout following that basket, and Florida Atlantic took consecutive timeouts with 18 seconds after advancing the ball across half court to try to set up a final play.

The Aztecs played straight up, and the Owls' leading scorer, Johnell Davis, missed a driving attempt thanks to a good shot contest from Arop with 10 seconds left, setting up a final possession that will go down in March Madness history.

The Aztecs threw what appeared to be a potential knockout punch at the Owls in the early minutes of the opening game during Saturday's Final Four action.

After the Owls scored the first five points of the contest, the Aztecs ripped off a 14-0 run over the next four minutes and appeared to be on the cusp of taking complete control of the game before the under-12-minutes media timeout.

Instead, Florida Atlantic answered with a big swing of its own.

The Owls rebounded from their cold spell with a 16-3 run, balancing the scales and essentially resetting the game with 10 minutes remaining in the first half. All told, they went on to outscore the Aztecs by a 35-19 margin following the first five-and-a-half minutes to take a 40-33 lead into halftime.

An impressive 6-of-14 showing from beyond the arc during the first half contributed to the Owls' success, with Nick Boyd setting the tone with three made threes and a team-high nine points before the break.

The Owls then picked up right where they left off to begin the second half, building a game-high 54-40 lead with 14:56 remaining when Alijah Martin was fouled shooting a three and subsequently knocked down all three of his free-throw attempts.

Martin would score 19 of his game-high 26 points during the second half to help the Owls build that big margin.

It was a dominant performance through 25 minutes of action for a No. 9 seed playing in the Final Four, and while the final outcome didn't fall in their favor, it is still a performance worth celebrating and a Cinderella run that won't soon be forgotten.

The UConn Huskies have been the most dominant team throughout this year's NCAA men's tournament, becoming just the 10th team to win each of their first four games en route to the Final Four by 15 or more points.

They didn't quite make it five straight, but they were in control from the opening tip against the Miami Hurricanes on Saturday night, earning a 72-59 win and a trip to the national championship.

The Huskies shot 49.1 percent from the floor and assisted on 19 of 28 made field goals, moving the ball well all night while also winning the rebounding battle and building their lead to as many as 20 at one point.

Stars Adama Sanogo (21 points) and Jordan Hawkins (13 points) led the way as usual offensively, but UConn also got 17 points off the bench and knocked down at least nine three-pointers for the fifth consecutive game.

It's hard to believe this Huskies team lost eight games during the regular season and entered the NCAA tournament as a No. 4 seed because they have put together as dominant a March Madness run as any team in recent memory.

Can they finish it off on Monday night?

The Miami Hurricanes entered Saturday night's game ranked No. 5 in KenPom's adjusted offensive efficiency and averaging 79.6 points per game following an 88-81 comeback victory over Texas in the Elite Eight.

That high-powered offense was nowhere to be found against UConn.

The Hurricanes started the night an ugly 1-for-12 from the floor, falling behind 14-4 in the process, and while Isaiah Wong snapped that drought with a three-pointer, they simply never fully woke up on that end of the floor as the game unfolded.

They entered halftime with a season-low 24 points on 9-of-36 shooting, and while they briefly cut the UConn lead to single-digits when another three-pointer from Wong made it a 53-45 game with 11:41 remaining, that was as close as things would get the rest of the way.

The final box score showed 59 points on 32.3 percent shooting from the floor, and many of those misses came in close as they had 14 missed layups, according to the CBS broadcast.

It was just the sixth time all season they shot under 40 percent as a team, and it could not have come at a worse time.

Despite both rosters featuring high-profile guards capable of piling up points in a hurry, one of the key matchups in the night's second game was the battle inside between UConn's Adama Sanogo and Miami's Norchad Omier.

Sanogo entered Saturday's game averaging 20.0 points and 9.8 rebounds while shooting 65.5 percent from the floor in the NCAA tournament. However, he had a relatively quiet game against Gonzaga in the Elite Eight, finishing with 10 points on 3-of-11 shooting.

Meanwhile, Omier entered Final Four play with an impressive 16 double-doubles on the year, including two in the NCAA tournament against Drake and Houston. His scoring has been down a bit during March Madness relative to his regular-season numbers, but he was still averaging a double-double through four games at 10.5 points and 13.3 rebounds per contest.

There was a clear winner in the head-to-head battle on Saturday:

• Sanogo: 21 points, 10 rebounds, 9/11 FG
• Omier: 8 points, 7 rebounds, 3/8 FG

The Huskies star even hit a pair of three-pointers, his 18th and 19th made threes on the year, and his performance went a long way in helping the Huskies set the tone early and come away with the win.