They battled back, trailing by 11 early in the second half with their best player sidelined by a sprained left knee. Other players stepped up: Jerome Dyson, who hit four huge free throws in the final 10 seconds of both regulation and overtime and finished with 14; Jeff Adrien, who played with fire all game and had a team-high 18 points and 12 rebounds; Hasheem Thabeet, who asserted himself down low in the second half and had 14 points, 6 boards and 4 blocks.

But UConn came up short.

De'Jon Jackson missed a potential game-winning shot at the end of regulation, then was whistled for a key traveling call with 1:05 left in overtime. But he redeemed himself in a big way, hitting a wing jumper with 1.2 seconds left in OT to put San Diego ahead for good in a 70-69, first-round NCAA tourney win that ended UConn's season.

To top it off, Jackson stole Jeff Adrien's ensuing inbounds pass at midcourt, sealing the Huskies' fate.

It's the first time in Jim Calhoun's 22 years at UConn that he's lost an NCAA tourney first-round game. No doubt, a huge contributing factor was the loss of All-Big East point guard A.J. Price, who sprained his left knee with 9:39 left in the first half and spent the rest of the game watching from the bench, no doubt looking at a long rehab process over the offseason.

And that offseason has now come.

More posts to come ...