Dave Hyde: Miami needs a hug — and Larrañaga gives one — after falling to Connecticut in Final Four

Couldn’t shoot.

Couldn’t defend.

Couldn’t do anything but give this team a hug like Miami Hurricanes coach Jim Larrañaga did as his players came out of the game with a minute left in their season. He pulled Jordan Miller, Norchad Omier and Isaiah Wong in close on the sideline near the end of their 72-59 loss to Connecticut in the Final Four.

“He told us he loved us, he was proud of us,’' Miller said.

That, more than any residual disappointment, was the way to end this trip to the Final Four.

“I’ve really been on a magic carpet ride with these young men,’' Larrañaga said.

What began Saturday with sugar-plum thoughts of Florida Atlantic meeting Miami in Monday’s championship game ends instead with neither making that game. Florida Atlantic lost at the buzzer San Diego State 72-71. Miami ran into a buzz-saw called Connecticut.

It’s not the ending South Florida wanted.

It’s not the one anyone expected, either.

Are you kidding? No one expected the college basketball season to end for South Florida in the Final Four. Saturday’s losses don’t dent that larger story, the one everyone will remember, the sight of two programs with scant history playing so deep in the college season that March Madness has become April Insanity.

Larrañaga stood there patiently, arms folded on the sideline, waiting for the team he coached these past five months to emerge. Connecticut led by 13 at half, and Miami made isolated runs at that lead.

It cut it to eight points, 53-45, midway through the second half. But Connecticut quickly re-stretched the lead to 15 points. Miami twice came within 10 points, the last with four minutes left, but UConn made a shot and was fouled. The lead was 13 points again.

Larrañaga threw a couple of timeouts into the mix to try to change the storyline. That’s about all he could do by that point in hoping to change the game. But there was no stopping UConn and there’s no secret to what happened for too much of this night.

Miami couldn’t make the shots it sank most of the season. Was it the big stage? Was it Connecticut’s defense? Or was it simply the kind of shooting night that happened at the exact wrong moment?

We were never in sync offensively,’' Larrañaga said. “We struggled. Guys played hard, trying their best. But it wasn’t the script we were looking for. Some of that credit goes to Connecticut with the defense they played. Some of it probably is the venue, being in the Final Four for the first time in school history.”

Numbers told he problem: Miami shot 9 for 36 in the first half. This strong offensive team couldn’t find its offense from the start. That’s how it went all night, too, as Miami finished shooting 32.8 percent for the game against UConn’s 49.1 percent.

“Fifty-nine points?” Larrañaga said, looking at the stat sheet. “Was that our lowest all year?”

It was. Then there was the defense. Larrañaga was asked about the strategy on Connecticut center Adama Sanogo, who finished with 21 points on nine-of-11 shooting.

“You couldn’t tell?” he said. “I couldn’t, either.”

The other numbers looked just fine on the statistics sheet. Miami tied the bigger Connecticut team with 13 offensive rebounds. It had nine turnovers to Connecticut’s 15.

There was a streakiness to Miami’s run here. It shot 59.2 percent against Texas the previous game to reach the Final Four. It also shot 30.4 percent in the opening win against Drake. You can do that and still come out with a win against Drake.

Not against UConn. Not against a team that’s been feeling something special all tournament. It won every game by double digits in reaching the Final Four. Its program already has five national titles, too, so it came here expecting to add another.

Miami played more like Miami in the second half. But Connecticut is too good, too smart, to give up a good lead in an important game.

Like Florida Atlantic before it, Miami’s loss doesn’t alter the historic nature of their season. Miami’s season is different, though, in that it’s developing the sustained success that marks good programs.

Last year it was the Elite Eight. This year it was the Atlantic Coast Conference title and a run to its first Final Four.

“We found a way to make school history both years, which is rare,’' Miller said. “The core of this team is very young. If everyone decided to come back we could be very speial again. We’ve tried to build what every year Miami basketball team should try to reach each year.”

We haven’t quite reached the point of expecting great basketball teams every year. But they’ve got the experience of being in a Final Four now. The stage looked to big for them compared to UConn. That’s how this tournament is. Some nights you run into a better team.

Some nights you need a good hug, too, as Larrañaga gave his players. But it was all the nights in getting to this point that define that moment.