FanHouse KembaWalker

The year 2009 will be remembered as one without a Cinderella. The year college basketball's biggest brothers took a baseball bat to her glass slipper and turned it into a bucket of shards.

And, by any trick of math, they would be right. There was no plucky mid-major from a town your map has never heard of and no Cinderella with a seed as big as your shoe size.

But there was a darling. And it was Missouri, the star of this tournament.

GLENDALE, Ariz. - They steered clear of the net. A ladder rested underneath the basket, waiting for someone to climb it. The twine dangled, waiting for someone to snip it. Instead, the University of Connecticut players and coaches purposely walked on by, as if the traditional removal of the net and wearing it around the neck might jinx the journey.

"It was a team decision because we've got bigger goals," UConn guard A.J. Price was saying after the Huskies beat Missouri, 82-75, in Saturday's Elite Eight West Regional Final and advanced to the Final Four. "We can cut down a net in Detroit."

This is a thank-you note.

On behalf of basketball fans everywhere, thank you, Missouri, for a brilliant run and a tough, impressive effort against Connecticut in the regional final. You gave us a great game to watch, and you really made the Huskies earn their way into the Final Four. And everybody should have to earn their way into the Final Four.

The way this thing started, it looked like a rout. UConn raced to that huge early lead, and you figured, "Oh well. Mismatch."

But then a funny thing happened. Missouri didn't go away.

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Gotta love Robbie Hummel's toughness, not to mention his ability. The kid did everything he possibly could to make sure the Boilermakers didn't get run out of the building. But in the end, Purdue didn't have anything or anybody that could do anything at all to combat Hasheem Thabeet.

There is no shame in this. No one does. There's no player in college basketball that has any kind of answer for Thabeet, which is why UConn remains a worthy 1-seed and one of the favorites to win the whole thing in spite of the absence of Jerome Dyson. They still have way too many good players to be counted out, and they have the game-changer in the middle. Thirteen rebounds, four blocks, just one foul...he did everything he wanted to do tonight, and as a result the Huskies didn't have to sweat.