More than 2,500 miles from home, the San Diego State University Aztecs arrived in Boston on Tuesday to compete in NCAA’s March Madness tournament.
It is the second year in a row that the Aztecs have made it to the Sweet 16 and the fourth time in program history. On Thursday evening, they will face #1 University of Connecticut (UConn). It is the same team that won the national championship against the Aztecs 76-59 last April.
The Aztecs will take on the Huskies on Thursday, March 27 at 4:30 p.m. PT. Fans can catch the game on TBS or TruTV.
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For UConn, it is much less of a trip to get to the tournament happening at TD Garden, home of the Boston Celtics. It is about 85 miles from their campus. But, despite the cross-country travel for the Aztecs, they were the first team to take the court for practice on Wednesday.
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Players told NBC 7 they were not nervous, just excited and thankful.
“We’re blessed to be here and that’s all that matters,” Darrion Trammell said. He is one of the Aztec program’s big players this season along with Jaedon LeDee. LeDee added, “No nerves, just basketball, you know, we’ve been playing our whole lives.”
Many of the Aztecs called the opportunity a blessing, including Aztec-legend Lamont Butler who scored the winning buzzer-beater to send the team to the national championship last April.
“We’re thankful to be here, regardless of if we had to fly 12 hours, we would have done it,” Butler said. “So, we’re very excited and we’re glad we’re in this position.”
For more of the players' responses on how they feel heading into the big game, see the video above for NBC 7’s Dana Williams coverage from the arena.
