From Smithton to Indiana: Furphy's dream Huskies run

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For Jacob Furphy, when he suits up in the iconic UConn colours for the NCAA National Championship game, he can't help but reminisce about growing up in rural Tasmania.

Furphy grew up in Smithton, a rural town known for its dairy and beef production, with a population around just 4000 people.

On Tuesday (AEST), the 19-year-old he will be part of one of basketball's showcase events as more than 70,0000 fans pack into Indiana's Lucas Oil Stadium for the championship game between Dan Hurley's UConn Huskies and Dusty May's Michigan Wolverines.

While Furphy left Smithton to mould his skills as the Basketball Australia Centre of Excellence in Canberra before tipping-off his college journey, he said he has already thought about his road to the player he is today and how much a national championship would mean.

"(A national title) would mean everything to me, honestly making it this far from a little town called Smithton and winning something on the biggest stage would be super cool," Furphy told basketball.com.au.

"It’ll be one of my biggest achievements, so it would mean everything.

"I’m here and obviously coming from Tasmania, you never really expect to go anywhere far with sport.

"Making it to the Australian level was a really cool experience and I loved it but then now taking it overseas to the states and playing in the biggest game, which is the national championship, is obviously a really cool experience but it’s also a once in a lifetime opportunity."

A 6'6" guard who tore up the national junior scene around Australia and then while representing the green and gold at international tournaments, there's no hiding moving to one of college basketball's powerhouse programs has been an adjustment for Furphy.

Averaging just 2.4 minutes per game in his freshman season, the already Australian Boomer has had to find other ways to impact winning, but it's something he's prided himself on and helped the Huskies make it all the way to the championship game.

As a rising star, he also can't replace the opportunity to learn from one of the sport's greatest minds in two-time national championship coach Dan Hurley.

"Obviously coming over you want to play and that obviously just didn’t pan out the way that I wish it did but I’m doing everything in my power to help my team win," Furphy said.

"In practice, with the bench mob, our job is to get the starters ready and I think we do that to the best of our ability every day and then just bringing the most energy and positivity we can to the game.

"Then I’ve also learnt so much obviously with Coach (Hurley) I’ve just learned that there’s a different type of level I need to get to and along with the players like Alex (Karaban) and Tarris (Reed Jr) show the professionalism needed."

The Wolverines head into the national title game as the favourites after dominating Aussie Anthony Dell'Orso's Arizona Wildcats in the Final Four but having the underdog tag is something not unusual for UConn and Furphy in particular despite taking care of Illinois in their previous contest.

"My time in Tassie obviously playing as kind of an underdog every tournament has helped out with this in March Madness just because we haven’t really been predicted to win in the last couple of rounds and somehow pulled through," Furphy said.

"I always kind of talked about the possibility of playing in the national championship game with a bunch of my teammates and we obviously thought it’d be a really cool experience but now actually realising that we’re gonna be in it is obviously super, super impressive.

"We’re ready to go in and give it our best shot.

"Michigan is obviously gonna be a hard match with them being a really good team all year round, they’re obviously really well coached, have really good positional size and obviously really skilled and can shoot three but they’re also dominant on the inside, so I think it’s gonna be a very good matchup for us.

"We’re a little smaller, so it’s gonna be interesting to see how that plays out."

While his family won't be at Lucas Oil Stadium for the game, Furphy said he's been overwhelmed by the support from back home.

"(My family ) is watching it from afar and supporting me in every way they can as well as my friends and my support crew," he said.

"So, I'm hoping we can pull through for them and get the win."

The UConn Huskies take on the Michigan Wolverines for the NCAA Men's National Championship at 10.50am Tuesday.