STORRS, Conn. — A little town of about 12,000 people located in the rolling farmland and stone fences of eastern Connecticut seems like a strange place for the center of the major college sports universe.

But Storrs is the home of the University of Connecticut, which can lay claim to that title after becoming the first school to send a football team to a BCS bowl game and both its basketball programs to the Final Four in the same academic year.

“It’s a great time to be a UConn fan,” Jeff Hathaway, the school’s athletic director, said after the women’s basketball team capped the unique trifecta on Tuesday with a 75-40 win against Duke. “I think it’s just an incredible statement about our university and our athletic program.”

The football team went 8-5, losing on New Year’s Day in the Fiesta Bowl to Oklahoma, 48-20. The men’s basketball team (30-9) has gone 9-0 in the postseason and will play Kentucky (29-8) on Saturday for a spot in the national title game.

It’s the third time in the past seven years that both the men’s and women’s basketball teams have advanced to the Final Four in the same season. In 2004 they won dual titles, a first for a Division I school. Central Missouri State claimed Division II titles in 1984.

All-American Kemba Walker, who has led the men’s team with an average of more than 26 points per game in the postseason, said many of the basketball players from both teams have a close relationship and take pride in the others’ accomplishments.

“We definitely love watching those ladies play,” he said. “They’re the best team in the country in my opinion. They work extremely hard every day. There was a point where they didn’t lose, until they lost to Stanford, but you would have thought they lost 80 games in a row the way they practice every day.”

The women’s players said they were almost as excited to watch the men win as they were after their own victory. Maya Moore said they went screaming up and down the hallways of their Philadelphia hotel after Walker and his teammates beat Arizona in the West Region final.

“They’ve obviously kind of shocked everybody with where they’ve come from,” forward Kelly Faris said. “I know it went through all our minds ... it’s our time.”