After dominating March Madness final 12 months, the UConn Huskies are doing a lot of the identical this 12 months.
UConn won their fifth national title final 12 months, and of their six video games, they received every sport by no less than 13 factors.
They’re midway by going back-to-back, and of their first three video games on this 12 months’s match, they’ve crushed their opponents by 39, 17 and 30. Even in that 75-58 victory over No. 8 Northwestern, they led by as many as 30.
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Head coach Rick Pitino of the Iona Gaels shakes arms with head coach Dan Hurley of the Connecticut Huskies earlier than the primary spherical of the 2023 NCAA Males’s Basketball Match held at MVP Enviornment on March 17, 2023, in Albany, New York. (C. Morgan Engel/NCAA Photographs through Getty Photos)
Of their final 9 March Insanity video games, they’ve received by a mean of 28.9 factors, which explains why they’re the highest-ranked workforce within the match.
The Huskies have a shot at making the Last 4 on Saturday in opposition to No. 3 Illinois, and so they enter as 8.5-point favorites.
They’re 34-3 this season, and Rick Pitino, the top coach of Big East rival St. John’s, is predicting a repeat.
“I don’t see a weakness,” Pitino advised the New York Post. “They have to have an off shooting night, and you have to have a great shooting night to beat them.”
UConn guard Tristen Newton (2) and his teammates react within the remaining seconds of the second half of a second-round faculty basketball sport in opposition to Northwestern within the NCAA Match, Sunday, March 24, 2024, in New York. (AP Picture/Mary Altaffer)
“It’s going to take a special performance,” he added of the Illini’s probabilities of profitable. “They can play in so many different ways. [Cam] Spencer’s the head of the snake, because he’s always in motion, he’s always creating the pass that leads to a great shot, he’s always getting the offensive rebound that’s key. But then you got [Tristen] Newton and [Stephon] Castle and [Donovan] Clingan who are all [projected] first-round draft choices, and they’re all tremendous in their own right.
“Then they convey in a backup middle [Samson Johnson] who’s nearly as good as a [backup] middle as there may be in faculty basketball, and he’s taking part in nice. Then you’ve got [Alex] Karaban, the remainder of the blokes they convey off the bench. They’re a deadly basketball workforce.”
St. John’s was snubbed out of the tournament despite ranking 25th in the KenPom rankings, the highest-rated team to miss the tournament. They lost to UConn, 95-90, in the Big East tournament semifinals.
With a win, it will be UConn’s seventh Final Four appearance, and the first time they’ve ever made it in back-to-back years. This is their 13th time in the Elite Eight, and they had not made it in consecutive years since 1998 and 1999.
UConn center Donovan Clingan reacts after dunking during the second half of an NCAA college basketball game in the championship against Marquette of the Big East Conference tournament, Saturday, March 16, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)
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Pitino was the top coach of Iona final 12 months, UConn’s first opponent en path to profitable the championship.
