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UConn basketball is just two wins away from a national title after pulling off one of the greatest comebacks in the history of the NCAA Tournament. During Sunday’s Elite Eight tilt against Duke, UConn rallied from a 19-point deficit and eventually stole the win on a last-second 3-pointer by Braylon Mullins.
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Now, after cutting down the nets in both 2023 and 2024, Dan Hurley is aiming for his third title in four years. Next up for UConn is Illinois, the No. 3 seed in the South Region which was very impressive in wins over Houston and Iowa to get to the national semifinals.
UConn-Illinois is a rematch of a non-conference game from back in November, a game at Madison Square Garden that the Huskies won comfortably 74-61 after pulling ahead in the first half. However, despite the comfortable victory, Hurley knew that Brad Underwood had a quality team. On Tuesday, he revealed a text that he sent to Underwood after that game, via David Borges of CT Insider.
“Hurley said he texted Illini coach Brad Underwood after their teams met on Nov. 28: ‘Let’s meet up in Indy. And I didn’t mean for a drink, or for dinner. I thought he had a great team, and I thought we did, too,’” Borges reported.
While UConn can draw some confidence from that game, this is a different Illinois team than the one that the Huskies saw in that game. Star point guard Keaton Wagler played just 14 minutes that day as he was still splitting minutes with Mihailo Petrovic, but Wagler will be out there for most of the game on Saturday.
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Still, UConn is playing with house money after pulling off one of the most improbable comebacks in March Madness history against the No. 1 overall seed in the Elite Eight. Tarris Reed Jr. is playing some of the best basketball of his career, and the Huskies have a massive advantage in experience with Hurley coaching and Alex Karaban on the floor.
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