INDIANAPOLIS — If Sunday’s miraculous win over Duke in the Elite Eight was about Braylon Mullins‘ buzzer-beating shot, then UConn‘s 71-62 win against Illinois in the Final Four on Saturday was about a team – a team now chasing rare history after surviving Illinois’ late comeback.
Brad Underwood’s squad cut UConn’s lead to four points with less than five minutes to play and did it again with 1:38 on the clock after the Huskies had led by as much as 14 points in the second half. That late surge, however, didn’t tell the full story of the game, one UConn led for more than 90 percent of the matchup.
After his team jousted with the Illini late to preserve the win, Dan Hurley has now earned a chance to become the first coach in more than five decades to win a third national title in four seasons when his team plays in the national championship game at Lucas Oil Stadium on Monday.
Back in November, UConn defeated Illinois, 74-61, at Madison Square Garden. But Tarris Reed was limited due to injury and Keaton Wagler had one of his worst games of the season (three points) that day. Both teams have grown since then.
Facing an Illinois squad ranked first in adjusted offensive efficiency on KenPom in the rematch, the Huskies were more poised in the first half when they led by 10 points just before the break. They carried a double-digit advantage for a chunk of the second half too. They also did not commit a single turnover prior to halftime, a first for a single half under Hurley in any game, per ESPN Research.
Their defense deserves a headline too. The line between a good and subpar offense is 100 points per 100 possessions in basketball. Illinois finished Saturday’s game at 106 points per 100 possessions or nearly 30 points below its average for the season.
The Huskies were more fortunate, enjoying the spoils of shots falling that had not found the rim in previous outings. The Huskies started Saturday’s game 10-for-26 from the 3-point line. Their 10 3-point field goals matched the most they’d ever made in a Final Four game in program history, per ESPN Research, before they passed that mark minutes later with another shot from beyond the arc. They’d made 34.6 percent of their 3-point attempts this season entering Saturday’s game and they’d only connected on 29 percent of those shots in the NCAA tournament ahead of their second matchup against Illinois this season.
They created those opportunities to get open looks through a dominant effort from Reed (15 points, 11 rebounds), strong outing from Braylon Mullins (15 points, 4-for-7 from the 3-point line), who grew up 30 minutes from Lucas Oil Stadium. Mullins’ late shot gave his team a double-digit advantage before halftime. There were others who thrived too. After a rocky stretch, Solo Ball had this third consecutive game with double digits. They also missed two free throws out of their 17 attempts.
But you’d have to be around 50 years old to understand the significance of Monday night’s game for Hurley and his program. The last time a team won three national titles in four years, Marques Johnson and Dave Myers were All-Americans for John Wooden’s UCLA squad in 1975. The Bruins had Hall of Fame center Bill Walton when they won titles in 1972 and 1973. In 1974, star David Thompson and NC State ended UCLA’s streak of seven consecutive national titles with a come-from-behind victory in the Final Four that year.
That’s notable because it’s a stark contrast from the world of which Hurley will attempt to duplicate that feat. Wooden’s 1974-75 team had eight upperclassmen who’d all been with the Bruins program their entire careers.
For UConn, Alex Karaban is the only holdover from the back-to-back championship runs for the Huskies in 2023 and 2024. Ball, Jayden Ross and Jaylin Stewart played five minutes combined during a dominant run in the 2023-24 campaign.
Hurley, however, said this current group has fought through some of the same obstacles the 2022-23 squad had to overcome to win a title.
“The [2022-23 team] dealt with real adversity during the year, whether it was injuries or just that bad January that we had in ’23, whereas this team has had to fight through injuries, it’s had to fight through some bad losses and some low-floor moments during the season,” Hurley said this week. “It hasn’t been a joyride – ’23 wasn’t a joyride. It was in the beginning. In the middle, it wasn’t, and in the end, it was. This team has been resilient like the ’23 team. The ’24 team, we were just destroyers and it’s one of the best teams of all-time, and I think the players [from that team who are now in the NBA] have proven that. It was an under-appreciated team at the time, but this team is resilient, has fortitude and earned the respect of the staff.”
Perhaps these Huskies will earn the respect of the country on Monday if they can do something that hasn’t been done in more than 50 years in college basketball.
