Final Four Favorites
The Story: The UConn men are returning to the Final Four with a run of dominance for the ages after destroying Illinois in the East Regional final 77-52 on Saturday night in Boston. The Huskies play Alabama on Saturday (8:49 p.m., TBS) in Glendale, Ariz., for the right to play for their second consecutive national championship.
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW: The Huskies wiped out the Fighting Illini behind one of the greatest runs in NCAA Tournament history. They were tied at 23 with 2:23 left in the first half, then went on a 30-0 run that lasted seven minutes into the second half to shockingly send the Big Ten champions to the scrap heap.
• The 30-0 run began with 1:59 left in the first half and lasted until 12:41 remained in the second half. When Hassan Diarra made a transition layup, it was 53-23, and talk went from whether UConn is the best team in the country to whether it’s having one of the greatest seasons of all time.
• The Huskies shot 70 percent (21-for-30) in the second half.
DOMINANT CLINGAN: UConn was paced by the dominance of Donovan Clingan, who put on a defensive performance that was as good as any you will see.
• Clingan had 22 points, 10 rebounds and a conservative five blocks. That looks like a good line on the surface, but dig into the numbers and it’s even better.
• Illinois scored only four points in the first half when Clingan was in the game. Overall, they shot 0-for-19 when they were challenged by Clingan.
• UConn held Illinois’ No. 2-ranked offense to 25.4 percent shooting, including a paltry 4-for-22 in the second half.
• The Huskies held Terrance Shannon Jr., one of the top scorers, to eight points on 2-for-12 shooting — well below his average of 25 points per game.
• Clingan’s dominance in the NCAA Tournament was rewarded as he was named the Most Outstanding Player of the East Region after the Huskies won in Boston by 28 and 25 points.
WHAT DID DAN HURLEY SAY? “We’re going to be tough to beat. It was a special level of basketball that we were playing.”
DIFFERENT HERO EVERY NIGHT: Tristen Newton, UConn’s resident All-American, had only five points and was 0-for 6. Stephon Castle played terrific defense on Shannon, but outside of a highlight-reel spin-move dunk, he went 1-of-6 for two points. So, 1-for-12 for seven points from two critical players and the Huskies still led by 30.
• Cam Spencer picked up the slack with 11 points, 12 rebounds and five assists. Alex Karaban was efficient with 10 points on only seven shots. Diarra added 11 points for the Huskies as his defensive pressure and ability to drive to the basket made up for Newton’s and Castle’s off nights.
FINAL FOUR SET: The Huskies will take on No. 4 seed Alabama, which beat No. 6 seed Clemson in the West Region. On the other side of the bracket are the only other top seed left, No. 1 Purdue and Zach Edey, who are staring UConn down on Monday, with No. 11 seed N.C. State continuing its improbable run after beating No. 4 seed Duke.
• Alabama is making its first Final Four appearance while N.C. State is back for the first time since its famous title in 1983 under Jim Valvano. It’s the first time the Boilermakers have made the Final Four since 1980.
• UConn is making its seventh Final Four appearance and the first time making it in back-to-back years. UConn is 10-1 all time in the Final Four with, of course, five national championships.
— John Silver
Huskies Prove to Be Elite
The Story: Even though it got a little close in the final two minutes, No. 3 seed UConn held off No. 7 seed Duke in the Sweet 16 in Portland, Oregon, on Saturday night and won 53-45 to set up a showdown against No. 1 seed USC tonight (9:20 p.m., ESPN).
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW: It’s good versus evil the present versus the future tonight as the Huskies (32-5), led by Paige Bueckers, take on the Trojans (29-5) freshman phenom JuJu Watkins.
• Geno Auriemma said that the Huskies even reaching the Sweet 16, given the slew of injuries they’ve experienced this year, was “a miracle.” “And now here we are, we’re in the final eight.”
• Bueckers led UConn into the next round with 24 points. Aaliyah Edwards had 12 points and seven rebounds while battling second-half foul trouble and KK Arnold had 12 points and five steals.
• Unsurprisingly, Bueckers, Arnold and Nika Muhl played all 40 minutes. Ice Brady was the only player off the bench, as she played 13 minutes in relief of Edwards and Ashlynn Shade.
• A few other notable numbers: UConn would have held Duke to 10 first-half points if not for a 3-pointer in the closing seconds; the Huskies were outrebounded 43-28 and had just two second-chance points, but had the 28-20 advantage in points in the paint; and UConn scored 23 points off 23 turnovers.
NO REST FOR THE BEST: The Huskies were a bit lucky they could cruise early against the Blue Devils and didn’t need to go back and forth for a hearty 40 minutes, but playing just six players is taxing.
• How does UConn handle it? “They let us go the portal to get some people here tomorrow, which I don’t see happening,” Geno said. “We get a 40-point lead after the first quarter, then we can rest, but I don’t see that happening either. So, no. There is no way to mitigate it. It is what it is. This is what we’ve got. This is how we got here, and this is how it’s going to end, either for the better or for worse.”
• USC had to buckle down late to hold off No. 5 seed Baylor earlier Saturday. The Trojans claimed a 74-70 win, and Watkins, who had 30 points, six rebounds, four assists and four blocks, played 39 minutes. So it’s not like she’s not tired, too.
A BIT ON WATKINS: USC is back in the Elite Eight for the first time in 30 years because of Watkins, the No. 1 player in her recruiting class and the first USC player to be named to the Associated Press’ All-America first team (alongside Bueckers).
• Watkins, a 6-foot-2 guard, is averaging 27 points, 7.2 rebounds, 3.3 assists and 2.3 steals in 34.4 minutes per game this season while shooting 40.2 percent. She scored 32 points in her first game, a win over Ohio State, and cracked the 30-point barrier 14 times this season, with 51 points at Stanford — Stanford! &mdash on Feb. 2 and 42 points against Colorado on Feb. 23. She’s incredible, and that might be putting it mildly.
• How does she stack up against Bueckers and Iowa’s Caitlin Clark? We turned to old friend David Kull to break things down for us:
WHAT DID GENO SAY? “I don’t think that every time Juju gets a bucket, Paige is going to go out of her way to make sure she gets a bucket. I think that would be foolish on our part. I think we’ve just got to play, and whatever happens, happens. … So, we go out, we play UConn versus USC and see what happens.”
MORE ON USC: The legendary program of Cheryl Miller, Pamela and Paula McGee, Cynthia Cooper, Lisa Leslie and Tina Thompson is finally on the verge of returning to the pinnacle of the game behind Watkins and coach Lindsay Gottlieb, who previously built a winner at Cal.
• The Trojans have size across the board, including McKenzie Forbes, a 6-foot sixth-year senior transfer from Harvard who’s averaging 14 points and a team-high 3.3 assists per game, and Rayah Marshall, a 6-foot-4 junior forward who is putting up 10.2 points and a team-high 10.5 rebounds per night.
• Despite Watkins’ emergence, UConn is still better than USC in almost every aspect of the game. Notably, USC shoots just 42.6 percent, holds opponents to 38.5 percent shooting and 30.4 percent from beyond the arc, and allows 62 points per game — all figures that rank in the middle of the pack in Division I.
• One other fun note: Former UConn standout Willnett Crockett is in her first season as an assistant coach at USC. Crockett, who spent 13 years as an assistant to Tonya Cardoza at Temple, was hired by Central Connecticut State a year ago before she left for Los Angeles.
DON’T FORGET: The UConn/USC game follows No. 1 seed Iowa vs. No. 3 seed LSU, with the winner set to face the Huskies or Trojans in the Final Four in Cleveland next weekend. South Carolina and N.C. State punched their tickets yesterday.
— Zac Boyer
Morning Reads
• The baseball team (9-15) had the weekend off but will be back in action this afternoon when it hosts Central Connecticut State.
• The softball team split a doubleheader against Providence on Saturday and will complete the three-game series at home this afternoon.
• Rayea Davis had five goals and five assists as the women's lacrosse team beat Marquette 17-7 at home on Saturday afternoon.
Top photo: Dan Hurley yells from the sidelines during the Huskies’ game against Providence. (Ian Bethune for The UConn Daily)
