On Saturday night, the UConn basketball program punched its ticket to the national championship game with a win over Illinois in the Final Four from Indianapolis. UConn didn't necessarily dominate in this one, but they were in control from start to finish, staving off a late run from Illinois in order to advance to their third title game in four years.
Up next, UConn will have a big challenge on its hands in the form of Michigan, who destroyed Arizona in the second Final Four game on Saturday evening to earn its own spot in the big game.
After the win over Arizona, Huskies head coach Dan Hurley spoke on his mindset heading into a game in which UConn is a heavy underdog against the Wolverines.
“You don’t have to be the best team. You don’t have to have the best season to win this tournament… The good thing for us is it’s not a seven-game series—just gotta play one game on Monday night,” said Hurley, per The Field of 68 on X, formerly Twitter.
There is certainly some truth to Hurley's statement, as a team can have a one-off hot or cold shooting night that can severely affect their tournament result, even if things likely wouldn't have continued to play out that way over the long run.
A team doesn't even necessarily have to be the better squad throughout the course of a full game in order to advance, as Hurley and the Huskies learned during their thrilling win over Duke in the Elite Eight, stealing victory from the jaws of defeat against the Blue Devils.
Still, UConn will need to play its best game of the tournament in order to get past a Michigan team that has been dominant during March Madness thus far.
