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Despite a lot of success in March Madness, UConn has had its fair share of unfortunate experiences. They ran into a big transportation problem this year. This may be cumbersome for a lot of other programs but the Huskies are different. After all, they had already experienced being robbed in last year's Final Four. It might even look like Dan Hurley benefitted from the crisis.
After last year's debacle, Coach Dan Hurley knew that the stress of being delayed in their Final Four travel plans would pass. The UConn Huskies head honcho even unveiled what he was up to during the whole situation, via Adam Zagoria of New York Times Sports.
“I ruminated a lot. Then, I spiraled. I had my head in my hands a lot. It was therapeutic to watch the de-icing,” he said about his activities during the 7-hour delay.
As much as this is an inconvenience for the UConn squad, Dan Hurley understood that they were going to make it to the last phase of March Madness. All the Huskies needed to do was just calm down.
“Once you’re done complaining and cursing and muttering, you don’t really deserve to show entitlement… We’re lucky to be here. We’re lucky to have an opportunity to come play in the Final Four. It’s something you just got to get through but it sucked,” he declared.
The Huskies even had some time to train for the Final Four. Coach Hurley unveiled that they did some video at the hotel and some live shooting. All he could do was joke about the situation and make the most out of it.
“We're way past that s***. Bob sabotaging these other teams at his site is going to give me a big advantage,” the UConn coach joked about the flight situation and his brother ASU's Bobby Hurley.
UConn, the team to beat
This squad has everything an athletics program could hope for in making a national championship run. UConn has a veteran star with championship experience in Donovan Clingan. They have a great supporting cast in Tristen Newton, Alex Karaban, and Cam Spencer. Personnel-wise they can execute any type of offensive scheme and defensive coverage to shut any other team down. Notching 35 wins and just three losses in a tough Big East season while winning the conference tournament also gives them a lot of confidence and momentum.
On their road to the Final Four, no one has come to close to forcing them to a loss. Stetson got absolutely demolished by UConn in the first round with a 91 to 52 scoreline. Boo Buie's final run with Northwestern? That came to a screeching halt when the Huskies got the edge over them. It ended 75 to 58. Last year's Cinderella-run beneficiaries, SDSU, could not be saved by any Lamont Butler heroics. They got absolutely molly-whopped with a 30-point deficit.
The Fighting Illini looked to match up pretty well against this UConn squad. But, the raging hot team from the Big Ten had to fizzle out at some point in March Madness. They lost 77 to 52. Nate Oats, Mark Sears, and Grant Nelson are next to face this meat grinder of a team. Will Alabama lose with a margin of less than 10 this time?
