The UConn basketball team cruised past Illinois basketball in the Elite Eight on Saturday and they are now headed to the Final Four. The Fighting Illini hung around in the first half, but a 30-0 run put the game on ice and the Huskies ended up winning the game 77-52. UConn head coach Dan Hurley revealed after the game that his team got some extra motivation from former Illinois player Sean Harrington and one of his tweets.
Sean Harrington has been tweeting out a lot of stuff about the Illinois-UConn game, and one of them got the attention of Hurley. Here are some of the things that Harrington said about the game leading up to it:
“Illini to the Elite 8,” Harrington said in a tweet. “Defense stepped up tonight. Illini were the more physical team. Iowa State didn’t get any easy buckets. TSJ was the best player on the floor again. And TSJ will be the best player on the floor Saturday. UCONN doesn’t have a good answer for him.”
It's unclear if this was the tweet that Dan Hurley read, there could've been others that were deleted, but something got Hurley's attention. He noted that the Big East prepared UConn basketball for games like this.
“The Big East is a monster,” Dan Hurley said after the game, according to a tweet from UConn on SNY. “The Big East is a monster. And iron sharpens iron. I don't know what our record is the last two years in non conference games, but we feel like once we get out of that league, which is, you know, as good as any league in the country, it was, in my estimation, this year again. It should have been a six bid league. And that was one that was one of the two best leagues in the country. And I just think the league prepares us for these non conference games.
“I read a tweet last night, I think from a former Illinois player, Sean Harrington, who was a good player, McDonald's All-American, one of the staff members wanted to add a little more fuel to my fire, something UConn has not had to play against this physical of a team. And they've never seen someone like Terrence Shannon, something along those lines. And you know, statements like that are just asinine. You're going against beasts and monsters every night in the Big East and the Big East prepared us for teams like Illinois. I'm sorry if I miss quoted him on that, but … that's what I took from it.”
UConn basketball is back in the final four
With the win, UConn is moving on to the Final Four for the second season in a row. They cruised all the way to a national championship last season by winning every NCAA Tournament game by double digits. It was pure dominance, and they have now won every game in this tournament by double digits as well.
UConn basketball is looking to become the first team since Florida to win two national titles in a row. The Gators did it back in 2006-2007, and the Huskies are now two wins away from pulling off the feat. They are the heavy favorite to win it all on April 8th.
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