injury reports<\/a> during the postseason.<\/p>\nAs mentioned, Saturday won\u2019t be the first time that UConn is seeing Illinois this season. The Huskies handled business against the Fighting Illini back in November at Madison Square Garden, but the way that both teams look now compared to then makes it feel like a completely different matchup.<\/p>\n
For UConn, that game on Black Friday marked the collegiate debut of Braylon Mullins in a game in which he played just 10 minutes off the bench. Tarris Reed Jr. was still on the comeback from an ankle injury he sustained against BYU and was limited to just 15 minutes and was held without a field goal. Silas Demary Jr. only played 20 minutes as well, dealing with some foul trouble issues that plagued him in the non-conference that he was able to clean up as of late.<\/p>\n
For Illinois, their makeup is completely different as well. Two players who played double digit minutes in the game, Mihalio Petrovic and Brandon Lee, have been out of the rotation entirely since that game. Star freshman Keaton Wagler had career lows across the board with just three points in 14 minutes of action. David Mirkovic and Andrej Stojakovic, two key cogs in Illinois\u2019 run to get to Indianapolis, shot a combined 4-17 from the floor.<\/p>\n
Even though both sides are nearly unrecognizable from that game in November, the benefit of playing an opponent you\u2019re familiar with is still there.<\/p>\n
\u201cTarris Reed was a shell of himself. They had all types of injuries. You take some things from the game,\u201d Hurley said. \u201cObviously you\u2019d rather have won the game than lost the game. It doesn\u2019t matter a whole lot, but if you\u2019re going to have played somebody in November and then you\u2019re going to play them in this spot, you\u2019d probably rather have won than have lost it.\u201d<\/p>\n
When these two teams last played, UConn caught Illinois right before it figured out what its identity was on the offensive end. Shortly after the loss to the Huskies, Underwood decided to give the keys to his freshman and he took off. Wagler has scored in double figures every single game since and scored 20+ points nine times. His most memorable game came on the road in Mackey Arena at Purdue, where he dropped 46 points and nine threes in a statement Illini win.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously he has the ball in his hands a lot more (since November),\u201d Hurley said. \u201cJust a very aggressive scorer, at the rim, from the three-point line. Great size. Just the vision that their staff had and Brad had for the player in terms of just how he was recruited and what they saw. The guy is a really, really talented player. Obviously we\u2019re going to have to try to make him uncomfortable.\u201d<\/p>\n
Since that day, Wagler is averaging 19.1 points per game and has carried the Illini on the offensive end. The matchup that Hurley goes with to try and limit him will be interesting. Solo Ball had the assignment for most of the time Wagler was in the game. That certainly could be the matchup again, but Hurley could also mix it up and throw Demary on him. That\u2019s what they did on Duke\u2019s best perimeter player Isaiah Evans. Demary guarding Evans seemed unexpected, but the decision certainly paid off as he never got into much of a rhythm on the offensive end.<\/p>\n
Tarris Reed Jr. has had a dominant run so far through the NCAA Tournament, having his way with some talented frontcourt players along the way. Michigan State\u2019s biggest strength was its front line and Reed went to work against it. Against Cameron Boozer and Duke, he was essentially the only reason the Huskies were in it until the end when Mullins hit his magical shot.<\/p>\n
Illinois provides something that Reed and the Huskies haven\u2019t seen yet this postseason: a pair of seven footers that play big minutes in the frontcourt. The Ivisic brothers – Tomislav and Zvonimir – have been forces on the block all year for the Fighting Illini and bring great size and strength to the frontcourt.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019ve seen such a different shift with their group,\u201d Underwood said. \u201cTarris is averaging 24 and 14 or whatever in the tournament, so there\u2019s a lot more post-ups. They don\u2019t ball screen maybe as much as some teams in the country, so there\u2019s a lot more off-ball screening that you\u2019ve got to get acclimated to and movement.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s probably not going to come easy if Reed wants to continue having the individual success he\u2019s been having on Saturday, but, to be fair, I don\u2019t think anyone expected what he did against Duke to come as effortless as it did.<\/p>\n
Ever since that Final Four loss in 2009, UConn has put together quite an impressive streak. The Huskies have won 18 straight games in the second weekend or later, winning four games in 2011, 2014, 2023 and 2024 as well as two so far this year. It\u2019s pretty simple, actually. If UConn advances to the Sweet 16, they just keep winning.<\/p>\n
You can take that in a couple different directions. For one, you can respect how impressive it is that what in theory should be and are the hardest games to win are the ones that the Huskies can\u2019t seem to lose. On the other hand, you can look at it with the angle that UConn has only played 18 games – 19 on Saturday – in the second weekend in the past 17 years.<\/p>\n
Even almost a week later, you still remember exactly where you were when Braylon Mullins hit perhaps the biggest shot in NCAA Tournament history. A moment that will go down in immortality, a moment that will live forever.<\/p>\n
While UConn fans are still celebrating, the players and coaches have moved on.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had to let everyone enjoy it. I couldn\u2019t come in on Monday like a cold damp blanket and just start destroying people on Monday,\u201d Hurley said. \u201cThat just would have been a cruel thing to do to people\u2019s spirit after such an incredible victory. But Tuesday you\u2019ve just got to bring everybody back to reality. The reality is that moment is over. It\u2019s an incredible moment. You\u2019ll have that moment the rest of your life. But we came here for rings, not watches. Everyone that comes to the Final Four gets a beautiful watch, but only one group is going to get a ring.\u201d<\/p>\n
There\u2019s no doubt in anyone\u2019s mind that the Huskies will be prepared for Saturday night, even riding that high from Sunday. At the end of the day, the goal was always to win a national championship. If they get that done, it wouldn\u2019t matter if they won the Elite Eight game in the fashion they did or if they won by 40 points. If the Huskies cut down the nets on Monday night, it won\u2019t make a difference.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"UConn men\u2019s basketball (33-5) will look to get to its seventh national title game in program history as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":697519,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3724],"tags":[7,2681],"class_list":{"0":"post-697518","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-basketball","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-uconn-mens-basketball"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116345807036900241","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/697518","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=697518"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/697518\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/697519"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=697518"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=697518"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=697518"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}