BOSTON — Seldom in this sport, in this beloved, bold, beautiful bracket of a tournament, have we seen a team this ferocious. This laughably dominant. And rarely have we ever watched a regional final go from seemingly competitive to a blowout like what happened Saturday night in Boston. For nearly 20 minutes, was fooled into thinking it had a hope of a shot against No. 1 overall seed in the East Regional final. Then the second half started, the dam burst and UConn scorched off a historic 30-0 scoring run that sent it on a rocket to a second straight Final Four, cruising at the speed of sound. The game went from 23-23 with 1:23 remaining in the first half to 53-23 in favor of the Huskies with 13:17 to go in the game. They played the final 13 minutes out of obligation, but a
tsunami landed off the Boston shore. UConn's historic NCAA Tournament tear continues. Let me repeat: A 30-0 run. IN THE ELITE EIGHT. Against the No. 2 offense in the country. The Huskies held Illinois to a season-low 23 first-half points at just 0.73 points per possession, and the Fighting Illini went more than Hurley said Friday that this team "feels different." "We broke through last year. We've established a level," he said. "Maybe we feel a little less pressure as an organization because we feel like we've established a level now of where our program's at, that we're going to be in this spot moving forward. Obviously, this year and moving forward." This isn't repeatable. UConn's championship hopes are. "For us, I think we've made it look easy in these past two tournaments, but it's hard," Hurley said Friday. "We do the hard things really, really well, like the defense, the rebounding, the way that we play at the offensive end of the court." The Huskies, who last year set an NCAA Tournament record by winning six games by 13-plus points and an average of 20.0 points, have beaten four teams in this tournament — the East Region, which was viewed by many as the toughest on Selection Sunday — by an average of 23.3 points. Saturday was UConn's 25th win in its last 26 games. After UConn beat in the second round, Hurley walked into the locker room and told his team, "I don't know how we're blowing these teams out in this setting. You guys are special." Special team. Dominant run. Is two wins away from writing a legacy among the all-time greats in college sports history. The 30-0 run will become the talking point/most remembered thing about this game, but before the tsunami hit, UConn dominated, led by the biggest, baddest man in the building: . He eviscerated Illinois, finishing with 22 points, 10 rebounds and five blocks — and media on press row agreed the official block count might be one or two fewer than what he actually had. The defining sequence — the moment when the game was all the way over well before it was all the way over — came on an outrageous block from Clingan, then led to a dunk on the other end. DONOVAN CLINGAN IS ON
fire 🔥 The Huskies are the first team to make back-to-back Final Fours since in 2016-17. They're the first reigning champions to do it since in 2005-06. And in the Huskies' past eight tournament games, they've trailed for only 5 minutes and 50 seconds out of 300 minutes pf play. Entering Saturday, Illinois had scored 70-plus points in 21 straight games, 60-plus points in 70 straight games. It finished with 52. , who entered Saturday scoring 25-plus points in seven straight games, finished with eight points. Connecticut will fly to Phoenix in the same situation it started this tournament: as the highest-seeded team with the best chance of winning it all. The main difference over the past two weeks is how UConn has gone from great team to all-time potential. It stands tall on the precipice of history. I will keep saying it until UConn wins the title or somebody shocks the world. There might be a team that can beat UConn. But I have no idea who is beating UConn in this tournament.