Dan Hurley’s UConn magic all over Huskies’ march to still another NCAA Championship game

Dan Hurley’s UConn magic all over Huskies’ march to still another NCAA Championship game originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

INDIANAPOLIS – From the scowls to the play calls to the angry gestures to the rare (often sarcastic) smirks, all the way to the postgame handshake lines, Dan Hurley is as at home on the Final Four stage as Bryan Cranston on Broadway. It is one masterpiece after another.

Advertisement

Whatever challenge Hurley is presented when we arrive at this stage of the NCAA Tournament, he conjures something to assure his team is playing at its highest level, perhaps beyond.

This could be said, as well, of the Connecticut Huskies.

MARCH MADNESS HQ:Live NCAA bracket | TV schedule | Latest news and more

They were the ones, from senior Alex Karaban to freshman Braylon Mullins, who handled the business of a 71-62 victory over Illinois in the first NCAA semifinal at Lucas Oil Stadium. They were the ones who turned the Illini back into a team filled with capable scoring options who decided, as they had too frequently during the regular season, the available shot was a reasonable alternative to the preferred shot.

Advertisement

“They’re a tough guard. They have so many offensive weapons out there,” UConn associate head coach Kimani Young told The Sporting News. “We just felt like if we could hold up one-on-one, that would put us in a good position. Obviously, we wanted to do a great job on the defensive glass; a ton of their offense comes from the glass. And the defending without fouling was a huge key. Taking away threes from their really, really good shooters and kind of living with some of the respectable 3-point shooters, and it just kind of went our way.”

Yeah, that’s one way to put it.

Holding up in matchups: Illinois shot 13-of-30 on 2-point attempts and shot 33.9 percent from the field, their poorest number in that category.

Protecting the defensive glass: The Illini retrieved just 31…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/dan-hurleys-uconn-magic-over-020025793.html

Author :

Publish date : 2026-04-05 02:00:00

Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source.