UConn storms into March Madness Final Four after dismantling Illinois
BOSTON — Connecticut feels inevitable.
A borderline guarantee.
It isn’t just winning.
It is beating teams into submission, breaking their will, treating this NCAA Tournament like a series of scrimmages.
Illinois learned what the rest of the Big East and Stetson, Northwestern and San Diego State already knew: UConn is a different breed of basketball team.
The Big Ten Tournament champion entered the Elite Eight believing it could pull the upset, that it could hang with the top-seeded Huskies.
It would be a challenge, the Illini said, but nothing they hadn’t seen before.
Wrong.
After 18 minutes of competitive basketball, the Huskies snapped their fingers and eliminated any thought that Illinois could test them.
Thirty consecutive points later, and the rout was on.
Connecticut was headed back to the Final Four after this 77-52 thrashing in front of 19,181 at a raucous TD Garden, blitzing yet another overwhelmed opponent.
It is now two wins from history, becoming the first back-to-back champion since Florida in 2006-07, after setting a program record with a 35th victory.
At this point, it would be stunning if that didn’t happen.
“I obviously would have been thrilled just to get out of here with a win,” UConn coach Dan Hurley said. “But our defense is elite. Our offense is elite. We rebound the ball. These guys play every possession like it’s the end of the world. … We’ve got NBA-level players that are just willing to share and have created an unbelievable culture. We’re going to be tough to beat.”
That’s putting it mildly.
Terrence Shannon Jr. and Illinois’ second-ranked offense was no match for Donovan Clingan and UConn.
The Huskies blocked 10 shots, held Shannon to eight points on 2 of 12 shooting and blanked the Illini over a stretch of 9:08.
Shannon had been averaging 28.3 points in the tournament, but Connecticut freshman Stephon Castle bottled him up just like he did Northwestern star Boo Buie in the second round.
“There’s a reason why, in the basketball world, people are as high on Steph as they are,” Hurley said of Castle. “He’s a winning player, and obviously he’s got an incredible career in the NBA ahead of him.”
Clingan, the 7-foot-2 center from Bristol, Conn., was a two-way dynamo.
He finished with 22 points, 10 rebounds, five blocks and three steals en route to Most Outstanding Player honors of the East Region.
Hassan Diarra and Cam Spencer (12 rebounds, five assists) each added 11 points and Samson Johnson and Alex Karaban had 10 apiece. Marcus Domask had 17 points for Illinois (29-9), but only two after halftime.
Connecticut (35-3) hasn’t allowed more than 58 points to an opponent in this tournament, and has won its four contests by an average of 27.7 points.
It has also now won a record 10 straight tournament games by double figures.
“Well, I think that I didn’t expect that,” Illinois coach Brad Underwood said after his third-seeded team suffered by far its most lopsided loss of the season.
The game was tied at 23 late in the first half, when everything went wrong for Illinois.
Diarra sank UConn’s first 3-pointer of the game after it had missed its first 10 and Tristen Newton hit a pair of free throws.
The lead was five at the break. Then, Connecticut really took off.
Several dunks and blocked shots and uncontested layups later, the result was well in hand. When Karaban hit a 3-pointer, the lead was 21.
It rose to 30 after a Diarra layup.
Justin Harmon finally ended the onslaught with a layup, and the Connecticut-heavy crowd exploded with a sarcastic roar.
“It was like a train going as fast as it can — unstoppable,” Diarra said. “We just fed off of each other’s energy.”
Most of the second half was one big celebration.
At the under-four media timeout, Hurley waved to the Connecticut crowd to get even louder.
He wanted to enjoy the moment with them.
Because of the Huskies’ dominance, Hurley believes that it’s UConn and its fans against the world.
So far, that’s been a mismatch, too.
