Regardless of being the one crew in both the ladies’s or males’s Last 4 to not be a prime seed, UConn is all of a sudden an enormous favourite. Sure, the Huskies acquired a bit of fortunate when USC’s JuJu Watkins was knocked out of the NCAA Event by harm. However the Huskies are a succesful, deep and proficient crew. It additionally helps that they have been in 16 of the final 17 Last Fours.
Here is a better have a look at why UConn might win once more towards the UCLA Bruins on Friday.
Prime 5 causes UConn might finest UCLA
#5. Geno Auriemma
How a lot of a price are you able to placed on arguably the best coach within the historical past of the game? Positive, Auriemma is not going to step on the market and knock down 3-pointers, however given his wealth of expertise and training acumen, he is as large as any participant on the UConn roster. Auriemma has received 11 titles, and do not assume each referee within the area will not concentrate on it. He is a big-game man whose presence is very large.
#4. UCLA’s lack of big-game expertise
Then again, whereas Auriemma has received 11 titles, UCLA has solely reached 10 Candy 16s. That is their first-ever Last 4. Whereas the sport’s parts are unchanged over a mid-season scrimmage, the pageantry and ambiance of the Last 4 are an adjustment for the Bruins. In the meantime, it is enterprise as common for the Huskies.
#3. Smothering protection
UConn’s protection is astonishing. The Huskies allowed 52 factors per sport, the fewest within the NCAA. Moreover, they held opponents to 34.6% taking pictures, which is the fourth-lowest within the NCAA. UConn additionally forces 19 turnovers per sport, and for a Bruin crew that commits almost 16 a sport, that is not nice information. UConn’s protection will be stifling.
#2. 3-point wizardry
It isn’t even that the Huskies are a succesful 3-point taking pictures crew, though they’re. UConn’s 38.3% charge is the sixth-best within the NCAA. However maybe extra wonderful is that every of the 5 Huskies who play essentially the most minutes is not less than a 36% 3-point shooter. There’s no one on the market for the protection to sag off. By the best way, UConn’s solely three losses got here in video games the place UConn made fewer than seven 3-pointers.
#1. Paige Bueckers
The very best participant on this NCAA Event stays Paige Bueckers. Her final three video games featured Bueckers scoring 105 complete factors. Throughout that run, she’s 13-for-21 from 3-point vary. Bueckers is a three-level scorer, a succesful ballhandler, a gutsy defender and the veteran chief that each crew wants.
It is onerous to think about Bueckers NOT having a fantastic sport on Friday. She’s finishing a dominant profession, marred solely by harm. Her chapter within the girls’s basketball story is a captivating one and the guess is she has a number of large moments left.
What do you consider UConn’s possibilities? Share your ideas on the Huskies within the feedback part beneath.
