How the Huskies are handling their status as favorites
Make no mistake, Stetson is motivated to beat UConn today. Their head coach, Donnie Jones, has done it before. As the head coach of Central Florida at the time, Jones’ Knights defeated 4th-ranked UConn in the 2012 Battle 4 Atlantis.
With the recent history of major upsets in the NCAA Tournament, the Huskies can't afford to overlook their first opponent. On the 2024 tourney’s first day, three 6-seeds fell and 3-seed Kentucky lost to Oakland. Fourth-seed Kansas survived a scare against Samford.
“Everyone is vulnerable in every game in this tournament,” Dan Hurley said in Thursday’s press conference. “Obviously, we’ve got to take care of business on Friday to get to Sunday.”
Last year, No. 1 seed Purdue lost to Farleigh-Dickinson, marking the second time ever that the 16-over-1 upset has occurred. But Hurley’s squad doesn’t seem likely to be the third, it’s been performing at a high level all season despite getting every opponent’s best shot as the reigning national champs.
“What keeps us bulletproof…is we're No. 1 in the country in offensive efficiency, top-10 in defense,” Hurley said. “We generally rebound the ball as good as anyone in the country. We play harder than our opponent. We are elite with our preparation, and we don't care who the hero is on a given night. That's a formula that will keep you bulletproof in a lot of games and make it really hard for somebody to get you.”
With all five starters averaging over 10 (almost 11!) points per game, opponents can’t just shut down one or two guys. Three other guys are capable of going off for 20 and they don’t let up when they go to their bench.
While it’s never easy to follow up a championship season, the Huskies faced the added challenge of replacing two NBA Draft picks and one Final Four MOP. Hurley and his staff developed a new roster into a championship-caliber team, importing some hunger with Cam Spencer, who will be making his NCAA Tournament debut.
“As a kid growing up, you watch a lot of March Madness. To be a part of it finally is cool,” Spencer said. “I’m really just excited to take the court.”
For anyone concerned about the Huskies taking it easy, Hassan Diarra shared that “we got after it” in practice on Tuesday and Wednesday. Jaylin Stewart confirmed this detail, saying they “didn’t wanna mess up” their routine or momentum.
Hurley has admitted to being tougher on this team than in years past.
“I've been tougher on the group throughout the season because I've just been trying to root out any form of complacency or entitlement with this team,” he said. “Anything we've done this year, we can't trade it in for jack…the only thing that matters is what happens at 2:30 on Friday.”
Stetson Preview
TV: CBS (Bill Raftery, Ian Eagle)
Radio: UConn Sports Network (Wayne Norman, Mike Crispino)
Odds: UConn -26.5, over/under 145.5 (Odds via DraftKings)
Location: Barclays Center — Brooklyn, New York, 2:45 P.M.
The Hatters won the ASUN Tournament to punch their ticket as junior guard Jalen Blackmon scored 43 points in their conference tournament championship game. Blackmon is their leading scorer and Stetson also has two 6-foot-11 guys, including starter Aubin Gateretse (11.8 PPG, 7.6 RPG) and backup Treyton Thompson (4.5 PPG, 4.0 RPG), who plays 16 minutes per game. Perhaps this team can contend somewhat with UConn’s two-headed monster down low?
If Blackmon gets going and they can get the Husky bigs into foul trouble, the Hatters could have a chance to land an early punch. But the odds are stacked against them. As Dan Madigan of The UConn Blog has pointed out, there is a Big East team with a similar profile as Stetson: the Georgetown Hoyas, who UConn beat twice handily.
The Hatters are dead last in the country in defensive efficiency and have losses to Nebraska-Omaha, Queens College, and Chicago State on their resume as the 220th-ranked team in KenPom overall efficiency. Georgetown ended its season near the bottom in defensive efficiency and 204th overall.
KenPom projects an 86-63 victory for the Huskies.